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Kevin Chou has joined the board at Critical Force, the company that developers the mobile first-person shooter Critical Force.
It’s a coup for the developers. Chou is the founder and CEO of the Korean Silicon Valley Esports (KSV) organisation. Don’t know them? You soon will as KSV has acquired the franchising rights for the Overwatch League’s Seoul team, pulling in the roster for the successful Lunatic Hai team.
KSV is an esports outfit on the rise, with the company’s Heroes of the Storm roster recently clinched success in the World Championship that took place at BlizzCon 2017, winning $500k. They also have the best PUBG team in the Korean / Japanese servers, according to the leaderboards.
Chou himself is well known in the games industry too, building Kabam from a small games operation above a dim sum restaurant to a worldwide juggernaut before Chou cashed out this year. Chou was also named as one of the top 40 under 40 industry players by Fortune magazine in 2014.
"I’m passionate about esports, and Critical Force represents the leader in creating the first possible mobile FPS esports," said Kevin Chou in a press release. “I expect to work with a global team of people passionate about making great games and taking the right long term steps to bring competitive FPS experiences to gamers worldwide".
“We are very pleased to have Kevin to join our board, and we look forward to his contributions,” added Veli-Pekka Piirainen, CEO and Founder at Critical Force. “Kevin is a real veteran and a leader in the game industry worldwide. He led Kabam from founding to a billion dollar company and his experience as an entrepreneur, business leader and now as a founder and CEO of KSV Esports will be invaluable to Critical Force.”
The news comes at a convenient time as Critical Force has now been downloaded over 30 million times, before the game has even been released.
“Critical Force’s mobile esports scene has grown exponentially this year. There’s been a new Critical Ops tournament every week and even bigger events are in the plans. Getting the legendary Kevin Chou to join our board was just the first step. We will be taking even more major steps soon to grow the scene to the next level,” said Piirainen.
