Martial Arts Livestreaming
Chapter 46 - 44: Seed Player

Chapter 46: Chapter 44: Seed Player

Over the next few days, Wu Li followed the plan set by Bo Yuan Company, posting a short video each day showcasing various challenging fitness moves, and of course, each video featured a stunningly attractive young lady as mere decoration.

Though the accounts of Bo Yuan Fitness Club cumulatively had twenty million followers, many were repeat followers; the actual fan base had a considerable amount of redundancy. However, thanks to Wu Li’s nightly live broadcasts and his consistent top ranking on the hourly charts for three consecutive days, his follower count pleasingly increased by over two million, reaching 7.6 million.

Wu Li’s initial plan had been to leverage this popularity surge to boost his following to ten million. Currently, Bo Yuan Company seemed to be somewhat weak in online advertising, particularly when compared to a large MCN company like Lemon Culture.

But with every loss comes a gain, and since he already held shares, what need had he for a bicycle?

Moreover, just carrying out promotions for the Extreme Martial Arts Tournament would generate considerable hype, and after the competition, Wu Li believed his followers would definitely surpass ten million.

In three days of broadcasting, it was noteworthy that "The Fierce Woman" a mysterious wealthy woman, appeared twice, each time casually donating one hundred Heart of the Universe gifts before leaving effortlessly, as if merely hitting ’like’ daily, completely overwhelming anyone watching.

Thanks to the reward from this wealthy benefactress, Wu Li’s net worth had now exceeded ten million, boasting savings of 14.76 million yuan and a fan value of 450,000.

There were only four days left until the start of the Extreme Martial Arts Tournament. In the ensuing days, Bo Yuan Company’s strategy would focus on promoting Wu Li’s participation, highlighting the first appearance of Traditional Martial Arts in an MMA venue.

...

Qi City, Pin Yi Limited Company.

This was a publicly listed company specializing in functional beverages and was also a major sponsor and organizer of the Extreme Martial Arts Tournament.

The company’s CEO, Chang Zhiyang, 43, a fight enthusiast, had organized the Extreme Martial Arts Tournament to fulfill a personal dream.

In the conference room, Chang was reviewing a PowerPoint presentation by his staff and was not pleased.

"Why is the promotion still so ineffective after all this effort?"

The others in the conference room looked at each other, unsure how to respond.

Though mixed martial arts competitions had developed quite well in recent years, their popularity couldn’t match some of the more trendy sports events domestically.

Boxing boasted four major professional leagues internationally, and MMA had the UFC, both highly successful examples known for substantial fame and commercial value. Particularly in professional boxing, a single bout could influence hundreds of millions of US dollars, an athlete earning several hundred million from one fight—a feat unmatched in other sports globally.

However, domestically, the development of martial arts competitions still lagged behind international standards, with relatively few dedicated enthusiasts, especially for local competitions like Extreme Martial Arts, thereby attracting even fewer followers. Thus, despite Pin Yi spending heavily on advertising, the improvement was minimal.

The room remained silent briefly until someone looking through the registration information lit up upon noticing Wu Li’s application and immediately spoke, "Mr. Chang, I’ve noticed something."

Chang Zhiyang replied, "Go on."

The person said, "Wu Li has signed up for our competition!"

"Wu Li?" Chang Zhiyang frowned, although he was a combat sports fan, he mainly followed professional competitions like the UFC and didn’t pay much attention to various rumors on the internet or browse Mo Yin, so he had never heard of Wu Li.

"Wu Li is a famous fighter on the internet lately, he’s twenty this year, practices Traditional Martial Arts, and previously defeated six thugs with Xingyi Fist on the street, then fought an open match with a national champion of free fighting. Despite the opponent being on stimulants, Wu Li still won," his subordinate explained.

"Twenty, still in university, right?" Chang Zhiyang frowned.

"Because Traditional Martial Arts and modern combat sports are inherently topical, and also because of the incidents where various Traditional Martial Arts masters were knocked down in the ring, when Wu Li used Traditional Martial Arts to defeat strong opponents on the ring, he sparked widespread discussion online. Some people now think he represents the future of Traditional Martial Arts, proving that it has its place in the ring, while others think he’s just a flash in the pan; but either way, his participation in our competition is inherently newsworthy," the subordinate shared his thoughts.

Chang Zhiyang nodded after listening, "Alright, contact this person and have him cooperate with our publicity; also, designate him as a seeded player."

The subordinate asked, "Which seed number?"

At the Extreme Martial Arts Tournament, with over two hundred participants currently registered, Pin Yi planned to pick eight seeded players for high-profile promotion, including two professional experts that Chang Zhiyang had paid a lot of money for, all to elevate the class of the Extreme Martial Arts Tournament.

"Seed number three," Chang Zhiyang thought for a moment and said.

"Number three?" the subordinate looked surprised.

"Yes, number three," Chang Zhiyang confirmed.

The first two were very famous professional competitors, and it would be unreasonable for Wu Li to be ranked ahead of them, since Wu Li had never competed in an MMA match.

Placing Wu Li as the third seed might seem too high a rank for many who knew the industry, but publicity thrives on topics that generate debate, and Chang Zhiyang’s decision was purely to add some gimmicks to the competition.

"Okay, I’ll get right on it," the subordinate replied.

...

"Okay, I got it, thank you."

Wu Li ended the call, looking bemused.

He had just received a call from Pin Yi Company asking him to help promote the Extreme Martial Arts Tournament, something Wu Li was aligned with and thus he wouldn’t oppose; but they then informed him they made him the number three seed, according to the arrangement, the top three seeds were scheduled to appear in an interview program by Qi City TV Station before the competition, and he was told to prepare in advance and be on time for the recording tomorrow.

Being ranked as the third seed despite never having fought in an MMA match? Wu Li thought the company was really striving for publicity. He could already imagine the controversy this would cause; the other seeded players would surely feel discontent, as would even non-seeded fighters who wouldn’t appreciate a newcomer ranking above them.

"Pin Yi really pulled in some hatred for themselves in advance," Wu Li shook his head but didn’t object; after all, the more people watching the match, the better for him.

He opened the system, planning to exchange for Ground Skill.

(Released two Chapters together, as more and more people read this book, the debate over Traditional Martial Arts and modern combat sports has increased. Today I also joined some debates and eventually realized it’s very time-consuming. Many may start just to debate right from wrong, but it often turns into fighting about who wins, and it seems useless to argue like this because nobody will convince others. So from now on, I’ll only include my views on Traditional Martial Arts and modern combat sports in the book, and I’ll leave the comment section to everyone. Tomorrow’s Chapter about the interview program will include some of my thoughts for your reference.)