Chapter 382: Generating Buzz

Listening to Yao Beiguo's words, Li Chang and Lin Guangqing exchanged a glance, noticing the hesitation in each other's eyes, though neither nodded immediately.

After a moment of contemplation.

Li Chang looked up at Yao Beiguo and spoke slowly.

"General Manager Yao, you know our situation. Although we did indeed lead our team to championships, there is one undeniable fact: our current competitive level is no match for those up-and-coming professional players."

"If we join the club, I'm afraid the chances of winning a championship in professional competitions will be very low."

After Li Chang finished speaking, Lin Guangqing nodded in agreement.

They were professional players to begin with.

Their retirement was forced due to declining skills and various other reasons.

If they could keep playing professionally, who would ever want to retire?

But e-sports is cruel; without results, anything you say is just empty talk.

There's a very popular saying lately, and it's absolutely true: In e-sports, being bad is the original sin.

Even if you want to keep playing professionally and stay on the field, if your skills can't keep up, you're just dragging the team down.

Whether it's the club, the fans, or even the players themselves, everyone will start to have doubts.

If you can't fix it, once a replacement appears, it's time for you to exit.

Yao Beiguo is inviting them to join the BL Game Club. Perhaps there won't be any issues in the short term, but once they actually enter the competition, if their results are not ideal, that's when problems will arise. It's fair to say that this is their biggest concern.

"I understand all of that. Let's go to the office to talk."

Yao Beiguo smiled slightly upon hearing this. He and Tao Ze had already come up with many countermeasures and made plenty of preparations regarding this matter, so he wasn't very worried at the moment.

"Okay!"

Li Chang and Lin Guangqing nodded. If they could truly return to a club, they would naturally be willing.

They headed to the elevator and went straight to the top floor.

"The top floor is where the company leadership, game coaches, and management rest and work. However, we haven't selected coaches or managers yet, so these offices are still empty."

Yao Beiguo briefly introduced the top floor before leading the two toward the office at the very end.

At the very end, there were two offices: one for the General Manager and one for the Deputy Manager.

Just as they reached the door of the General Manager's office, the door to the Deputy Manager's office across the hall opened, and Tao Ze walked out with a young man.

Seeing this, Yao Beiguo nodded at Tao Ze and smiled as he spoke, "This is the club's other manager, Tao Ze, General Manager Tao."

Upon hearing Yao Beiguo's introduction, Li Chang and Lin Guangqing hurriedly offered their greetings.

At the same time, Tao Ze introduced the young man beside him.

"Let's go, let's head inside."

After greeting Tao Ze, Yao Beiguo led Li Chang and Lin Guangqing into the office.

To speed up the recruitment process, the two of them were each responsible for recruiting for a few different games.

"Make yourselves at home."

After entering the office, Yao Beiguo poured them a glass of water, sat down across from them, and looked at Li Chang and Lin Guangqing.

"We understand your situation. We realize that your competitive level has declined due to age."

"To be blunt, given your current competitive form, I'm afraid it will be very difficult for you to achieve any significant rankings on the professional stage."

"We don't have any expectations for that."

"If that's the case, why does General Manager Yao still want to invite us to join the BL Game Club?"

Lin Guangqing looked at Yao Beiguo with confusion. Since it was already established that they couldn't achieve good rankings in the competition, why invite them to join the BL Game Club? Li Chang looked equally puzzled.

"There are many reasons. Let me explain slowly."

Yao Beiguo picked up his glass and took a sip.

"First, the club has just been established and needs some fame."

"As former professional players who have led teams to championships, even though you've been retired for two years, you still possess a certain amount of buzz."

"If we package the news of your return to the competitive scene and disseminate it…"

"…it will generate a massive wave of buzz. With this, our BL Game Club will appear in the public eye as quickly as possible."

Yao Beiguo slowly explained the first key reason. This was the proposal Tao Ze had made from the very beginning.

Generally, for a new club to appear in the public eye, the most traditional method is for the team to win a championship in a competition. This is the most effective method, but also the most difficult.

Another way is to spend a lot of money to poach a star player who is currently competing professionally. Between these two methods, one is very difficult, and the other is very expensive.

But Tao Ze's proposal is both simple and cost-effective. A retired professional player doesn't require much money.

Yet, they could use this to create a massive point of controversy: a team composed entirely of retired veteran professional players. Returning to the competitive stage—what kind of results would they actually achieve? As long as this news was packaged and promoted properly, it would definitely generate a massive amount of buzz.

Of course, during the promotional process, the name of their BL Game Club had to appear frequently.

Lin Guangqing and Li Chang frowned slightly as they listened to Yao Beiguo's explanation, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

They agreed with the claim that their competitive levels had declined due to age and that they couldn't compare to the new professional players; after all, the facts were right there. Their competitive levels had indeed declined.

However, Yao Beiguo's words were undoubtedly just using them to promote his BL Game Club. They were displeased by this approach.

Furthermore, there was another key question: once they had finished using them for publicity, where would that leave them?

It was unlikely they would be allowed to remain in the club to compete. After all, once they had completed the promotional task, continuing to participate in competitions would hardly bring any good results to the club.

When that time came, the club would likely initiate a conversation to persuade them to retire.

"General Manager Yao, if that's the case, I'm afraid we won't be joining the BL Game Club."

Li Chang and Lin Guangqing exchanged glances and spoke in unison.

Yao Beiguo wasn't surprised to hear Li Chang and Lin Guangqing's words. After all, his previous remarks had been a bit too utilitarian, and it was only natural that the two of them would be dissatisfied.

Therefore, he waved his hand with a smile. "Don't be in such a rush to refuse. I haven't finished speaking yet. It won't be too late to make a decision after I'm done."