Over the past few years, the debate around mobile esports not being real esports has been fizzling out, particularly with the rise of highly competitive games like PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. One other such game is Honor of Kings, a mobile MOBA title, which is set to host the biggest mobile esports event in history, the International Championship (KIC) 2022.
The KIC 2022 will happen from Dec. 3 to 30 with 16 teams competing for a share of the $10 million prize pool. This figure represents the biggest prize pool for a mobile esports event to date. Adding to the stakes, the winner of the competition will single-handedly walk away with $3.5 million.
Unfortunately, due to a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in China, the event isn’t a complete LAN. There are eight Chinese teams in the KIC, who will all be competing from Shenzhen, China. The remaining eight teams from around the world will compete from Seoul, South Korea.
KIC 2022: Biggest Mobile event to date is a Crossover Event
Honor of Kings is a mobile MOBA by Tencent and is one of the most-played video games in the world. A November 2020 report said that the game had 100 million daily average users. At the time, the game was only available in China and this is a huge feat for a single title.
While it was released in 2015 only in China, Tencent later released a global version of the game called Arena of Valor in 2016. This game conserved the core MOBA experience but had different heroes based on Western themes. Unlike the Chinese version, however, this game wasn’t able to become very popular. Its dwindling popularity compelled Tencent to announce earlier this year that it would be releasing Honor of Kings globally.
Thus, the premium competitions for both games – Honor of Kings World Champions Cup and the Arena of Valor International Championship were merged to form the Honor of Kings International Championship 2022.
With the merging of the two games, Tencent was also presented with another problem – how to manage the hero pools for both titles. While the games are similar, some heroes are different or have a difference in abilities. To tackle this, a Global Tournament Version of Honor of Kings has been launched combining elements for both games to ensure an even playing field.
The event will also pivot as a launch for Honor of Kings as the game sets its eyes on global ambition from 2023 onwards. Will it be able to replicate the popularity it has managed to gather in China? It’s extension of the Arena of Valor’s initial 2022 plan, and the merge between the two titles has been coming for awhile now. KIC 2022 is just the latest iteration of this vision.
How to watch the KIC 2022?
Do you want to watch the KIC? Here’s what you need to know about the biggest mobile esports event to date.
Eight teams are competing from China while the other teams are from around the world. The Chinese teams bring with them years of experience at a professional level. The international teams, on the other hand, are new or don’t have that level of exposure. It would be interesting to see how they fare against the Chinese teams.
Honor of Kings betting markets will be enabled for this event.