Meet Kabir Kohli - The 15 year old CEO of Medal Esports

Kabir Kohli, the founder and CEO of Medal Esports is defying the limits of his age. At the age of 13, he founded an Indian esports organisation, which has competed for titles in games such as Fortnite, BGMI, and VALORANT, and is now looking to make a name for itself in CS:GO.

A brief interview with Dust2 India gives an overview of his journey so far, as well as his goals for Skyesports Masters.

Starting off, how did you develop an interest in Esports and what drew you to CSGO specifically?

In 2017 I got my first ever game console and I’ve been playing fps games for most my life since then. My brother-in-law (jiju) was the one who introduced me to Counter-Strike as he used to play 1.6 during his college days. That’s where I got introduced to CS and watching C9 win the major in 2018 sparked my interest in esports even more.

After you realized that you needed to establish an org in esports, what initial steps did you take to build it from the grounds up?

The first key thing to building it from the ground up was the support of my mom, who helped me get it registered as a company and gave me funding to start it. Second thing was finding management that I could trust and would align with my vision for the team but to look back on it I could’ve made better decisions for my management and should’ve been more hands on with the team.

When Skyesports Masters announced the Masters League, when and how did you realise that you needed to participate in this event. How did you decide on the roster?

Even before Sky had announced any plans for the league we were already looking for a CS roster to compete at the top level in India and when Skyesports announced their leagues it felt like the perfect time to enter the CS scene as I was really impressed by their plans for their plans for this league. As for the roster It definitely wasn’t an easy task as we had a lot of players to choose from. But eventually we decided on this roster as we had past experience with some of the players and believe this could truly be a winning roster.

You being introduced as a 15 year old in the chat of 8 orgs was truly surprising. But are such reactions something you have grown accustomed to? How has the response generally been from the peers in the Industry?

I definitely have gotten accustomed to most of the reactions from people when they find out I’m 15 but sometimes the really shocker is when they have a very casual unsurprised response. The response from my peers in this industry generally turns out to be advice about running a team and it really tends to help out and I feel great full to get that advice, making being a younger team owner just a little bit easier.

Being a CEO of an organisation like Medal Esports, how challenging does it get in balancing your personal life and work life?

My personal life isn’t a lot honestly. I’ve devoted most my time to this work life and honestly has made me a workaholic. Even if I’m out with friends or family I’m constantly thinking about the org and how I can improve myself as a CEO. Most the time I really enjoy having to work on something I’ve always been keen about for half my life even if it does get stressful sometimes.

Have there been any other challenges you have faced?

As I mentioned before I hadn’t made the best of decisions with the management I had originally picked out. An ex member of our management really messed up our brand image and really set us back a lot in terms of our progress. A lot of if was my fault for being more careful and hands on but it is what it is and life moves on.

How has your family supported you throughout your journey as a CEO?

My parents and my sister have been the backbone for me in all my journey thus far and I really appreciate for having a family with an open mind about my career and letting me do what I do without it creating a barrier between me and them. My goal is to repay them for everything they’ve done for me in this life and knowing that the more successful I get I’m closer to that goal is really my biggest motivation currently.

What are your goals for Skyesports Masters?

The only 2 goals for Skyesports masters is to win and fun. I truly believe in this roster and know they have the potential to make it to #1

What would be your advice to youngsters who are looking to enter the Esports Industry?

My advice would definitely be to surround yourselves with people you can trust and know what they’re talking about. Research about every big decision you make for yourself and remember to be who you want and how you want as long as it isn’t affecting other in a negative way. You make your own destiny.