Honor of Kings Invitational SEA 2025: Everything You Need to Know
Honor of Kings Goes All-In on SEA
Tencent has announced the Honor of Kings Invitational SEA 2025, a US$300,000 tournament that signals the Chinese gaming giant's aggressive expansion into the Southeast Asian competitive scene. After years of dominating the Chinese mobile gaming market with over 100 million daily active players, Honor of Kings is making its most significant play yet for the hearts and wallets of SEA gamers — a region that has long been the global epicentre of mobile esports.
Tournament Details
- Prize Pool: US$300,000 (first place takes home US$100,000)
- Dates: May 2-18, 2025
- Location: Online group stage, LAN finals in Bangkok, Thailand
- Venue: True Arena Hua Mak, Bangkok
- Teams: 12 invited teams from across Southeast Asia
- Format: Group stage (BO3) into single-elimination playoffs (BO5)
The group stage will run from May 2-11, with teams divided into three groups of four. The top two from each group, plus the two best third-place finishers, advance to the eight-team playoff bracket. The LAN finals take place from May 16-18 at Bangkok's True Arena Hua Mak, a 5,000-seat venue that Tencent has reportedly booked in its entirety for the event.
Invited Teams
The full list of invited teams includes representatives from six SEA nations:
| Team | Region | |------|--------| | Nova Esports | Thailand | | Buriram United Esports | Thailand | | RRQ | Indonesia | | EVOS Legends | Indonesia | | RSG | Philippines | | Blacklist International | Philippines | | Team Flash | Vietnam | | Saigon Phantom | Vietnam | | Todak HoK | Malaysia | | Selangor Red Giants HoK | Malaysia | | Flash Wolves | Singapore | | Impunity | Singapore |
Teams to Watch
Nova Esports enter as the clear favourites. The Thai organisation has been competing in Honor of Kings' Chinese professional league (KPL) since 2023, fielding a mixed roster of Thai and Chinese players who have accumulated invaluable experience against the world's best. Their mid laner, Benz, is widely considered the best HoK player outside of China, and his hero pool spans over fifteen competitively viable picks — a versatility that gives Nova a decisive drafting edge.
RRQ bring the weight of Indonesia's massive mobile gaming fanbase. The organisation has invested heavily in their HoK division over the past year, poaching coaching staff from their successful MLBB operations. Their jungler, Lemon, transitioned from a brief stint in competitive Wild Rift and has quickly adapted his mechanical skills to Honor of Kings' faster-paced combat system.
Blacklist International are the wildcard. The Filipino organisation is synonymous with MLBB dominance, having won two M-Series World Championships, but their HoK roster is relatively new. What they lack in HoK-specific experience, they make up for with an organisational culture built around winning and the coaching infrastructure to develop raw talent quickly. Their support player, Wise, has spoken openly about treating this tournament as a proving ground: "We want to show that Blacklist can compete at the highest level in any mobile MOBA, not just MLBB."
The MLBB Factor
The elephant in the room is Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which dominates the mobile MOBA scene in Southeast Asia with an estimated 75 million monthly active players across the region. Many of the invited teams, including TODAK and Selangor Red Giants, are better known for their MLBB rosters. Whether HoK can carve out its own niche alongside MLBB remains the biggest question surrounding this event.
The rivalry between the two titles is not just a matter of player preference — it is a battle for organisational investment and esports infrastructure. Teams in Southeast Asia operate on thin margins, and maintaining competitive rosters in multiple mobile MOBAs is financially challenging. If the HoK Invitational delivers strong viewership numbers and fan engagement, it could convince organisations to commit more resources to their HoK divisions. If it falls flat, teams may quietly wind down their HoK operations and refocus entirely on MLBB.
Industry analysts point to Indonesia and the Philippines as the key battlegrounds, where MLBB's player base is most entrenched. Thailand and Vietnam, where HoK already has a stronger foothold, are expected to provide a more receptive audience from day one.
Tencent's Long Game
Sources close to Tencent's esports division suggest this invitational is the first step in a three-year plan to establish a full professional Honor of Kings league in Southeast Asia, modelled after the KPL in China. The US$300,000 prize pool, while modest by Dota 2 or League of Legends standards, represents a significant investment for a regional mobile esports event and is designed to attract serious competitive attention.
Tencent is also reportedly subsidising team travel and accommodation costs for the Bangkok LAN finals, signalling a willingness to invest beyond prize money to build the ecosystem.
Broadcast Details
The tournament will be broadcast in English, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Filipino on the official Honor of Kings esports channels across YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok Live. Production will be handled by PGL, the same company behind several Dota 2 and CS2 Major events, suggesting Tencent is serious about delivering a broadcast quality that matches or exceeds what SEA fans are accustomed to from MPL.
egg.network will provide English-language coverage and analysis throughout the event, including daily recaps, post-match interviews, and a weekly power rankings update.
What Success Looks Like
For Tencent, success is not measured solely in peak viewership numbers. The real metric is whether this tournament sparks sustained competitive interest — whether players who tune in for the invitational are still playing and watching Honor of Kings three months later. If the event can average 100,000 concurrent viewers across all language streams and generate meaningful social media engagement in Indonesia and the Philippines, expect the full professional league announcement to follow before the end of 2025. The mobile MOBA war in Southeast Asia is far from over, and this invitational is Tencent's opening salvo.