Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor Shared a Stage for the First Time in Paris and the Game Is Now an Asian Games Medal Event
A three million dollar world cup in July and August merged two player bases onto one patch, with Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Filipino teams in the field.
The Honor of Kings World Cup ran from 30 July to 8 August 2026 in Paris with a three million US dollar prize pool, and it did something the game had never done before: Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor teams competed on the same stage, on a unified patch carrying 111 combined heroes.
The tournament
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Dates | 30 July - 8 August 2026 |
| Venue | Paris, France |
| Prize pool | US$3,000,000 |
| Champion | US$600,000 |
| Finals MVP | US$25,000 bonus |
| Teams | 20 across 12-plus regions |
| Structure | Play-ins (8), groups (16), playoffs (8) |
Why the merge matters here
Arena of Valor is the version most of Southeast Asia has played for years - it is the basis of Thailand's RoV scene, one of the deepest single-title communities in the region. Putting AoV and Honor of Kings teams on one patch collapses a split that had kept Thai and Chinese players in separate competitive universes. Buriram United Esports beat Full Sense 4-2 to win the RoV Pro League Summer in April for six million baht; that scene now has a direct line to a world cup.
The Southeast Asian field
Buriram United Esports (Thailand), ROC Esports (Malaysia), Team Flash (Vietnam), Blacklist International (Philippines) and four Indonesian entries - OG Esports, Team Nemesis, Team Vitality and BOOM Esports - qualified, alongside Deep Cross Gaming of Chinese Taipei.
Next: a medal
Honor of Kings is one of eleven esports medal events at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi and Nagoya, which run 19 September to 4 October. Its qualifier was held in Kuala Lumpur from 13 to 21 June 2026, one of three Southeast Asian cities used - Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City hosted the others.
Following it on Playdash
Playdash prices Honor of Kings with series winner, map handicap, correct series score and total maps, plus per-game markets on first blood, first tower, total kills and game duration. World cup, KIC and Asian Games outrights open as fields are confirmed, and Asian-hosted events run in Southeast Asian afternoon and evening hours with live in-play pricing.
Dates, prize pool, format, qualified teams and Asian Games status as published by tournament and OCA sources. The world cup champion, runner-up and final score could not be confirmed and are not stated here. Correct at the time of writing on 27 August 2026.