Chapter 24: Welcome, Summoner!

It was not over yet. To emerge as the ultimate winner in the battle for user growth, YY spared no expense and unleashed its trump card: adopting Tencent’s notorious, aggressive pop-up notification strategy.

Every user who downloaded and logged into the YY platform was periodically served with push notifications for JM’s livestream, as he made his push to reach the top of the national server rankings. These precisely calculated pop-ups appeared not only when the game launched but also during the crucial three-minute window after a match concluded, perfectly capturing the player’s peak interest.

This battle for traffic extended far beyond the platform itself. On the external front, the YY operations team demonstrated textbook trend-jacking: whenever Tencent released major news, such as reforms to the League of Legends (LOL) ranking system or preparations for the LPL professional league, dozens of meticulously crafted promotional articles would immediately flood the top of the comment sections.

These highly consistent "soft" articles emphasized the sense of participation in "witnessing the national server climb to the top for a ten-thousand-yuan prize" while promising "mysterious gifts to be shared among stream viewers." The goal was singular: to cleverly siphon the traffic dividends from official Tencent news to convert users while Tencent was busy expanding the LOL market share and aggressively acquiring new players.

The data validated the strategy’s success. Within 72 hours of Tencent announcing the ladder system changes—compounded by the momentum of JM’s national server climb campaign on YY—new user registrations surged by 237%, with traffic to the LOL section accounting for 81% of that growth.

The fame JM gained in the LOL community brought them so much. Because Tencent was promoting the LOL ranking reforms, and JM was a renowned top-tier ladder player, the vast library of previous tutorial videos served as a foundation. Countless new players followed the trail of these guides straight to the YY livestream.

YY even managed to piggyback on Tencent’s official website for the LPL league formation. It was simple: the NXG team, founded by JM, had locked in their spot for the LPL preseason early with a brilliant four-game winning streak. Once the roster was released, many players who initially believed professional teams were more "official" were surprised to discover that the person in charge of the NXG team was none other than JM.

The official Tencent eSports site, originally built for tournament reporting, unexpectedly became a gateway for YY traffic—tens of thousands of players clicked the "Team Owner" link on the team profile page, redirecting them straight to the YY livestream.

As the promotion was just getting started, the person in charge looked at the platform’s skyrocketing registration numbers and sighed with deep emotion.

"Increasing our investment to renew JM and partnering with him was definitely the right choice."

"Haha, let’s see just how much of the cake we can grab in this war for new users with this massive investment."

...

"Welcome to League of Legends!"

In a cybercafe named "Riding the Waves" on Gaoke West Road, in the magic city of Shanghai, an overlapping chorus of system alerts wove together a unique digital symphony.

League of Legends!

Since becoming an official WCG event in 2012, Tencent had leveraged its core QQ social network to launch a terrifying marketing campaign. With the City Hero Tournament expanding its coverage from 88 to 108 cities, the sheer volume of tournaments held drew countless people into Summoner’s Rift.

A young man whose ID was "Ocean" was one of them.

As he was killed by a defensive turret for the 17th time, his teammate’s hoarse roar echoed through his headset: "Garen, are you the founder of the 'feed-the-turret' strategy? I told you to tank the turret, not to give it away!"

The young man stared at the gray screen, his finger trembling over the 'F' key.

MOBA games are so hard!

His hands kept shaking, and he couldn't hear what his teammates were saying; he couldn't even press his 'Flash' key. Ocean had never played a MOBA before; he was more familiar with MMO role-playing games like *Legend*, *Tianlong*, and *Motian*.

However, back in March, he had seen a massive poster for the City Hero Tournament at the Wanda Plaza in Wujiaochang. On a whim, he bought a ticket and watched a match. Even now, the scenes from that game would flicker through his mind.

On the LED screen, the blue team’s Twisted Fate was flying toward the Dragon pit. The moment his gold card stunned the opponent and Baron Nashor fell, the underdog blue team turned the tides thanks to the Twisted Fate’s ultimate teleport. The crowd, people his own age, erupted in cheers so loud they nearly tore the roof off the venue.

Late one night months later, he found himself downloading the 4.2GB LOL client. From that moment on, he gradually became interested in this type of multiplayer real-time combat MOBA.

"Brother, I don't think you're cut out for Garen. You should check out JM's beginner tutorials and find a role that suits you," the support player in the game said, opting to offer helpful advice instead of joining the team in berating their top-laner.

(Ocean: Tutorial videos?)

(Zyra: Open YY; it’ll automatically pop up a link to JM’s livestream.)

JM’s tutorials? ...He remembered closing a pop-up when he opened YY earlier.

But beginner tutorial videos? Were those like game guides? Didn't LOL have its own built-in tutorial?

He still remembered when he first started playing. The system had defaulted him to a ranged marksman hero—Ashe, the Frost Archer. He had played dozens of bot matches with her, thinking he had mastered the gameplay and some of the opponent’s skills before he finally dared to click "Matchmaking."

However, because he didn't like the playstyle of a ranged hero relying solely on basic attacks, he had switched to Garen, the Might of Demacia, who looked like he had more interesting skills—only to end up being cursed at in games constantly.

"Use your brain to play, and climbing ranks is easy!"

"Hello everyone, welcome to JM’s 'New World' classroom for new players!"

"Allow me to represent all the summoners of Runeterra and welcome you, newcomers. I hope my video explanations will help you fall in love with this game."

"..."

Ocean’s lips curled into a smile. Compared to those preachy, didactic guides, he actually liked the way this content creator spoke.

"First off, for hero recommendations, I only suggest three for those just starting out: Ashe, Ryze, and Garen—the three heroes the system provides by default."

"Why, you might ask? Aren't there many other permanently free heroes? I want to tell you that these three aren't just for learning the mechanics; they are meant to help you experience different styles of play."

"A ranged mage, a ranged physical marksman, and a melee warrior—these three encompass the fundamental branches of LOL gameplay. You need to find the style you like or are even good at."

A style he liked or was good at? Ocean thought that made sense. He had played a dozen bot games with Ashe and realized he didn't like it, which was why he switched to Garen. But based on his performance in matchmaking, it seemed this melee warrior didn't suit him either.

"Should I try playing a ranged mage?"

With that thought in mind, he wasn't in a hurry. He patiently watched the tutorial and, following the creator’s prompts, skipped ahead to the third section regarding ranged mages.

"Compared to ranged physical marksmen and melee warriors, mage heroes have a slightly higher skill floor. You’re in the 'intermediate' phase of being a beginner here; you lack the high attack damage of a marksman and the sturdy frame of a warrior, and your output relies on skills that have cooldowns."

In the video, Jiang Ming spoke eloquently about the pros and cons of mages. Just like with the marksmen and warriors earlier, he broke down these traits for the beginners, helping them find the hero style that resonated with them.