E-sports is showing steady growth due to the spread of computers and the release of various games. It has been receiving the greatest attention in the sports field since the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Thanks to its unique feature that there are almost no restrictions on time and space, players can play online at any time and audiences can also enjoy it, it can be seen as a perfect fit for the needs of the untact era.
Thanks to this popularity, the number of people who want to improve their skills through training has increased, and the number of students who dream of becoming professional gamers has also increased significantly. However, most of the professional e-sports education required to grow to the level of a professional gamer or advance to a higher level is provided at offline academies.
In order to become a professional gamer, you need a coach to provide high-quality education and feedback, you must go through a lot of experience, and there are significant requirements such as customized analysis through actual data based on this, so online alone has its limitations. However, e-sports specialized academies are concentrated in the metropolitan area, so educational infrastructure is still lacking.
We met Byun Seong-cheol, CEO of The Match Lab, at the Pangyo Techno Valley Startup Campus and heard about ‘CHECKT’, a performance analysis service for nurturing online professional gamers, and ‘E-Sports Lab’, which fosters e-sports talent.
Q1. About Us
CEO Byun Seong-cheol: The Match Lab was founded in 2016 by co-CEO Won Young-joo, who started as a first-generation professional gamer in 1999 and has experience as a professional gamer coach, international competition planning and operation experience, and over 15 years of content and brand planning experience. After becoming a professional gamer, I became a coach, and while training professional gamers, I felt the need for more professional and efficient coaching, so I started my own business.
Since starting the business, we have developed e-sports education content every year and planned and operated a convergence education space for three years. After the COVID-19 pandemic, we are focusing on developing esports edutech for online gamers, and through this, we are challenging ourselves to become a global first mover that leads the global esports edutech industry.
Q2. Main target group
CEO Byun Seong-cheol: We provide a service for the so-called Bsilgol (Game Rank), which is the bottom 85% of users of League of Legends, the most representative e-sports game in the world. Of the 100 million League of Legends users around the world, 17 million enjoy ranked games. Of these, there are 12 million users using servers in North America, Europe, and Korea, the majority of whom are members of the MZ generation. The Match Lab is developing not only products but also media content to provide services targeting the MZ generation who play ranked games in North America, Europe, and Korea.
Q3. The opportunity to start a business
CEO Byun Seong-cheol: We have recently seen an increase in game training needs, especially among the MZ generation. For the global MZ generation, games are the center of communication and play beyond simple play, and this has naturally established itself as an industry. This naturally led to a demand for education, and although I searched YouTube and communities enjoyed by game users with various needs, it was difficult to find personalized e-sports education. With the mission of ‘a better gaming life for the most ordinary gamer’, The Match Lab began developing data-based edutech that game users around the world can experience anytime, anywhere in mid-2020.
Q4. Differentiation of our services
CEO Byun Seong-cheol: Four of the world’s top 0.01% gamers and professional education planners work together to research game APIs and develop analysis and training services. The E-Sports Academy, which is still in operation, provides training for everyone from unranked users to challengers, allowing the company to retain its own differentiated training know-how and manpower. The Match Lab has direct experience in operating and nurturing gaming teams and also analyzes data needed for overseas first-team gaming teams. This diverse field experience realistically reflects the effectiveness and needs of the algorithms provided by the product, setting it apart in areas that other companies cannot provide.
There are currently three functions: There is a Solo Search function that analyzes one’s own records, and a VS Search function that compares the user’s records with friends or professional gamers. Additionally, since League of Legends is a game played with five people as a team, it is important to work with colleagues. With this in mind, it even provides a multi search function.
Afterwards, we are preparing feedback that will inform users of their weaknesses through various analyzes and suggest customized training.
Q5. Overseas expansion strategy
CEO Byun Seong-cheol: We are aiming to enter North America and Europe, which are leading the e-sports industry. The first game for which data analysis is provided by the company is League of Legends, and the number of ranked users of the game is more than 17 million, including in Korea. In particular, North America is believed to be a relatively good place to enter the market because it is a country with a very developed online infrastructure, with active online communities such as Twitch, Discord, and Reddit where gamers gather to communicate and share play.
Q6. Future Plans
CEO Byun Seong-cheol: 85-90% of the more than 100 million e-sports users around the world are mid- to low-rank users. Since the pandemic, ‘watching games’ has grown rapidly, and the gamer ecosystem, where gaming skills lead to popularity, fame, and profits, is growing strongly. We are currently providing education and content to global gamers, and our goal is to build a gamer platform based on this in the future. By connecting the problems and technologies of global online gamers, I want to leap forward into a high-quality platform where customers can match their values as a player, coach, analyst, or content creator within The Match Lab’s platform.
Q7. Reasons for settling in Pangyo
CEO Byun Seong-cheol: Pangyo is a core region for the gaming industry where 7 of the country’s top 10 gaming companies are located and has succeeded in attracting an e-sports stadium, with plans to open in 2022. This environment facilitates the communication and cooperation necessary to build an esports model that is relatively poorly understood. In addition, our company, which has pivoted to the EduTech field, has the advantage of being able to focus on business advancement as it is in a situation where external resources such as continuous technological insight and cloud servers are inevitable, and the relevant infrastructure can also be quickly integrated.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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