Industry insiders who were staring at the latest developments of Bluestar Technology Group soon saw the latest news announced on the homepage of Bluestar Technology's official website on the morning of September 17, and all e-sports practitioners paid attention to the news for the first time.

According to the official information disclosed by the WRPO Organizing Committee, the WRPO event is held once a year, and the time is set for October each year, and the first session will officially start next year.

The venue for the first WRPO World Ready Player One Tournament has been confirmed, in Shencheng, China, to open on October 15, 2008.

This time period was originally the time node of the WCG, and the WRPO event collided with it, and its meaning is self-evident.

There is no doubt that after the WRPO Organizing Committee disclosed this news, the WCG event organizer ICM was quick to react and began to reschedule internally to avoid the time of the WRPO event.

This is definitely a choice of last resort, because I really can't fight, and I don't dare.

It is not surprising that when a professional player has to make a choice, he will definitely choose to participate in the WRPO to compete for the honor of "Ready Player One" during this time and give up the WCG.

In addition to announcing the above information, the WRPO organizing committee also disclosed that it has officially established that "StarCraft: Battle of the Brood", "Warcraft: The Frozen Throne" and "Half-Life: Counter-Strike" will enter the schedule, and it also disclosed that other projects are still under negotiation, and pay attention to the official blog of the WRPO for the latest developments.

When this news was announced, it was a relief for the professional players and behind-the-scenes practitioners who were engaged in these three events.

Steady!

I can finally get a good night's sleep.

At the same time, the prize pools of the three established esports projects were also revealed on the official blog of the WPRO the next day, which is what professional players and esports clubs are most concerned about.

The team event, Half-Life: Counter-Strike, has a total prize pool of $2.18 million, which will be split between the top 16 finalists at the WRPO.

Prize money: $1.2 million

Runner-up: $300,000

The two teams that made it to the semifinals each received $120,000, the four teams that finished in the quarterfinals each received $60,000, and the eight teams that finished in the round of 16 each received $25,000.

The individual events, StarCraft: Brood Wars and Warcraft: The Frozen Throne, both have a total prize pool of $490,000.

Winner: $300,000

Runner-up: $60,000

Semi-finalists: $25,000

Quarterfinalists: $10,000

Finalist 16: $5,000 USD

The combined prize money for these two individual events is $980,000, which is less than half of the Half-Life program.

But in fact, for professional players, the two major events of Interstellar and Warcraft can get the highest prize money, for no other reason, because it is an individual event, the prize money is the player's alone, and the championship prize is as high as $300,000 US dollars.

The Half-Life is a team event, which is shared by the entire team, and when it is counted on the individual heads of the players, the championship prize is divided into $240,000, which is less than the championship prize of the two events of Interstellar and Warcraft.

However, as soon as this news was revealed, whether it was a professional player with a half-life, or a professional player from Interstellar and Warcraft, they were all shocked and couldn't believe it, and after coming back to their senses, they confirmed that this was the official news, and almost every player was as excited as if they had been beaten.

Compared with the prize money that has been announced for this year's WCG competition, the team event "Half-Life" has a prize of $55,000 for the champion, $25,000 for the runner-up, and $15,000 for the third place, and $15,000 for the individual event "Interstellar", with $15,000 for the champion, $7,000 for the runner-up, and $4,000 for the third place. The winner of Warcraft is $20,000, the runner-up is $8,000, and the third place is $5,000.

If it really interprets the saying that there is no harm without comparison, it is no wonder that WCG will obediently adjust the time of next year's event as soon as possible.

For this era, especially for professional e-sports players in China, the championship prize of up to $300,000 US dollars, that is, ¥2.28 million, and more than 1.8 million yuan after removing 20% of the tax, can buy a house of about 70 square meters in a first-tier city like Shencheng.

The prize money of the WRPO event is more than ten or twenty times that of the WCG, and at the same time, under the high prize money, the champion and the runner-up and the following rankings, the difference in the amount of the prize is huge, it is foreseeable that next year's WRPO event, in order to compete for the championship, the major players will definitely have to play the rhythm of blood, and it will definitely bring more exciting games.

Especially for domestic players, as long as they think about winning the championship, they can gain fame and fortune, and for the players, the motivation and momentum it brings are definitely a burst of rhythm.

In fact, in terms of prize money, it is still not ranked higher than traditional sports, but for the emerging e-sports project, this is already something that countless esports players dare not think of.

As soon as the news came out, the entire e-sports circle exploded.

With the announcement of the tournament prize money, the WRPO event has undoubtedly become the most important competition in the minds of professional players.

……

Three days later, in a conference room at Bluestar Technology's headquarters.

At around ten o'clock this morning, the heads of 12 game developers from Half-Life, Interstellar, Warcraft, Need for Speed, Command & Conquer, FIFA2007, Age of Empires, and more were all present.

In addition, the WRPO Organizing Committee and Luo Sheng were also at the venue, and today's meeting is to gather together to discuss the establishment of the WRPO competition system.

"The ultimate goal of the company to create the WRPO event brand is to build a global e-sports ecosystem, and the role of the organizing committee is to standardize, systematize and league global e-sports, and achieve a win-win situation for all parties from WRPO events to players, to clubs and related game developers." Luo Sheng looked at the game developers present and said.

The goal of today's meeting is to bring these developers into the system and endorse the ecological standards built by the WRPO.

The crux of the matter is that if an e-sports project is to join the WPRO tournament system, the game company is required to hand over 3% of the game's revenue in the previous year to the WRPO operation department.

It's more difficult to talk about having to pay for this thing, and you have to pay it every year.

However, Luo Sheng never fights unprepared battles, and the three hottest e-sports projects have taken the lead in expressing their stance this time, such as "Half-Life", "Interstellar" and "Warcraft".

For many outsiders present, they only know that "Half-Life" is related to Bluestar Technology, and the game company where they work is a subsidiary of Bluestar Technology.

However, the two projects of "Interstellar" and "Warcraft", Blizzard actually agreed to such a happy thing that many peers did not expect.

They don't know that Blizzard has changed "Dad" yet.

In fact, not only do they not know, even the operation teams of "Interstellar" and "Warcraft" do not know the inside story, and they don't know that the person who is speaking now is their ultimate boss, and only a few high-level executives of Blizzard Entertainment such as Mike Mohan know the truth, because Blizzard has not yet been listed, and the outside world does not know what the shareholding structure is.

Blizzard's leading example is very important, and Luo Sheng did not play too many intrigues, the establishment of the WRPO brand, in fact, the major game companies are in the eyes, the super-large-scale investment, as soon as it was born, represents the benchmark of the industry, can enter the WRPO system, for its games is also of great benefit, can greatly extend the vitality of the game.

The WRPO brand has been successfully built, and all parties in the system, whether it is players, clubs, game developers or tournament organizers, can benefit to varying degrees, but now they need to invest.

……