Today, Kohai officially launched as the first Malaysian matchmaking platform in the esports community, connecting esports enthusiasts with experienced players through its mobile app with the aim to bring the nation's esports industry to a greater height.
The app went into public beta testing earlier this year in May and has recorded a user base of 43,000. Currently, it features two mobile esports titles: Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB) and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile, and Kohai promises that there will be more titles in the future.
Kohai was inspired by the Japanese senpai-kohai social relationship system, which means senior and junior. The founders wanted to utilise the mentorship spirit to cultivate the Malaysian esports community. To put the philosophy into practice, Kohai has introduced the "Gamers" and "Partners" terms to refer to the esports enthusiasts and experienced players. "Gamers" refers to players of any level looking to connect and game with seasoned players, while "Partners" refers to professional players or experts with high in-game rank/tier.
Utilising the "play to learn" and "play to earn" models, Kohai will match the Gamers to Partners to train them for a fee. By doing so, Gamers will be able to improve their gaming skills while Partners will be able to earn extra income.
The platform allows Gamers to choose between real-time or scheduled gaming sessions. In a real-time session, Gamers can select the rank or tier that they desire to achieve and they will be paired with a Partner immediately with a fixed rate of RM10 per hour. Whereas in a scheduled session, Gamers can choose from several factors like desired ranking, character requests, match length, and others. The rate will vary according to Gamers' selection. To ensure fair practice, a Partner is given a maximum of 72 hours to complete a Gamer's match or training request.
The process and rates of the real-time and scheduled gaming sessions are as follows:
The platform will randomly pair a Partner to a Gamer to create a fairer and more enjoyable experience.
For community safety and experience, Kohai has developed separate apps for both Gamers and Partners. The Kohai gamer app can be downloaded on Apple App Store and Google Play Store, while the partner app is also available on Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
In conjunction with the launching, Kohai has also announced its collaboration with the professional esports team, Geek Fam. The collaboration will see the Geek Fam players participating as Partners through play and learn with Gamers.
Additionally, Kohai has launched its own esports tournament for MLBB - the Kohai Championships. The tournament started on 4 September and will continue running until 26 September, featuring a total of 64 teams competing for a prize pool of RM11,000.
