Considerate talk丨Playing wild ball earns more than playing professionally? The impact of the Wild Ball Emperor turmoil is more serious than you think

Lai Yiye and other 9 Internet celebrity players openly turned against the owner Yeqiu Di (MCN institution). This is not only a workplace dispute between workers and companies, but also a people's impetuosity caused by the Internet celebrity economy in the field of sports. In the process of confrontation between the two sides, people obtained amazing insider information: the total pre-tax income of the 9 teachers was 20.4715 million, and the largest Wang Xiang's pre-tax income in the past three years exceeded 4.8 million, and his annual salary level has exceeded the CBA champion. Many people are asking: Playing wild ball more than playing professionally? More people are lamenting: when there is such a phenomenon of value inversion in the ecology, the loss of sports talents is an inevitable result.

Written by丨Lord Big Mouth

Editor丨 Feng Xiao

On the evening of September 13, Wild Ball Emperor issued a statement on social media, detailing the dispute with several masters over the distribution of benefits, and re-determining the ins and outs of the cooperative relationship, and also posted the masters' salaries and other certificates to prove their innocence to settle the dispute, and this is the second relevant statement issued by Wild Ball Emperor recently.

In his official statement, Wild Ball attached the income details of several controversial players.

As soon as the statement came out, public opinion turned. Previously, because of the "Li Jiaqi eyebrow pen incident", the various advantages and disadvantages brought by the Internet celebrity economy have been pushed to the forefront, and now the "9 masters vs. wild ball emperor" incident directly brings such controversy into the world of sports.

In fact, at the beginning of Lai Yiye and other 9 Internet celebrity players speaking out on social media, people did not know about "Internet celebrity players" or "wild golfers" in the sports field. Even the group of young basketball enthusiasts who follow them are not familiar with the ins and outs of the "Wild Ball Emperor".

The masters of the Wild Ball Emperor.

In fact, Yeqiu Emperor started in the form of a public account since its inception in 2014, and the founder said that it was "generating electricity for love." "But at that time, the Wild Ball Emperor account was not too famous.

Until the sudden rise of short videos, the wild ball emperor who seized the opportunity continued to be love-oriented, coupled with a unique perspective, its video content was recognized by basketball fans, and the team's on-camera master gradually had fans, Lao Ma, Li Zhijin, Lai Yiye and others joined the team one after another, immediately making the wild ball emperor famous in the fan circle, and the master personally became an Internet celebrity, they all have personal accounts and a lot of fans, which has the basic premise of monetization, laying the groundwork for today's "9 masters vs. wild ball emperor".

Wild Ball Emperor cooperates with the famous UP main film and television hurricane to produce cross-border video content.

According to statistics, the wild ball emperor who has transformed into a sports talent incubation + content production and operation has signed more than 30 people, they spread basketball and spread their influence in a down-to-earth manner, NBA stars China travel to Xi'an and wild ball emperor single out almost become a standard program, grassroots and the world's top stars collide, on the Internet set off a wave of topics more than a wave. Even Xi'an has become a popular city, which is partly due to the Wild Ball Emperor.

However, it is easy to share hardships and prosperity.

As the Wild Ball Emperor gradually became large, entanglements of interests also began to appear: some core members canceled the original logo of the Wild Ball Emperor MCN on their short video accounts, which led to speculation about whether these experts had left the Wild Ball Emperor.

One of them revealed that even whether to do hygiene or not must be included in the performance appraisal category by the company, and there is no freedom to feel happy only after work. The public statement of Lai Yiye, a core member of the Wild Ball Emperor, completely made the contradiction public, claiming that he only received a base salary of 54.19 yuan during March and April 2023. With sensitive words such as "no freedom" and "0 basic salary" that tug at the heartstrings of every worker, public opinion is in an uproar, and the wild ball emperor is caught in a vortex of controversy.

Lai Yiye, a member of the Wild Ball Emperor who is now caught in controversy.

As a last resort, Wild Ball Emperor issued the first statement, saying that these experts have not left the company, and their contracts have not expired, but they have changed the way they cooperate according to the new benefit distribution plan proposed by the experts.

But under the pressure of negative public opinion, the loss of the wild ball emperor has already occurred.

Data shows that in just three days from September 4 to 6, the main account of the wild ball emperor lost 558,000 fans! Inside the company, people's hearts are fluctuating, some people have applied for resignation, and more people are holding a wait-and-see attitude.

Therefore, in order to prove his innocence, the official Yeqiu Emperor issued a second statement on the evening of the 13th, responding to sensitive issues such as "0 base salary" and "no freedom". According to the data provided by Yeqiu Di, in the past three years, Yeqiu Di has paid 9 masters a total of 20.4715 million yuan in pre-tax income, including 295,000 position replenishments paid in August (due to factors such as internal contracts and settlement changes during the period), and attached a detailed table.

"Over the past three years, the overall trend of 9 masters has shown a steady increase in income to foreign business cooperation quotations. Before joining the Wild Ball Emperor, the nine masters were professionals who had just entered the society or were about to graduate. The statement reads. As for Lai Yiye's claim that he only received a basic salary of 54.19 yuan in two months, Yeqiu Emperor retrieved financial records - the company paid Lai Yiye a total of 114,822.02 yuan in pre-tax income in two months, and made a detailed list. Wang Xiang, who has the largest income, has a pre-tax income of more than 4.8 million yuan in the past three years.

As a result, public opinion reversed and began to tilt towards the side of the wild ball emperor.

In fact, if you put aside the definite words in the field of basketball and sports, "9 masters vs. wild ball emperor" is the chaos of Internet celebrities and MCN companies that incubate Internet celebrities.

And such incidents, when we have witnessed the drama of Li Ziqi's hand tearing up the subtle thoughts, we will probably soon find commonality. When the personal influence of Internet celebrities rises, they are eager to re-share the cake with the company's profit distribution method. And making contradictions public is also the "traditional artistic ability" used by Internet celebrities for Damu.

Li Ziqi

Of course, when things develop in the end, there is a high probability that both sides will lose. The "9 Masters vs. Wild Ball Emperor" incident is also not unavoidable to walk on this road, which is not new. What is really more surprising is that through this incident, we have seen that the income level of Internet celebrity players has exceeded that of professional CBA players.

Judging from the income of the masters posted by the wild ball emperor, the income of the top stream in a year exceeds 2 million yuan, like Wang Xiang's income from January to July this year has exceeded 1 million, and it is not a big problem to exceed 2 million at the end of the year. What level is this? You know, in 2023, CBA champion Chen Guohao chooses to sign a team with an A2 contract for 2 years, and his annual salary is only 500,000.

CBA champion Chen Guohao represented the Chinese team at the Universiade.

Two years ago, sponsors complained to CBA officials that some players wore competing shoes and clothing, and after hearing that they were going to be punished, some players complained, saying that they couldn't earn so much money in a year, and if they were punished, the year would be for nothing. It can be seen that many CBA players really do not earn as much money as grassroots experts.

In terms of age group, Chen Guohao's age is similar to that of the masters, and in terms of professionalism, the CBA champion's ball skills are professional level, far beyond the masters. But the income is far less than that of "Internet celebrity players". Here, it's not that it's wrong to make money. The masters of the Wild Ball Emperor are also working hard to make a living by virtue of their ability and sweat. This is no different from professional athletes.

However, you also have to admit that Chen Guohao's income is not as good as Wang Xiang's, and there is a phenomenon of value inversion. And this phenomenon, in the field of basketball, is not an exception.

Su Qun, a well-known basketball commentator, once revealed that former Guangdong player Meng Duo became an Internet celebrity after retiring, even earning more money than Zhu Fangyu, the general manager of Guangdong men's basketball team. So after seeing the pay slips of the talents, someone joked: "It seems that CBA players still really love basketball and do not become Internet celebrities because they do not earn more from grassroots." ”

Of course, ridicule is ridicule, but the speaker has no intention, and the listener has intention. After the outbreak of this incident, the voice and emotions of "playing wild ball so much to earn money, who will play professional" pervaded the major platforms. And in the face of this, everyone will vote with their feet. Let me ask, why do people with a little ball skills train hard? Do you have to risk injury and scolding to hone your skills? To be an Internet celebrity, is it not fragrant to make money by shooting a short video with personality?

In fact, this sentiment is already infinitely close to reality. Open the short video platform, if you are a basketball lover, you can easily brush up on the videos of many Internet celebrity players. Among them, although there are parents for the purpose of recording their children's growth, there are also some people who deliberately cut videos and only upload them that are well played, in order to attract fans and monetize with traffic.

It is conceivable that in such an impetuous environment, in the near future, there will be more and more Internet celebrity players, and there will be fewer and fewer players who can really stand out from it. Not long ago, the Chinese men's basketball team lost to Manila and missed the Olympics again. In the discussion of the reasons for the defeat of the men's basketball team, the lack of fighting spirit and lack of initiative of the players is the focus of criticism by many people. And this problem is actually not unrelated to the problems caused by the entry of the Internet celebrity economy into the sports field that we are currently seeing. Allen Guo has become a regular guest of variety shows, and Zhou Qi has also been on the spit conference. Off-field flowers are always much more fragrant than boring day-to-day training.

Although nowadays, monetization by traffic has become a consensus, such money is easy to earn. But at the same time, it can easily breed new problems. Today's "9 Masters vs. Wild Ball Emperor" is a situation, and the "Li Jiaqi eyebrow pencil incident" that appeared some time ago is also a kind.

At that time, a female fan complained that the eyebrow pencil was too expensive, and after being seen by Li Jiaqi in the live broadcast room, he not only defended the price of the eyebrow pencil, but also asked fans to reflect on whether they "worked hard and whether their wages rose or not", which then triggered public opinion condemnation, and even the official media criticized them.

From Weiya before to Li Jiaqi now, it has proved that the Internet celebrity economy is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, Internet celebrities use traffic to make money, there are many companies under their names, and they make a lot of money, on the other hand, once the head Internet celebrity "rolls over" for various reasons, it will inevitably bring great negative impact to the company.

And because of the peculiarities of sports, when this new thing is in this field, the problems caused are more complicated. You know, behind "why do you want to play professionally by playing wild ball" is the innate inertia of human beings. But since its birth, sport has actually been a social activity that encourages people to overcome their natural weaknesses. So, what the influencer economy brings to sports is essentially a challenge of values: does it encourage inertia, or does it encourage progress?

This is a question worth pondering for all of us.