Huangpu River,
IG Club meeting room.
The new management team that parachuted in today are two young men in their thirties. The leader is named Li Wen. After meeting and shaking hands, he smiled and asked us to just call him "Guokui".
Although he exudes the same elite temperament of a prestigious school as Su Xiaoluo, he is not the kind that makes people feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, maybe it is because he likes games himself, but he even feels a bit like meeting a fan of Li Fu, the MSI champion jungler.
Of course, when it comes to the contract renewal, his face immediately becomes serious as if he is discussing business.
Manager Guo Kui was a little surprised that Li Fu invited the senior executives of Sharks to meet together today, but he quickly recovered and shook hands with the other party with a smile. It was obvious that he also understood the recent goals of the Sharks.
The new IG management member Guo Kui who parachuted in today did not come alone, but also brought a special legal lawyer to ensure the legal compliance of the transaction.
To be fair, in today's LPL environment where the clubs are the most powerful, IG's approach is relatively rare.
But there was no way, Su Xiaoluo had dragged it on for too long.
In order to let Li Fu feel the sincerity of the IG club in wanting to renew his contract, Principal Wang hired this legal lawyer for Li Fu at his own expense, just to show an attitude - IG would never cheat him no matter what.
The two senior executives from Shark who came today saw how much IG valued Li Fu and had a bad feeling in their hearts.
However, perhaps because both parties who came to discuss today were eager to get things done, the whole atmosphere was not too confrontational. The content involved many aspects such as contract term, salary, sponsorship agreement, image rights, etc. The legal lawyers also played a key role at the critical moment, providing professional suggestions and modifications to the terms.
During this process, IG's new manager Guo Kui went to the "toilet" three times.
Of course he didn’t really go to the toilet, he didn’t have frequent urination.
The main reason Guokui went out was to make room for Li Fu and Shark executives to make their offers, and secondly to report the situation to Principal Wang.
During the time when Li Fu was arguing with Su Xiaoluo, it was not that he did nothing.
Although IG was very sincere this time, the contract they offered was not flawless. Li Fu proposed modifications in several places. Guo Kui, the newly appointed manager, felt that he could not make the decision and of course had to ask the boss for instructions.
But as time went on, the two sides gradually approached consensus.
The final version of the contract was discussed and revised word by word on the screen, ensuring that every detail was approved by both parties, and finally reaching agreement on all aspects.
Annual salary: 500 (the maximum salary cap for domestic junglers)
Time limit: one year
Contract: Does not include any live broadcast contract or agency contract.
In fact, IG wants to sign Li Fu for two years. Rookie signed a two-year contract when he came to LPL. IG has the priority to renew the contract, and will also give him a salary increase if he performs well in the future.
This time is different from Su Xiaoluo who had ill will towards Li Fu before. IG wants to sign Li Fu for two years purely for Li Fu's consideration. After all, the latter is an older player. If his condition declines and no one wants him, IG is equivalent to providing a place for retirement, which can be regarded as extra care for the player by the club.
But Li Fu’s family knows their own business.
Not to mention that after completing the main mission last time, the time shot he received as a reward allowed him to go back in time for the next year, making him younger every day.
Moreover, after winning the MSI championship, Li Fu completed the task of [Peak Throne] - winning the first world championship in his career, and once again opened another bottle of [Time Injection] from the intermediate blind box, which means that for at least the next two years, Li Fu will be in a state of going against the current.
Declining condition due to age?
Sorry, this doesn't exist for him.
So Li Fu could only politely decline IG's kindness and change the term to one year.
In addition, in the third additional clause, the contract renewal between IG and Li Fu does not include the live broadcast contract and the agency contract, only the business contract is represented by IG.
This created conditions for negotiations between Li Fu and Shark executives.
The new manager Guo Kui was not very supportive of the change in the terms at first. If he agreed, it would mean that they would have to bid together with the Sharks. However, seeing that Li Fu was determined, he had no choice but to ask the boss for instructions.
When Xiao Wang heard this, he immediately said that he would just bid.
I set up a Panda platform, and I spend so much money on hosting fees every day. Do I need his few million?
When the Sharks executives first saw IG's agreement, they showed joy on their faces.
But as they were laughing, after the live broadcast time and the sharing of gifts were finalized, the bidding for the signing fee gradually increased, and they finally couldn't laugh anymore.
So, Shark's executives also went to the bathroom three times.
In the end, when the signing fee for joining the live broadcast platform was more than doubled from 2 million to 5 million, the Sharks executives immediately showed a bitter smile.
In the previous phone call, when the Shark executive asked for instructions for the third time, the Shark boss said that five million was the highest price they could offer.
After all, Li Fu is just an MSI champion, and live streaming focuses more on the effect. In other words, if Li Fu cannot handle the traffic brought by the MSI champion, then there will be a risk of heavy losses for the Shark platform.
So five million is really just the psychological price.
Of course, if Li Fu had won the S crown that symbolizes the highest honor in the league, rather than the MSI championship that some netizens said didn't even give him a skin, perhaps the Sharks' top management's highest psychological price could have doubled.
There is such a huge gap between the S crown and the MSI crown, both in terms of value and the traffic they bring.
But IG is very satisfied.
This contract renewal negotiation is not only a business transaction, but also a profound test of the tacit understanding, trust and cooperative relationship between the two parties.
The live broadcast contract, one-year renewal and business contract cost a total of 10 million to sign Li Fu, which is about the same as Rookie's value.
But Rookie is a Korean player, and the salary of Korean players in LPL is unique. This is a historical legacy and it is the same in every club currently.
It is really not easy for Li Fu, a domestic jungler, to achieve this.
"After you sign this, 3 million will be deposited into your card first, and the remaining 7 million will be paid monthly." IG's new manager Guo Kui smiled and shook hands with Li Fu, "Congratulations, Brother Fu, the contract extension is successful, good luck next season!"
"Well, let's work hard together." Li Fu also nodded with a smile.
"By the way, everyone else in our team has signed contracts with the Panda platform. The principal has already prepared promotional activities for you. There will be a premiere event next week, and you will need to be prepared by then." Guo Kui reminded.
"Okay, that's no problem for me." Li Fu indicated OK.
He has been a substitute for many years and has become an experienced anchor. He knows that live streaming is different from playing professionally. Live streaming is mainly about the activity and the effect. He is not worried about this at all.
The next day, new people began to appear in the club.
First of all, the Korean top laner Save, who was bought by Su Xiaoluo, moved into the base. This is also the old top laner who joined NAJIN in S2. His name is Bai Yingzhen. He joined IG and stayed in the second team last year. This year, he was promoted to the first team by Su Xiaoluo.
Compared to the Korean aid Rain who joined the club at the same time as him, Xiaobai, the new top laner Save, is more eager to improve, or to secure the starting position of top laner.
This can be seen from the fact that he has learned Chinese as well as Rookie in just one year in China.
Even on the first day of moving into the club, this tall and thin boy, who looked a bit like Lee Kwang-soo from South Korea's Running Man, ran straight to the manager's office with a box of something wrapped in floral cotton cloth in his hand. He smiled shyly and said that his mother in his hometown of Incheon, South Korea, had pickled some kimchi and brought it specially for the club manager Su Xiaoluo to taste.
Watching Save walk towards the office, Ah Xun sighed, "He really wants to improve himself."
Rookie was a little speechless, "Didn't anyone tell him that Mr. Su had left the team to join RNG?"
However, just when everyone thought that Save, who entered the manager's office with kimchi, would return disappointed, he unexpectedly came out empty-handed with a happy smile on his face. He was startled to see Axun, Rookie and others staring at him.
Why are you guys looking at me like that?
He touched his nose and smiled awkwardly.
Needless to say, this guy must have given the kimchi that was originally intended to "bribe" Su Xiaoluo to the new manager Guokui.
Li Fu glanced at it and shook his head, thinking to himself, well, just now there was a gesture, and now there is a Korean aid version of the gesture, it seems that there will be no boredom in the club in the future.
However, although Save is a smart guy, after IG's lineup for next season was initially formed and coach Chris arranged a training match with the Snake team, he became a little less active. He often chose an offensive top laner and then in the laning phase, either you or I would explode, anyway, one of them would explode.
After the training match, Zizi, who had just joined the Snake team, smiled proudly. Just after the training match, he started to taunt in the six-person WeChat group of IG.
attitude:???
Axun: ???
Zzitai: Is this your new top laner?
Rookie: Don’t pretend.
Zizi: Can’t I pretend when he was beaten by me?
Rookie: You were killed twice by a single opponent, how can you be so embarrassed?
Posture: I understand. Then he is just stupid.
Rookie: …
Looking at Zizi's face, everyone couldn't help but feel a pain in their balls.
Coach Chris was also speechless, secretly cursing Su Xiaoluo for leaving him such a mess. He let Zizi go and spent the same price to bring a Korean player up from the second team.
Objectively speaking, although Save's laning ability is much stronger than Zzitai's, he is not as good as Zzitai in terms of overall stability in the top lane.
Now that Zzitai is gone, if IG only has this one top laner, then after a week of games at most, the top lane will become a breakthrough point for all major teams.
Thinking of this, coach Chris couldn't help but find the new manager Guo Kui to discuss it.
Guokui was also troubled when he heard the news.
The deadline for this year's LPL summer transfer window is May 18th, which is only three days away. With such a short time, where can we find a substitute top laner?
Seeing Guokui thinking, Chris hesitated for a moment, but still spoke again, "Not only the top lane, but also our bottom lane. Today we played Rain and Shekeke, and the effect... was not so ideal."
Currently, Xiao Shiguang has personal plans to retire and suspend contract renewal to stay in the team. There are only two ADs who can play.
One is Rain, and the other is Wuxx, the bottom lane player bought from RNG before Su Xiaoluo stepped down and who was publicly stated to be very weak by MATA during an interview.
"There's no rush to get down the road."
Guo Kui said calmly, "We have a lot of players in the bottom lane this season, so we can all report them as substitutes. We can just try and make some combinations when the time comes."
Yes, IG can try and make mistakes this season.
You know, even after persuasion failed, the former No. 1 skateboarder in the country, Xiao Shiguang, refused to renew his contract and wanted to find a time to announce his retirement. However, due to a round of operations before Su Xiaoluo stepped down, the number of people in IG's bottom lane has increased instead of decreased.
Two ADs and four supports.
There are eight permutations and combinations alone.
After a regular season, can’t we find a suitable lineup?
Regarding this point, the new manager Guo Kui currently feels that this is the most human thing the previous manager did before leaving IG.
Since the bottom lane is not urgent, the problem is back to square one.
Save is like a double-edged sword. His unstable performance makes it difficult for him to support IG's top lane alone, and he must find someone to share the burden with him.
The problem is that the summer transfer window will close in three days, and the popular top laners are basically taken. There is no point in buying a top laner that no one wants temporarily, and it might be better to save him.
That's a bit awkward.
"How about picking from the second teams and youth training teams of other clubs?" the new manager Guo Kui couldn't help but suggest.
"I'm afraid that's not going to work." Coach Chris smiled bitterly.
Finding a new top laner is to reduce the pressure and burden on Save, not to find a youth training or second team substitute to increase the burden.
Immediately, a flash of lightning flashed through his mind, and a bold idea suddenly popped up in his mind. He suddenly looked up at the manager Guokui.
Guokui was stunned for a moment, and the next second, he seemed to react.
"You want to?"
Chris nodded seriously, "That's right, Fu Ge will start as the jungler and be the substitute in the top lane."
"Is this feasible?" Manager Guokui was a little unsure.
"What's wrong with that? When Ashun switched from AD to starting jungler last season, he was always on the roster as a substitute AD as a guarantee for the bottom lane. There will definitely be no problem with the league."
Coach Chris said confidently.
"I'm not talking about the Alliance."
The new manager Guo Kui glanced at a figure in the direction of the training room and couldn't help but lower his voice and asked, "I mean Brother Fu... Is he okay?"
Upon hearing this, Coach Chris couldn't help but laugh.
After a moment, he looked at Guokui and said with a smile, "Brother Fu was able to do well in the semi-finals against SKT, so there's no reason why he can't do well as a substitute for the top laner."
"Besides, we'll know if it works or not if we try it."
…
When Li Fu was quietly called out to discuss whether he could be a substitute in the top lane, he was stunned for a moment and turned to look at Save who had just moved to the training room next to him.
This skinny Korean player was hugging his legs like a steady stick, playing Riven in the ranking match. When Li Fu first saw it, the save record was 3/0 and he directly blew up the opposite line. When he left, he accidentally glanced at it and found that his Riven had been broken into three lanes by the opponent with a score of 3/13.
At this moment, even though Coach Chris did not explain the reason to him, Li Fu seemed to suddenly understand why Chris asked him this.
Save This guy's style is really funny.
If Chris, who prefers stability, were allowed to choose, he would probably never choose him. However, Su Xiaoluo had already signed a starting contract with him before he left, and the transfer period was about to end. He couldn't play the game of "a new emperor, new ministers" and let him down again.
"Okay, I can try."
After thinking for a moment, Li Fu, who had just increased his [Hand Speed Reaction] from 97 to 100 and obtained 300 points after completing the main task of "First World Championship in Career", decided to agree to this request.
After all, it is a bit of a waste to use purely personal attributes like [Hand Speed Reaction] and [Position Details] in the jungle. You can't show off your hand speed against wild monsters at the beginning of the game.
But if you put it directly on the line at the beginning, maybe once or twice occasionally, it will have an unexpected effect.
When Chris saw that Li Fu agreed, he immediately felt relieved.
With Li Fu as an insurance, he wouldn't have to worry about being left with no one available if the road was figured out and turned into a breakthrough point.
He immediately took Li Fu to report to the new manager Guo Kui. Guo Kui was delighted to hear the report and immediately modified part of the contract with Li Fu. He also made a note that if the substitute top laner won the MVP in the summer season, the club would give an additional reward of 5,000 yuan.
Li Fu laughed when he saw it.
I like this new IG manager more and more.
What is this called... This is called pattern!
Soon, in the last three days of the transfer period, with the dust settling on the transfer wave, the twelve LPL clubs of this year's summer season officially announced their new summer season lineups.
Among them, the Galaxy Battleship RNG can be said to be leading the way. As soon as the five starting lineups were announced, they were crazily sought after by netizens and fans as the best LPL lineup with the greatest hope of sprinting for the LPL Summer Championship and even the World Championship S Championship this summer.
The second is EDG, but EDG's new lineup is not perfect. General Pawn has a serious waist injury, so this season EDG introduced the new player Scout from SKT .
The mid laner is definitely one of the most important positions in the league, and can radiate to the upper and lower lanes. It will be difficult to play any game if the mid laner collapses. This is also the reason why top mid laners like Rookie who can support a team by himself could get the highest salary last year.
Korean aid is only one aspect.
Capital is not stupid.
The ability to fight is the bottom line.
But we still have to wait and see how effective the new mid laner EDG introduced from SKT is.
On May 19, the first day of the transfer period, IG's new season roster was finally announced.
Top lane: Save; Padre6
Jungle: Padre6; Kid
Mid: Rookie
Bottom lane: Rain; Wuxx
Support: Kitties, Ben, Baolan, Hule
You know, last season the RNG team with the largest number of players in the LPL had only 10 people, which was luxurious and attracted countless people's attention.
Wow, IG has 11 players this season, right?
The most important thing is that although IG has a lot of people this season, they don't give people the sense of luxury that RNG has. The bottom lane is simply a meeting of carrots.
Many RNG fans even mocked, "You pick up the ADs we don't want as treasures."
What is Wuxx?
Mata hand-picked the AD to pull down the defense.
It’s not even as good as the lowest-spec version of Uzi.
However, after a closer look, many netizens discovered blind spots.
Got fooled!
IG has either 11 or 10 people, but one person has two roles.
Fu Huang started as jungler and also served as a substitute in top lane!
Is it a "Ueno combination" for one person?
This discovery immediately attracted countless discussions!
At the same time, Save, who has been training extremely hard recently and striving to be the only one to have the say in IG's top lane, was dumbfounded after seeing the IG starting lineup given by the coaching staff, and felt a little uncomfortable.
Damn it!
Why is he, a jungler, joining in the fun at my top lane?