Chapter Sixty-One: League of Heroes

“Iron Man Tony Stark Founds Avengers Games!”

“Stark Industries Pays $100 Million to Acquire Riot Games, Officially Entering the Gaming Industry!”

“After Venturing into New Energy, Stark Industries Enters the Gaming Market—Is the Company Out of Options After Halting Weapons Sales?”

News of Stark Industries acquiring Riot Games swept the globe at lightning speed. The world was shocked by this move—no one believed a former arms dealer could succeed in the gaming business.

...

Riot Games Headquarters, California, USA

Arthur and Tony arrived at the headquarters. Tony felt he’d overpaid with the $100 million acquisition. How could a fledgling game studio dare to demand such a sum? If Tony hadn't trusted Arthur, he would have walked out immediately.

In the end, they negotiated an acquisition price of $80 million, with the remaining $20 million set aside as a penalty for breaking previous agency contracts. Arthur intended to renegotiate agency agreements with various countries, making the previous contracts void, so the $20 million would compensate those agents.

When Arthur stepped into Riot’s headquarters, he was taken aback. This was the renowned Riot Games? It was a small, run-down building. He’d forgotten it was only early 2012—League of Legends had been out for just two years and was only in trial operation in China for half a year; Riot was still a fledgling company.

Seeing the humble office, Tony’s gaze toward Arthur grew even more skeptical, as if to say, “You made me spend a hundred million dollars for this?”

Arthur clapped Tony’s shoulder reassuringly. “Soon you’ll be grateful for this acquisition!”

“Let’s hope so,” Tony replied.

They entered the meeting room, where all the employees had gathered, curious and expectant about their new boss. The company was still small, and everyone was a bit worried about its future, but being purchased by Stark Industries was a huge relief—at least money would never be a problem.

Tony and Arthur saw only about twenty people in the room—the entire company staff.

“All right, you all probably know who I am. As for the man beside me, he’s the fallen Aquaman, Arthur,” Tony began with a playful quip to lighten the mood.

The employees erupted in excitement. “Iron Man! Iron Man! Aquaman! Aquaman!”

Clearly, they were fans. Tony finally felt a bit better seeing their enthusiasm.

“Okay, Arthur will now explain our plans for the company’s next phase,” Tony continued. Since developing games was Arthur’s idea, it was best for him to take the lead.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Jon Arthur. I’ll talk about the future direction of League of Legends. Who’s in charge of champion design?” Arthur asked.

A chubby man stood up. “I’m Jamie, head of the design team. We have three champion designers and one illustrator.”

“Very good, Jamie. I’ve checked out the current roster, and the designs are impressive—Zed and Jayce, in particular, have become extremely popular!” Arthur praised the team.

“So far, League of Legends has nearly nine million registered players worldwide. That number is still too low. We need to expand our influence and divide the world into four regions to host eSports tournaments! Your S1 tournament was simple, but it was a great start. At the end of the year, we’ll host the S2 World Championship with a prize pool of $10 million!”

The whole office was electrified—a $10 million prize was the largest in eSports history!

“Before that, we’ll create several champion skins to boost the game’s profile.” As Arthur spoke, he took out his prepared materials, plugged a flash drive into the computer, and projected a presentation.

“We’ll launch an Avengers event with eight original Avenger-themed skins for existing champions! For example, Dr. Mundo will get a Hulk skin, Varus a Hawkeye skin, Ezreal an Iron Man skin, Katarina a Black Widow skin, Kennen a Thor skin, Lee Sin a Captain America skin, Fizz an Aquaman skin. As for Spider-Man... none of the current champions really fit.”

“We have a champion in development—Elise, the Spider Queen,” Jamie offered.

Arthur winced. Spider Queen didn’t really fit Spider-Man’s image.

“Let’s go with Amumu, then. His abilities are the most similar to Spider-Man’s among all the champions. Design these eight skins—I expect dazzling effects and faithful character portrayal! This is the key to breaking into the market. Complete them as quickly as possible!” Arthur instructed.

“Understood! Leave it to us!” Jamie promised, patting his chest.

“In the coming period, everyone’s going to be busy, probably working overtime, since we have a series of major initiatives ahead! Therefore, we’ll be raising salaries across the board—you’ll be the highest-paid team in the industry!” Arthur announced.

The staff finally cheered in delight—nothing was more motivating than improved benefits.

“All right, we’ll discuss the rest in detail later. Back to work. HR and management, please stay. Meeting adjourned!” Tony ordered.

The staff filed out, leaving only the female head of HR.

“I need you to start recruiting aggressively to bolster our team. You can offer competitive salaries and poach talent if necessary. The salary adjustments for all staff are your department’s responsibility as well,” Arthur instructed.

“Yes, boss!” The HR manager headed off to work.

“I have to admit, you’ve got quite a plan. I’m really interested in this Avengers event. I’ll have to download League of Legends and try it myself,” Tony said, feeling confident in Arthur’s leadership.

“Leave Riot to me—I guarantee it’ll become a major source of revenue for the Avengers. But I won’t have time to manage everything; you’ll need to find a top-notch CEO to run operations,” Arthur replied.

“Agreed. I’ll have Pepper look for someone suitable. I’ll head back—the Avengers base and a mountain of work are waiting for me. I’ll leave things here in your hands!” Tony said.

“No problem, you can go with peace of mind. I’ll handle the game company,” Arthur assured him.

...

Arthur moved into one of Tony’s apartments in California. Tony owned properties everywhere and still claimed to be short on cash. Exhausted, Arthur collapsed onto the bed.

He had just finished going over the new skin requirements with the design team, then met with the PR department to renegotiate agency contracts. The new agreements would split revenue 70/30 in favor of the main company, with agents getting only 30%. All previous buyout contracts were void.

Arthur knew the agents would object, but League of Legends would become so profitable that the lion’s share had to stay with Riot. If an agent didn’t accept, he’d just find another—there were plenty of companies eager to distribute the game.

Sure enough, the next day, Arthur got a call from PR: both Tencent in China and NCsoft in Korea refused the new revenue split.

Arthur told them to terminate the agency contracts, pay the penalty, and find new partners. The revenue share was absolutely non-negotiable.

Arthur then drove to Riot headquarters to help the design team accelerate the production of the new skins.

...