After all of us are reborn, who plays Go?

Chapter 111. Dragon Returns to Hometown [110 monthly tickets plus more! ]

“I think if we start the Rookie of the Year competition from the quarterfinals, we can play three games directly. This way, we can play more games.

When it comes to the finals, it will be a five-game match. If there are more competitions in the future, the number of games can be reduced a bit, which can also reduce the burden on the players.

For the national competition, after reaching the quarterfinals, a round-robin tournament will be played. After seven rounds of round-robin matches among eight people, the top two players will be selected based on the round-robin points. The top two players in the round-robin tournament will then play five games to determine the champion.

The point of holding these two competitions is actually to increase the number of games played by Chinese chess players. I feel that the average number of games played by Chinese professional players is less than five per year, which is outrageous. "

Inside the office, Zhan Lang drank the tea poured for him by Mr. Chen Long, the current head of the Chinese Chess Institute, and talked freely.

After returning from Japan, the national team directly transferred Zhan Lang from the provincial team to the national team with a transfer order. They didn't even let Zhan Lang return to Tianjin. They directly escorted him to the national team and even asked others to send his luggage to Zhan Lang.

Moreover, as soon as Zhan Lang came back, he was invited to the boss's office.

But before the other party could say anything, Zhan Lang opened the door and said that he wanted to hold two competitions, which choked Old Chen who was about to speak.

One of the competitions is the Rookie King Competition that Zhan Lang is preparing to hold, so that he will have enough games to play.

The other is the national competition. Zhan Lang estimates that it will be difficult for him to get a good result in the first session, but in the next session next year, he will probably be able to make a slight effort towards the championship.

After all, even if you hold a national competition, the money spent is unlikely to be much more than that of the Rookie of the Year competition, and you can also experience in advance the strength of other Chinese professional players in the official competition.

For Zhan Lang who can win the bonus in 2024.

Value for money.

After all, it is a rookie king competition, and the prize money for the champion in 2024 is as high as 200,000 yuan.

Even if two competitions are held, the profit is still 1000%. Not to mention that no matter what the ranking is in the national competition, there will be several thousand yuan in prize money, and even as long as Zhan Lang wins one game, he can make his investment back.

In fact, from a selfish point of view, Zhan Lang would rather organize a competition like the future Chinese Go Professional League. This is a truly inclusive competition. Even if it is a big pot competition like the Korean Go League, it is better than ordinary competitions.

This opinion has been mentioned before by Zhan Lang, but it is difficult to organize a Go Association, and organizing competitions for provincial teams is basically no different from training camps.

If a Chinese Go League could be established, we could immediately achieve a harmonious Go society where everyone can play Go.

For example, Japan has never held a professional Go league, and even the competition system has not been reformed. This may be one of the reasons why it was later left behind by China and South Korea.

The Chinese Go League A is even known as a preview of the world championships. Basically, if a newcomer can achieve good results in the Chinese Go League A, he will almost certainly get a good result in the world championships the following year.

But there was no way, Zhan Lang was too poor. The reason why the Go League was called the Go League was because there were too many people. There were four people in a team, and there were at least sixteen teams.

If such a competition were really held every year, each team would have to receive prize money and match fees, and Zhan Lang would probably have to spend about half of the money he had.

Moreover, with Zhan Lang's current level, he probably won't be able to recover much blood in this kind of competition, and there is really no way to form a virtuous circle.

So this league plan had to be shelved.

“It’s still too poor.”

Zhan Lang couldn't help but sigh in his heart, how nice it would be if I had a small goal?
This is the first time that the protagonist of a rebirth novel is worried about money. Junzi, who is not even a rebirth novel, has 4 billion cold dollars in his account at the age of 28.

Chen Long nodded when he heard this: "Indeed, but there is nothing we can do, we really can't find sponsorship.

But you must not worry about the burden on chess players. Participating in a competition with prize money is something that many people dare not even dream of.”

Three games is a burden? If you put a prize of 1,000 yuan, you ask people to play 100 games a year and they will be willing to do so.

The sponsorship issue of Go has always been a difficult point for Chinese Go, and few companies can sponsor a tournament stably.

Especially in this day and age, most companies are just starting out and don’t even have stable annual revenue, let alone any of them being able to actually pay to sponsor such an unprofitable competition.

Essentially, any corporate company sponsoring Go is a losing business, relying entirely on the CEO's hobby to give away money to support it.

If the CEO is replaced, the company encounters problems, or the head of the chess association has a brain problem, sponsorship can easily be cancelled.

In essence, except for a few such as football that can really make a profit, most sports events are begging for sponsorship on their knees.

Go is no exception.

"Increase income and reduce expenditure."

Chen Long could only say helplessly that now he could only save money slowly and hope that life would be better.

It's not just Chinese Go. Chess, international chess and even other board games are having a hard time.

A long way to go.

"The main thing is how to make Go a popular sport. Only when it has enough commercial value can we attract sponsorship."

Don’t think that Chinese football will be so bad in the future and will be called a national humiliation every day.

But the commercial value of football is great. There are countless people who pay attention to it every day, and sponsors are willing to spend money. The profits have enabled countless people to live a stable life.

Even if people are cursing every day, it is still a sign of attention. A project is not afraid of being cursed, but it is afraid that there will be no one to curse it. Then it will really have no value at all.

Hearing Zhan Lang's words, Chen Long couldn't help laughing. "This is too difficult. Go is not like chess, where the more you play, the fewer pieces you have. If you capture a piece, ordinary people can see it. It's not like football or basketball, where you just need to get the ball into the goal, and it's clear at a glance.

Even with Go commentary, most viewers simply can’t understand Go.”

If the threshold for watching a sport is too high, it will be a problem for promotion.

Even if you don’t know how to play football or basketball, it won’t affect the viewing experience.

But Go is completely different.

If you don’t know how to do it, even if you are at an entry-level level, you won’t be able to understand it.

Zhan Lang took a sip of tea and shook his head. This problem would not be solved until decades later.

Just like what Lao Ke, who was resurrected on Qingming Festival, said, the Go industry has benefited from Ai. Thanks to the emergence of Ai, the Go industry is currently inseparable from Ai.

Since AI entered the Go world, most players have improved greatly. From a technical point of view, everyone has become very close. There are no secrets or barriers in this industry. It all depends on who works harder and who has a deeper understanding of AI. I am definitely stronger than I was six years ago, but everyone is getting stronger, which makes it harder to win the championship.

But the entire Go industry will definitely benefit from AI. At least after everyone has AI data, they can give some advice when watching Go.

When the winning rate drops, people criticize the player for playing bad chess; when the winning rate increases, people praise the player for playing bad chess. This is the most intuitive way to lower the threshold and help promote the game.

Even just by looking at the win rate fluctuation line that looks like an electrocardiogram, everyone can feel a sense of participation.

As for the fact that there are more and more people who know about it, there is nothing that can be done about it. The more popular a project is, the more people who know about it there will always be.

“Maybe things will change in a few decades.”

"I hope."

Chen Long just shook his head when he heard this. Unless the average person reaches above the mid-level amateur level, it would be basically impossible to popularize it into a national sport.

"Let me confirm with you again, have you thought about it?

After all, we will spend at least 20,000 yuan a year on these two competitions, all at cost.”

You know, Zhan Lang can only get about 200,000 yuan, and it will be spent in a few years.

But if he didn’t want to spend the money, Zhan Lang would just send it out now.

Zhan Lang smiled when he heard this: "Money is a bastard, and I might be a hidden investment genius or something like that. Who knows, I might make more and more money in the future."

You never know, someone can actually make money by investing in Go competitions.

Decades later, I was able to accomplish something that no other investor could do.

When Chen Long heard this, he just smiled and shook his head. Making money is not that easy. If it were that easy, he would have gone into the Go business to make money to supplement his Go career long ago.

We only see people who make money in the business world, but there are always far more people who drown than those who make money.

The competitions sponsored by Zhanlang will only last for two to three years at most, but this also gives me plenty of time to breathe and make the transition. I want to take advantage of these two to three years to see if I can get more sponsorship and hold more competitions.

It's not a good idea to bite your own people, you still have to find a way to solve it yourself.

"Have you thought of a name for the competition?"

For example, Rookie of the Year is just the name of a competition, and basically "XX Cup" must be added in front of it.

These are usually the names of the sponsor’s manufacturers, but unfortunately Zhanlang doesn’t have a factory, so he can only think of a name himself.

“Let’s call the Rookie of the Year competition the Golden Scale Cup.

Let’s call the national competition the Lan Ke Cup.”

Zhan Lang took the brush handed to him by Mr. Chen and wrote two names on the paper.

Zhan Lang's handwriting was quite ugly in his previous life, but in this life he didn't have any other toys to play with since he was a child. In addition, his mother was a lady from a wealthy family, so she often urged Zhan Lang to practice calligraphy and other things.

I won’t say how beautiful the handwriting is, but at least it’s acceptable.

It’s a pity that I don’t have any seals, otherwise I would print them on it myself and it would also be considered a work of art.

Lan Ke is a classic story in Go. The last world competition held in China before Zhan Lang traveled through time was the Lan Ke Cup, which can be regarded as a kind of commemoration.

As for the golden scales.

Are the golden scales just a thing in the pond? They turn into dragons when exposed to wind and rain.

This is to hope that all newcomers in China can make a breakthrough through this competition.

But for the first session, I can only return to my hometown.

(End of this chapter)