Images: Tencent Games
Honor of Kings esports has begun its global push with the announcement of regional leagues spread around the world.
The Honor of Kings esports ecosystem is set to grow bigger as developer Tencent Games has announced the founding of seven regional leagues all across the world. These regional leagues include the Malaysia Kings League (MKL); the Indonesia Kings Laga (IKL); the Philippines Kings League (PKL); the Kings Major East (KME) for Japan, South Korea, MENA, and South Asia; the Kings Major West (KMW) for the Americas, CIS, Europe, and Türkiye; the Brazil Championship (CHOKBR), and the Wildcard Kings Series (WKS) for Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Timor Leste, Brunei, Hong Kong-China, Macau-China.
The regional leagues will be a gateway to the global Honor of Kings esports tournaments, the Kings World Championship in the Esports World Cup, and The Honor of Kings International Championship. The leagues will be held twice each year, with the first hosted in April and the second in August.
Every regional league will feature eight to ten teams, with some teams already announced to participate.
The MKL announced Team Secret, Nova Esports, Black Shrew Esports, and Todak with four empty slots. The IKL will have eight teams confirmed with two empty slots while the PKL will have three empty slots with five teams already confirmed.
However, KMW and KME featured some of the more interesting additions to the Honor of Kings ecosystem. European organisation OG, most known for their Dota 2 team, and iconic Russian organisation Virtus.pro have been confirmed to join the KMW alongside Next Ruya and 9z Team. Meanwhile, Crazy Racoon and R8 Esports will join Gen.G and Nongshim Redforce in KME. Both the KMW and the KME will feature eight teams.
Aside from the announcement of the regional leagues, Tencent also revealed that the Kings World Cup in the Esports World Cup will feature 18 of the best teams in the world: three teams each from the MKL, PKL, IKL; two from CHOKBR; and one each from the KME, KMW, WKS, the Major last call, MENA Qualifier, Asian Champions League, and KPL Spring.
The new regional tournaments will be a game changer for how qualification to the biggest international tournaments works in the Honor of Kings esports ecosystem. With many big names joining the league, the future of King's Gorge is looking bright.
