52: Chapter 52: Trending on the Internet, Reputation Reversal

Two hours later.

Old C, who had just finished a game of league of legends, finally took a deep breath, exited the game, picked up his phone, and turned off airplane mode.

Instantly.

There were dozens of missed calls and hundreds of QQ messages.

Just by glancing at them, Old C's face turned deathly pale.

He saw one sentence among those messages.

"You forgot to turn off the stream just now!"

His arms trembling, Old C moved his fingers, not even daring to open those messages or return the calls for a moment, ultimately just opening Weibo.

He began to pray frantically in his mind.

And the next moment.

A trending Weibo search result that had exploded, along with the 99+ notifications in his message bar, all made it clear that he was finished.

...

At this moment, the number one trending search on Weibo.

Pinned at the top was a clipped recording.

The video began.

It started with Old C bashing league of legends while streaming, and the latter part showed what happened when he forgot to turn off the stream—how he reopened league of legends, and the scene where he jumped up from his chair shouting in excitement after a sliver-of-health counter-kill.

Throughout the entire process.

Old C's attitude toward league of legends could be described as like two different people.

The view count for this recording broke several million in a very short time and was still increasing crazily.

The comment section was completely out of control.

"The best part is the first counter-kill. If you don't believe me, go back and watch. When Old C started the stream, his body was already shaking during that counter-kill, but he held it in, forced himself to act like nothing was wrong, and even cursed at league of legends a few times."

Someone clipped the segment of that counter-kill from when he started streaming, and after slowing it down, everyone could clearly see it.

Old C's fingers were trembling.

His mouth twitched, and then he forcibly suppressed it.

"It really is like that! He already thought this game was fun when he started the stream!"

"It's confirmed that they accepted paid hit pieces. Douyu and Huya are both connected to Tencent Group. Today, basically all the streamers on these two platforms who got closed beta access were bashing this game. Not a single one said anything good about it. Is that even possible?"

"I managed to grab a closed beta access slot and played for a day; this game is super fun, I can't stop playing."

"I originally wanted to come here to bash Old C, but after watching the recording, I laughed until my stomach hurt. I can't even bash him anymore."

"This move is too classic. Streaming is work, off-stream is life. He just forgot to pull the power switch for the stream room."

"Douyu even banned his stream room directly. It's hilarious."

Not long after.

The scene of Old C jumping up from his chair shouting in excitement was turned into a GIF and began to spread wildly in all major groups.

The text accompanying the GIF was varied.

"This is a trash game."

"I killed them easily."

"There's no difficulty in terms of skill at all."

Every caption was something Old C had said when he started the stream.

Combined with Old C's excited reaction after the counter-kill when he forgot to turn off the stream, it created a huge contrast.

The meme spread faster than the trending search.

Meanwhile.

Netizens who loved watching the chaos began to storm the stream rooms of other game streamers on Douyu and Huya.

The comment sections of those streamers who had also bashed league of legends during their streams today were completely trashed.

After all, the Old C who acted like two different people, along with Douyu's ban, had almost confirmed that these streamers' actions of bashing league of legends were paid hit pieces, not facts.

"Streamer, streamer, how much money can you make by bashing league of legends?"

"Streaming is work, off-stream is life, right?"

"Streamer, tell me secretly, is this game actually very fun? Don't worry, I definitely won't leak it, it won't hinder you from making money!"

These streamers were so overwhelmed that they didn't dare to turn on their comment sections, and some simply ended their streams in a hurry.

Originally.

In the afternoon, the internet was flooded with negative reviews about league of legends.

But after just a few hours.

After this incident with Old C happened.

The reputation of league of legends reversed instantly.

The number of registration reservations on the official league of legends website skyrocketed by nearly three million in just a few hours.

The price of closed beta accounts, which had been hyped up to several hundred yuan, doubled several times over!

Someone edited together all the streamers who bashed league of legends today, along with clips of them secretly swallowing their saliva when they started streaming, and their subtle expressions of trying to hold back laughter after getting a counter-kill.

The title read.

"The Most Comprehensive Acting Awards on the Entire Internet."

The view count for this video broke five million on Bilibili within a few hours.

The comment section was full of vivid imitations.

"This game is so trash. Look, my hands were shaking when I counter-killed the opponent. This game is so trash that it makes me shake."

"No depth, no skill at all. I just jumped up from my chair; it wasn't because I was excited, it was because I was angered by this game."

"I'd better wait for dota 2, but I'm going to play league of legends until dawn tonight."

...

Tencent Group headquarters.

Sun Qiang slammed his phone onto the table.

The phone bounced up, hit the edge of the table, and fell to the floor screen-down.

He didn't even look at it.

"Tell me, is he stupid?"

"How can there be such a stupid person?"

Standing across from the desk was the person in charge of Douyu, Old Xu; he didn't even have time to wipe the sweat off his face.

"Sun Qiang, this incident was indeed an accident. Old C has always had this habit. There was one time before where he forgot to turn off the stream, but that time he was smoking and got banned for a few days..."

"It happened once before?"

Sun Qiang suddenly raised his head, his voice an octave higher.

"It happened once before, and you still let him commit it a second time? What is the operations team at Douyu doing?"

"After a streamer ends their stream, isn't there a process in the backend to automatically disconnect the stream room?"

Old Xu opened his mouth but couldn't say a word.

Although he knew the main reason was that Old C forgot to turn off the stream, if he dared to talk back at this time, he could forget about keeping his position.

"The reputation of league of legends had already been beaten down by us."

Sun Qiang suppressed his anger, his lowered voice sounding even more frightening.

"The entire internet was bashing it, the trending searches were all negative, and what about now?"

"How many hours have passed?"

"And why didn't you secretly contact this person, tell him to pretend he didn't know, and then continue to bash league of legends? Why did you directly ban his stream room and confirm it was a hit piece?"

Old Xu was silent for a moment.

"Sun Qiang, this streamer's phone was in airplane mode at the time, so it couldn't be reached."

"This is his habit when playing games."

The office was instantly silent.

Sun Qiang couldn't help but close his eyes. He didn't speak, but his lips moved, silently mouthing two English letters.

"Sun Qiang, the current situation is that if we come out and make any explanation, the outside world will directly confirm that Tencent Group is pushing hit pieces."

"The best way is to just stay put for now."

Old Xu spoke again.

"Streamers on both platforms should stop streaming league of legends. Once that incident with Old C happened, whoever praises it will be dug up, and whoever bashes it will be labeled as taking a hit piece."

Sun Qiang leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a moment.

When he opened them again, his voice had returned to calm.

"Tell everyone who got closed beta access to stop streaming league of legends."

"Understood."

Old Xu nodded and exited the office.

Not long after he left.

Another person knocked on the door and walked in.

It was Liu Li, the head of the internal team at Tencent Group responsible for tracking and analyzing league of legends. He was wearing thick black-rimmed glasses and holding a newly printed evaluation report in his hand.

"Sit."

Sun Qiang rubbed his temples.

"What is the conclusion from your team, having played from the start of the closed beta until now?"

"Is there any possibility that league of legends could threaten dota 2?"