KUALA LUMPUR: Kohai, a platform for e-sports enthusiasts, has launched a matchmaking platform to unite the community on its mobile app.
With the new platform, all gaming enthusiasts will get the opportunity to connect with players, get matched, hone their skills. This will elevate the e-sports players to a more competitive level.
The platform currently features two mobile e-sports titles which are Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB) and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile, with more to come.
IWG e-sports' founder and Kohai's co-founder, Edward Chong, said e-e-sports have always represented the pinnacle of competition within the gaming space.
"We are glad to witness Malaysians actively embrace and participate in this global phenomenon. This is made possible with great support from both public and private sectors, driving the nation's e-sports ecosystem in the right direction," he said.
Meanwhile, Kohai's co-founder and business development director, Chan Yik Soon said although Malaysia has been producing some great talents, e-sports and gaming, in general, are still perceived as negative by many.
"We want to change that. As a company built on the belief that eSports should be inclusive, exciting, and empowering, Kohai is here to elevate the experiences and standards of e-sports players and industry through our platform. We look forward to how we can disrupt eSports in Malaysia for the better," said Soon.
The concept
Kohai draws its inspiration from the Japanese social relation system, senpai-kohai, which means "seniorjunior", which amps up the spirit of mentorship especially in Malaysia's e-sports community.
This allows partners to earn as they play and gamers to interact with more skilled players, which redefines their co-op experience for e-sports.
Kohai categorises gamers and partners in several definitions
For instance, gamers refers to players of any level who are seeking to connect and game with seasoned players partners while players are experts with high in-game rank/tier.
Kohai utilises pay-to-learn and play-to-earn models for gamers and partners. This ensures gamers to be matched with partners to game or train for a fee and for partners to earn a side income when coaching gamers and empowering players to elevate their gaming experience to the next level.
Increasing experience
Kohai has also introduced several measures which allow gamers to opt for either real-time or scheduled gaming sessions.
For the real-time sessions, gamers can select their desired rank/tier to achieve and get paired with a partner to train at a fixed rate of RM10 per hour.
Meanwhile, for the scheduled session, gamers get to freely pre-schedule and game or train at a future date and time with his or her Partner.
The rates vary depending on the desired ranking, character requests, match length, and others with a maximum of 72 hours of Gamer's match or training request completion.
Moreover, for the real-time gaming session, gamers will need to select the game and desired to rank, then they will be matchmade with a partner and once they have been matched, both gamer and partner will be placed in a chatroom signalling the commencement of the game.
Upon the game completion, the gamers will need to make the payment.
Also, for the scheduled gaming session, once the gamers have selected the game, their desired ranking, other details such as (roles, hero selection, time, etc) and schedule details, they will need to make payments to be assigned with a partner based on the details provided.
Once they are matched, both gamer and partner will enter the room at the scheduled time.
In addition, real-time gaming session's fixed rate is RM10 per hour (inclusive of SST) while the scheduled gaming sessions vary.
For MLBB's scheduled gaming session, the price for the Grand and Master to Epic is at RM52.60, for Epic to Legend is RM68 and for Legend to Mythic is RM84, all of them are inclusive of SST.
Meanwhile, for PUBG's scheduled gaming session, the price for Bronze to Silver is RM18, Silver to Gold at RM34 and Gold to Platinum at RM40, inclusive of SST.
Partners will get to earn while playing or training, with 80 per cent of total fees will be paid to the Partner via direct bank transfer by Kohai.
Meanwhile, Gamers will get to be randomly matched with Partners via its matchmaking algorithm and experience more exposure to different play styles, skills, or Partners and establish equal opportunities for other Partners.
User friendly
For user safety, Kohai has developed separate mobile applications for gamers and partners.
The Kohai Gamer app, which is available on Apple App Store and Google Play Store, is for gamers, and the Kohai Partner app is dedicated to partners.
Future plan
Kohai is also announced its partnership with the professional e-sports team, Geek Fam.
The collaboration allows gamers to play with, learn and train with the Geek Fam players on MLBB and PUBG Mobile through arbitrary matchmaking.
Not to mention, Kohai also organised an e-sports tournament, the Kohai Championships for MLBB that started on Sept 4, 2021, until Sept 26, 2021.
It features 64 teams vying for an RM11,000 prize.