The arcade was busier than Arakawa Kazuhiko imagined.

When he was at the door, there were actually not many people. But when he came in, he immediately heard cheers from inside.

Many people gathered in front of a huge projection screen and watched the game above.

It's a street fighter.

To be more precise, it is the arcade version of "Street Fighter ex3".

Because I own a PS2 at home, Kazuhiko Arakawa played this game and it was released on the PS2.

"Is this a game?" he muttered.

"It's a game against the Dushan Arcade in Kyushu." A young man who seemed to be a high school student next to him said, "We just won two games! Haha!"

The other person seemed quite happy.

"That's it..."

Arakawa Kazuhiko nodded in confusion.

Can games be played in arcades?

Although Arakawa Kazuhiko plays games, he doesn't pay much attention to outside news. Therefore, he has only vaguely heard about the changes that have taken place in the arcade, but he doesn't have a good idea.

"People from Kyushu are coming?" He was a little surprised.

"Ah? Uncle, you are so out of date. We are using the Internet, the Internet!" The high school students seemed to dislike middle-aged people like Arakawa Kazuhiko who were already out of date.

"Uh... Internet? Arcade halls also have Internet?" He was really confused. He had heard of something similar before, but he didn't expect it to be such a thing.

"Yes, all arcades across the country are connected to the Internet, and you can see the rankings. Our Akihabara arcade is a platinum arcade!"

Platinum arcade is the top arcade.

This kind of arcade is not the kind that can be obtained casually.

In fact, this is awarded after ranking the arcade halls across the country.

The so-called platinum is also a system similar to achievements. Full achievements are called platinum, and here, the arcade that is at the forefront of the country is called platinum.

Originally this was just a very ordinary ranking system.

But as arcades began to develop, this ranking system also began to change.

One of the important reasons for this is because players like to go to those "Platinum Arcades".

Because in the eyes of these players, there is generally no fixed standard for whether an arcade is interesting or not. The main criteria are the number of arcade machines in the arcade, the number of players, or the decoration.

However, when this ranking appeared, players began to have measurement standards.

At this time, players naturally want to go to more interesting arcades.

And in a real platinum arcade, wouldn't it be possible to encounter more and better "high-level players"?

This situation is actually not uncommon.

It can even be said to be very common.

For example, in many online games, when choosing a server, many players like to go to the so-called "first server", which is the first open server in the game.

For arcade players, "Platinum Arcade" is the top one among the arcades.

"It seems that the people who come here to play games are pretty good."

After listening to the high school student's explanation, Arakawa Kazuhiko probably understood it.

"Of course, our Akihabara team is the strongest!" The other party was very proud.

"ha?"

Team?

What the hell?

Arakawa Kazuhiko noticed the way the other party looked at him, as if he was looking at a country bumpkin.

He was a little embarrassed, but he couldn't help but be curious.

Fortunately, this young man who looks like a high school student does have the mentality to show off. He is showing off at this time: "Many arcades have their own teams. Especially the Platinum Arcade, there must be a team.

Inside. These scores are all scored by the teams in the arcade. Our Akihabara team is the most powerful team in the entire Nippori...no, the entire Tokyo!"

"I see."

Arakawa Kazuhiko still looked confused.

Although the concept of "team" existed in the WCG era, teams at that time were still purely competition teams.

But arcade teams are actually derivatives of these arcade rankings.

This is easy to understand.

Because for ordinary players, time is very unstable, and they may not always go to an arcade, or even in the same city.

Therefore, if the arcade hall wants to "raise the score", it is unrealistic to rely on passerby players. At this time, professionals must be present.

And where are the so-called professionals?

Some bosses just hire ordinary players to help increase points at first.

However, some bosses suddenly noticed the e-sports team over there.

They suddenly had a whim: Yes, why don't we form a team ourselves?

Of course, forming a team itself costs money, and ordinary arcades can't afford it. Everyone just forms a team for fun. But in large arcades, that's a different story.

Coincidentally, Shoichiro, the friend of this world line, did not leave sadly like the other world line. Instead, this dear friend has now secured his position.

After learning about this, he discussed it with Sen Xia, then helped the arcade hall connect, and then helped them find a sponsor.

Some sponsors are beverage vendors, some are game vendors, and some are even local specialty vendors.

Then, the names of these sponsors will be displayed when ranking the teams in the Platinum Arcade.

In other words, if a certain team can always be ranked in the platinum arcade, then the corresponding sponsor can radiate its name to arcades across the country because now the arcades that are connected to the Internet, when displaying the ranking,

Hi prioritizes the ranking of platinum arcades.

Of course, if it is just an ordinary arcade, it does not mean that money is useless, because the ranking is not limited to a national term, there is also a local ranking in every place. Even if it cannot reach the whole country, it can reach one place.

.

At the beginning, merchants were still a little skeptical about this model.

But with the completion of the arcade network, many businesses have seen the value.

For example, many players feel thirsty after playing a game and will subconsciously buy drinks from Platinum Team sponsors.

So after that, the sponsorship business of arcade halls also began to develop.

Many arcades initially formed teams just for the name of Platinum Arcade and their own development, but by this time, they discovered that the sponsorship fees from these sponsors... were actually enough to cover a fraction of their daily income.

, in some places that are not very prosperous, sponsorship fees can even occupy a large part of their net profits.

This situation has actually prompted more arcade halls to invest in it...

"It's amazing..."

While the two were talking, cheers came from the front, which meant that the Akihabara Arcade had won.

The onlookers gradually dispersed, some people left directly, and some people began to sit down and play games.

And Arakawa Kazuhiko began to find an arcade machine for "Long 4 Dead".

It's just that he doesn't have a seat because the place is already overcrowded.

So he became a spectator.

There are a total of eight "Long 4 Dead" arcade machines here. He hasn't seen any of them elsewhere, but the eight machines here can be combined into two four-on-four teams.

However, he noticed that these people did not seem to form a team, but were playing together, but the players over there... seemed to be... the Internet?

He walked over.

He discovered that there was actually a team here, but they formed two teams, and they did not compete against each other for two games.

Arakawa Kazuhiko immediately understood that they were fighting players on the Internet.

Or in other words, it's a competition with other arcades.

"Strange, can't this game be played at home..."

Arakawa Kazuhiko was a little confused.

This kind of game should be able to be played on the Internet. At this time, the experience on a home machine will definitely be better. But why do they come here to play it?

"Of course the internet speed is good! The internet environment in our Akihabara arcade is definitely the best." It turns out that he is still the young man just now, and the other party is right here...

"Internet speed?" Arakawa Kazuhiko was a little surprised, "What's wrong with the Internet speed?"

In fact, the two people were talking about the "lag" of the game, but both the young man and Arakawa Kazuhiko were half-experienced, so at this time they were talking about "network speed".

But just because they were half full of water, they really hit the airwaves...
To be continued...