Chapter 124: A Game Designer Held Back by His Stand-Up Comedy Career
Stepping out of the high-speed rail station, Chen Mo hailed a taxi and headed straight to the competition venue.
This competition was called the "Huan Ling Cup," a name naturally chosen by the organizers, the Shenhuan Game Platform. The Shenhuan Game Platform didn't just handle game distribution; it was also ahead of most companies when it came to organizing esports events for games.
It had to be said that although Ding Xing, the president of the Shenhuan Game Platform, knew nothing about game design, he did have some foresight regarding the development prospects of the gaming market.
Chen Mo had a bit of a minor conflict with the Shenhuan Game Platform. Earlier, when he was running Thunder Chess and the Thunder Game Platform, he had poached users from both the Imperial Dynasty and Shenhuan platforms.
But as the saying goes, there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. With *Warcraft* developing so well domestically, Ding Xing had no reason to be at odds with money. If he could cooperate with Chen Mo, he certainly wouldn't be petty enough to cut off his own income stream.
Originally, the professional development of *Legion Conquest* in the country was going quite well. Many major clubs were planning to recruit top *Legion Conquest* players to form their own divisions. But then *Warcraft* burst onto the scene and stirred everything up. Many clubs decided to wait and see, since after the clash between these two games, it was highly likely that only one victor would remain.
If they set up a *Legion Conquest* division early, only to have the game die out a couple of months later, that would be pretty awkward.
*Warcraft* came with its own ranked matchmaking and replay system, clearly distinguishing player skill levels. A group of top players had already emerged, gaining a certain amount of popularity on streaming sites. The conditions for hosting a small-scale tournament like this were fully mature.
The venue for this competition was chosen in Modu, and it was an offline event. All the contestants and guest hosts had to come to Modu to play. However, because the competition was relatively small, there was no live audience; it was broadcast nationwide through streaming platforms.
When Chen Mo arrived at the competition venue, a staff member was assigned to receive him. They led him to check into the hotel and handed him a set of materials detailing the schedule.
A total of eight players with the highest *Warcraft* scores in the country had been invited. Familiar faces like Goph, Wanfeng, and Digwa, who had faced off against Chen Mo on the ladder before, were all present.
Each match was a Best of 3, and it was a straight knockout tournament: quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. There was no loser's bracket or resurrection round. Since the competition was small-scale, there was no need to complicate the rules.
The tournament lasted two days, finishing over the weekend. Day one was the quarterfinals, and day two was the semifinals, the third-place match, and the finals. The champion would receive 500,000 in prize money, the runner-up 200,000, and third place 100,000.
The prize money wasn't huge, but it wasn't small either. Besides, with the whole event being streamed live and it being the first time these top players were competing in a relatively formal Best of 3 setting, they all took it quite seriously.
Chen Mo's co-host was a professional game commentator named Zhang Yang. He had commentated on some game events before and had a very smooth tongue, with good crowd-control skills.
The organizers had invited Chen Mo to commentate, covering his round-trip tickets, room, and board, and also paying him a fee of 50,000. After all, Chen Mo had a special status; they couldn't just pay him the market rate for a commentator.
For the organizers, having Chen Mo as a commentator was a big selling point. The designer of *Warcraft* himself acting as a game commentator—just that gimmick alone could attract a lot of viewers!
Of course, the organizers were also worried that Chen Mo had no commentating experience. What if he started rambling and went off-topic? So they arranged for Zhang Yang to be his partner, mainly to keep things on track. As for professional analysis, that was left to Chen Mo.
For Chen Mo, this was also a good promotional opportunity. He had never been a commentator before, so it was a chance to experience it and show his face to the players.
At the competition venue, the players had already arrived and were debugging their machines.
Zhang Yang came over to greet Chen Mo. "Hello, Teacher Chen."
Chen Mo couldn't help but think of a certain photographer surnamed Chen from his past life. "No, no, don't call me Teacher Chen. It always reminds me of someone."
Zhang Yang: "Huh?"
Chen Mo waved his hand. "Never mind. Just call me by my full name. Don't leave out the 'Mo' character."
Zhang Yang chuckled. "Alright. You're a professional designer, so I'll be counting on your guidance today."
Chen Mo smiled too. "Hey, what professional designer? Today, we're both commentators, partners."
Zhang Yang nodded. "Right, right. Looks like you're getting into the groove quickly. Come on, let's debug the equipment first."
Zhang Yang worked with the staff to debug the equipment, while Chen Mo didn't have to do anything; everything was handled by the professionals. Once the equipment was ready, Chen Mo said a few words to test it, and everything was normal.
Zhang Yang looked at the live stream on his phone. The signal hadn't been connected yet, so the stream was still black.
But even so, there were already over 200,000 viewers in the stream.
Zhang Yang exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, there are quite a lot of viewers today. The competition hasn't even started yet, and there are already over 200,000. By the time it starts, it'll probably hit 700,000 or 800,000."
On the stream screen, many viewers were chatting.
"Why hasn't it started yet? Hurry up, we're getting impatient!"
"I heard Chen Mo is coming today?"
"Who's Chen Mo?"
"The designer of *Warcraft*!"
"Really? What's he here for?"
"Commentating on the competition!"
"Wow, that makes today's matches even more interesting. The designer's understanding of the game must be deeper than the average person's, right? Let's see what he has to say."
"I wonder if Chen Mo plays his own game, and what his rank is. Maybe he hasn't even reached 2000 points yet?"
"Possible. A lot of designers are pretty bad at games."
People were saying all sorts of things.
Zhang Yang laughed. "Oh, the viewers are really looking forward to it. It's almost time to start. Come on, let's look at the camera."
The live stream came on.
Zhang Yang: "Hello to all the viewers and friends watching the live stream. Welcome to the 'Huan Ling Cup' *Warcraft* Invitational Tournament hosted by the Shenhuan Game Platform. I'm commentator Zhang Yang."
Chen Mo followed up: "I'm commentator Chen Mo."
The viewers were curious. So this was Chen Mo? He looked much younger than they had imagined!
Most of the viewers didn't know Chen Mo; this was the first time they had seen his real face. After all, when people usually play games, they don't bother to care about who designed them.
Zhang Yang said, "Teacher Chen Mo is also here as a guest commentator for the first time. I can see that many viewers are excited, flooding the screen with welcome messages."
Chen Mo said, "Really? Let me see. It looks like they're all spamming 'Chen Mo, give me back my hard-earned money'?"
Zhang Yang laughed. This Chen Mo was pretty good at creating memes. The punchline came so naturally—was he a stand-up comedian in a past life?
Zhang Yang said, "Hey, Teacher Chen Mo, you're too good at joking around."
Chen Mo waved his hand. "No, no, didn't we agree before we started? Don't call me Teacher Chen Mo. It's too formal."
Zhang Yang: "Then what should I call you?"
Chen Mo: "Call me Grand Designer Chen. After all, my main job is designing games."
The viewers were amused. They were supposed to be commentating, so why had it turned into a comedy routine?
Zhang Yang was speechless. "And you say you're being formal? Fine, I'll just call you Teacher Chen Mo."
Chen Mo said, "That was just a little joke to lighten the mood. This is my first time commentating, and I'm very excited to be partnering with Teacher Zhang Yang."
The bullet comments were full of teasing: "This is your first time commentating? It feels like you definitely did stand-up in a past life. You're a natural at this!"
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