Chapter 391: Public Opinion Control
The day after the match ended, Jiang Shu took LESSERAFIM back to South Korea.
They were set to debut on the tenth, so time was tight, and they couldn't stay long in San Francisco.
They left, but online discussions about DRX, as the fourth seed, breaking history to win the World Championship in 2022 had just begun.
This DRX team was truly legendary.
As the fourth seed, they won the World Championship, going through a four-series gauntlet, playing four full best-of-5s, which included last year's world champions EDG, and then directly defeating the dynasty SKT led by the Demon King Faker in the finals.
The prestige of this victory could be said to be the highest in history.
Deft's final dance, after ten years of enduring hardship with his passion undimmed, also added a legendary touch to this championship.
The defeated T1 also garnered significant attention, especially Zeus, who was counter-positioned by the FMVP (Finals Most Valuable Player), becoming the target of criticism from T1 fans, casual viewers, and anti-fans alike.
Even Jiang Shu was cursed at.
"Always calling him the God King, a God King who was counter-positioned by the FMVP?"
"Is that all? A God King who was completely outplayed in a best-of-5?"
"Heh heh, I admit you have absolute authority in K-pop, but this is League of Legends, Chairman Jiang should go somewhere cool and stay there."
"Can Jiang Shu just get lost?! It's all because he pulled strings to get a connections-based player, Zeus, in, which cost our T1 the championship!"
"Damn it! Can that connections-based player just die?!"
"Amateurs get out of League of Legends!"
However, a portion of people held different opinions, not everyone blamed Zeus for everything.
"Zeus debuted in his first year and got second place. Although he was counter-positioned by the FMVP in the finals, his contributions were evident to all."
"To this day, only Faker has won the championship in his debut year; JackeyLove from next door also won in his second year. Zeus has already done well enough."
"League of Legends is a five-person game; it's as if changing the top laner would guarantee a championship."
"Always talking about changing the top laner, who could they change him with? Zeus just lacks big-match experience; his potential as a super top laner is unquestionable. If T1 doesn't want him, are they going to sell him to the LPL and let the LPL produce another TheShy?"
"Chairman Jiang's passion for League of Legends is evident to all. The first season of IZONE's group reality show was filmed at the T1 club, and Chairman Jiang himself often plays ranked games with the players. His skill level is probably much higher than what people online realize."
"That's true, Chairman Jiang's predictions have never been wrong so far. Last year, G2 beat T1, and EDG won the championship. Also, this year, DRX had a higher chance of winning, with a 70/30 split against T1. This shows that Chairman Jiang's prediction level is very high; there's no reason to question Chairman Jiang."
Both sides argued their points, with the trolls having a larger presence. After all, they lost the match, and T1 hadn't won a championship in a long time. It was normal for fans to be resentful after narrowly missing the championship this time.
However, public opinion wasn't entirely one-sided, as there were still quite a few rational people.
On the third day after the match ended, November 9th, the T1 club released the in-game comms and post-match locker room footage.
The in-game comms were released to relieve pressure on Zeus. T1 understood that Zeus was T1's sharpest spear for the future, and if the spear dulled, what was the point?
So, releasing the comms to let his teammates help Zeus share the burden was a decision unanimously approved by T1's players.
And the post-match locker room footage was to tell the public that T1 would return.
"Gumayusi is truly a player with a strong mentality; he can still eat after all that."
"The sky is vast, the earth is vast, eating is the most important!"
"Because Gumayusi was the losing side's MVP, he was the most dedicated. He did everything an AD could do, and even what a jungler could do. If they couldn't win even then, it's definitely not his fault."
"Zeus was almost crying, but seeing Gumayusi, he held it back 【laughs】."
"Gumayusi burned himself out; since he didn't screw over his teammates, he naturally wasn't as sad. Zeus was sadder because he knew he had screwed over his teammates. If they had won this year, Gumayusi would definitely have been the FMVP."
"Chairman Jiang's encouragement was really effective, and the term 'ZOFGK' is quite novel."
"This is the meme-making ability of our DM Entertainment's Chairman!"
"That's true, if it weren't for Chairman Jiang, I would never have imagined Zhang Yuanying could even have a collaboration with Genshin Impact."
"And ultraman."
"Should I say, as expected of Chairman Jiang? In just a few words, he re-motivated the disheartened T1 teammates. I saw Zeus's eyes practically piercing through the screen."
"Seeing the members still so united even after losing the match, I suddenly felt that losing the finals wasn't so hard to accept anymore."
"Failure isn't scary; what's scary is becoming dispirited afterward. Now, our T1 will come back and kill it!!!"
"T1! ZOFGK! Fighting!!!"
The post-match locker room video edited out Uzi's segment, to avoid the 'no-championship fraud' narrative from affecting T1's already delicate public opinion.
After removing the controversial segment, the video achieved its intended effect, and after its release, T1's public opinion directly reversed.
In fact, for most fans, it's not that they fear you losing; what they fear is losing and then not changing.
As long as there's change, that's enough.
Of course, this is limited to T1 fans.
After all, T1 often plays terribly in the regular season of the Summer Split. If it were Gen.G, that wouldn't be acceptable; losing even one best-of-3 would lead to fans complaining for ages.
After all, if a team with super league dominance loses a major series, it's all over.
However, Chovy is indeed amazing; no matter how much he underperforms at Worlds, the teams he's on consistently make it to Worlds every year, which is quite impressive.
Jiang Shu is the owner, and he also prefers Chovy over other players.
Other top players certainly have a higher chance of winning championships than Chovy, but they might also fail to even make it to Worlds.
Chovy's championship probability is low, but he consistently secures a World Championship ticket.
This is a question of making small gains versus big gains.
In reality, Jiang Shu quite likes the player Chovy; he just doesn't know when his mentality will stabilize and extend his league dominance to the World Championship.
The World Championship matter has come to an end. After this battle, LESSERAFIM made a strong impression on League of Legends fans worldwide, and many viewers who don't follow K-pop remembered this group called LESSERAFIM.
And this influence also fed back into South Korea.
As is well known, BTS's path to stardom involved North America and Europe feeding back into South Korea, and now LESSERAFIM truly has a somewhat similar situation.
Moreover, the most important thing is that after LESSERAFIM's appearance at the League of Legends World Championship, many e-sports game companies also took notice of this group.
Collaborations between girl groups and games are very easy ways to make money; this has already had successful precedents globally.
If LESSERAFIM can become popular in South Korea, perhaps a game collaboration with them could be considered?
DM Entertainment's move indeed worked, raising the level of attention on LESSERAFIM by more than one notch.
Under such widespread anticipation, on November 10th, LESSERAFIM officially debuted!
