On April 7, 2022, The Electric Soul Network held the annual strategic conference of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" in Hangzhou. At the press conference called "Casting National Wind and Competing for the Future", The Electric Soul Network announced that it will release a new competitive version of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" in June, and announced the digital collection, e-sports ecological layout and strategic cooperation of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2".
On November 5, 2011, when the Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee officially announced the setting of 8 sub-items of e-sports at the Hangzhou Asian Games, Game Daily had reported on it. Through user reviews, we found a "strange" phenomenon: compared to the other 7 games selected at the same time, more people focused on "Three Kingdoms of Dreams 2", and there were some doubtful voices mixed with curiosity. In the eyes of many new generation players, "League of Legends", "Glory of Kings", "Peace Elite" can be regarded as today's national e-sports projects, and "Street Fighter 5", "Hearthstone", "FIFA Online4" and "DOTA2" are the classic representatives of their respective fields. In contrast, "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" does not seem to be a first-line product in terms of popularity or user scale.
It is worth mentioning that after "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" was officially announced to be selected for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games e-sports project, the electric soul network also publicly responded that they expected that "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" was selected for the Asian Games e-sports competition project in the short term will not have a direct impact on the company's operating performance. So, what is the basis for such a "non-first-line product" to go hand in hand with a number of head products and be selected for the official competition of the Asian Games?
If in the long run, how will being selected for the official project of the Asian Games e-sports competition help "Dream Three Kingdoms 2"? After the press conference, Game Daily approached Yao Shaolong, VP of The Soul Network and producer of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2", with questions, and found the answer from the conversation with him.
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In Yao Shaolong's memory, the journey of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" into Asia may be traced back to 4 years ago. In 2018, eSports was selected as the spectator event for the Jakarta Olympic Games, and since then, the E-Soul Network has begun to focus on the opportunities for e-sports to enter Asia. At the end of 2020, the company also made special preparations for this purpose, and set up a team of 10 people to track a complete set of Asian Games declarations. At the beginning of 2021, the team expanded to about 50 people.
Since there is no precedent before, the process of entering Asia of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" is actually not particularly smooth, under the pressure of external opposition, while competing with multiple opponents.
According to Yao Shaolong's understanding, there were nearly 40 games competing with "Three Kingdoms of Dreams 2" at that time. Therefore, until the official announcement of the results last year, whether "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" can enter Asia is also bottomless. As for why "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" was finally selected, Yao Shao did not have an accurate answer.
However, in his opinion, the multiple core competitiveness of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" may be the key.
Yao Shaolong told Game Daily that "Three Kingdoms of Dreams" is an orthodox competitive game with a 10-year operating foundation, and its fairness and ornamentality are not inferior to traditional sports. And the electric soul network has more than 280 million user registrations in China and in southeast Asian countries that have been issued, and more than ten years of e-sports have accumulated rich experience for them. "In addition, we are the only orthodox Chinese traditional culture product in the 8 projects."
Speaking of this, Yao Shaolong seems to be a little proud, in his view, the rest of the opponents are just a competitive game, and "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" backs up to the Three Kingdoms IP, as a qualified competitive product at the same time, in the cultural also in line with the Chinese tradition, which is the opponent product does not have.
The second is that the gameplay type of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" surpasses the opponent.
"We are very close to the user, very understanding of the user's needs, "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" has a lot of internal gameplay, for example, the competitor may only have 3 game modes, then we may be 20 or 30, we do have so much." Thanks to the understanding of users, "Three Kingdoms of Dreams" has done a lot of targeted optimizations as early as 10 years ago.
For example, considering that users will have more people to fight together, "Three Kingdoms of Dreams" has developed 10V10, 7V7 and other game modes. Because of its own three-kingdoms type of product, in order to make the classic three-way battle of the three kingdoms reflected in the game, it has developed a 5V5V5 mode and a chapter plot play extended from the background of the Three Kingdoms series story.
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"In fact, there is no special difference between everyone", when it comes to "compared with traditional e-sports events, what is the difference between "Three Kingdoms of Dreams 2", Yao Shaolong said so.
In terms of process, rules, etc., e-sports competitions are almost the same, just different content. Although the core is similar, they prefer to fall to the user while remaining high-end. The e-sports event is done as an operation activity of the game product, and the user's love and viscosity of the game are fed back through the event content. Such a strategy, they have been implementing for almost 5 years.
When it comes to the road of e-sports, Yao Shaolong seems a little bitter, he thinks that doing e-sports is a hard job. "In the first five years, there were also some other manufacturers doing it, but many of them are gone now, not only to endure loneliness, but also to have continuous investment without return, and there is no good commercial form in 10 years."
The e-sports road of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" has come to the present, and in Yao Shaolong's view, the most difficult point is to adhere to the original intention. "E-sports must ensure fairness, which is a lifeline that must not be destroyed, and it is necessary to adhere to the original intention of taking the player as the core, and expand the circle through the dissemination between users and users, and between people."
By observing the places where the past years have been held, it can be seen that whether it is Zhengzhou, Shanghai, Beijing or Harbin, the venue of the "Three Kingdoms of Dreams 2" has always been around the player gathering place. This is a set of tournament ideas created by them after years of exploration based on the player experience as the core.
It is understood that "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" has been trying to improve the professional and popular event system.
In terms of professionalization, ordinary players can sign up to participate in the Peerless Cup, and through the Peerless Cup, they have the opportunity to upgrade to the secondary event - the Dream Three Nations Class A Professional League (MSPL), and then through the First Division League, they can advance to the Dream Three Kingdoms Professional League (MPL), which constitutes a complete tournament system from the whole people to the profession.
In terms of popularization, on the basis of the online event Peerless Cup, the Legion Out of Uniform Championship has been added, as well as the Solo Elite Challenge combined with offline players. From 2021 onwards, the National Wind Power Competition has officially become an event that players can also play in person.
In the future, "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" will continue to be implemented from the two aspects of "event holding" and "young user reach". First select a city with more colleges and universities, and then land to hold the corresponding events to attract users to participate together. Relying on this set of ideas, Yao Shaolong believes that they have indeed made some famous things. "The selection of 'Dream Three Kingdoms 2' for the Asian Games is the best recognition given to us."
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Yao Shaolong told Game Daily that when the news of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" was first announced, it did not have an immediate effect, but if you look at it in the long run, its impact will inevitably exist, because this is not a short-term honor.
The Asian Games will bring great help to their subsequent development, especially to the continuation of the life cycle of "Three Kingdoms 2" and the improvement of product strength. Yao Shaolong hopes to do distribution in more countries in Asia and reach more foreign users, including the completion of the event upgrade.
In the future, the e-sports event of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" will be elevated to the entire Asian scope, expanding the original "Dream Three Countries 2" event system, including more overseas events, and eventually forming a regular international league in the Asian region. As one of the highlights of the conference, the competitive version of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2", which will be released in June, will also be deeply related to the Asian Games.
Hu Jianping, chairman and general manager of Electric Soul Network, said in his speech at the press conference: "As a representative of the National Wind Competition, "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" confirms the possibility of chinese traditional culture and e-sports culture coinciding."
In order to be more suitable for world-class venues and better fit with the Asian Games stage, the three-country IP of "Dream Three Kingdoms 2" will be integrated with the traditional sports competitions of the Asian Games and traditional Chinese elements.
From the perspective of respecting history, we will continue to strengthen the elements of national style with the purpose of highlighting the self-confidence of Chinese culture. Traditional sports such as gymnastics, rings, archery, and games will be seamlessly connected within the game by combining the characters of the Three Kingdoms and the history and culture of the three countries.
In addition, classic elements such as opera, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, poetry and song, myths and legends will also be integrated into the game design to carry out diversified Chinese cultural dissemination. "Starting with the event, let the National Wind Competition bloom on the broader world stage with its own charm."
In Yao Shaolong's view, these things will make the Dream Three Kingdoms IP go longer and go further.