Image: Tencent
The stage is set for the Honor of Kings 2025 pre-season tournament.
The field is now set for the pre-season tournament for the 2025 season of Honor of Kings, Honor of Kings Invitational 2025, with the completion of all its regional qualifiers. The first major Honor of Kings tournament is now ready to be held in Manila, Philippines, on February 21, featuring twelve of the world's best Honor of Kings teams.
As the host country, the Philippines, got three slots in the tournament while powerhouses such as Indonesia and Malaysia got two slots each. Meanwhile, Middle East-North Africa (MENA), Europe, the Americas, and the Japan-Korea (JPKR) region were all allocated one slot apiece. The final slot will then go to the winner of the Wildcard qualifiers, which is filled with prospective teams from the rest of Southeast Asia, Macau, and Hongkong.
Here are the twelve teams that will compete in the Honor of Kings Invitational 2025:
- Blacklist International (Philippines Qualifier)
- Elevate (Philippines Qualifier)
- Rough World Era (Philippines Qualifier)
- Bigetron Sigma (Indonesia Qualifier)
- Kagendra (Indonesia Qualifier)
- Nova Esports (Malaysia Qualifier)
- All Gamers Global (Malaysia Qualifier)
- Impunity (Wildcard Qualifier)
- Alpha7 Esports (Americas Qualifier)
- Team Vitality (Europe Qualifier)
- Gen.G Esports (MENA Qualifier)
- Nongshim Redforce (JPKR Qualifier)
What immediately jumps out from the list of the qualified teams is the blaring absence of both grand finalists of the Honor of Kings Championship 2024, Dominator Esports and Black Shrew Esports. The Honor of Kings Championship 2024 champions were eliminated by AG Global in the lower bracket semifinals of the Malaysian qualifier. Meanwhile, the Indonesian powerhouse lost in the first round of the lower bracket to ONIC Esports.
Blacklist International also continued to prove themselves as the best in the Philippines. Interestingly, the Philippines was the only region with two teams from the Open Qualifier that qualified for the Honor of Kings Invitational 2025.
Nova Esports, arguably the second-best team in Malaysia, qualified from the region alongside All Gamers Global. The latter went through the Open Qualifier and had a rough journey, starting with a loss to Nova Esports and working their way to the grand finals. However, they defeated the reigning champions Black Shrew Esports convincingly before qualifying for the pre-season tournament.
Gen.G Esports acquired a MENA team and successfully represented the region in the Honor of Kings Invitational 2025. However, three of their former players, You "Fey" Min-gyu, Lee "Glow" Jin-young, and Jo "Illusion" Seung-bin, joined Nongshim Redforce and will reunite with their former employer in the pre-season tournament.
The Honor of Kings Invitational 2025 will start on February 21 and will run until March 1 in Manila, Philippines.
