Currently, the Asia Games 2022 are taking place in Hangzhou, and for the first time, gaming is also on the agenda: The first competition in E-sports has taken place, and China won the tournament in ‘Honor of Kings’ (Mobile) . The game, a sort of Mobile League of Legends with superheroes, is huge in Asia but has not been able to establish itself in the West as ‘Arena of Valor’.
What kind of tournament is this?
- The ‘Asia Games’ take place every 4 years. The Asia Games 2022 were postponed to 2023 due to Covid and are currently running in Hangzhou, China.
- In addition to traditional sports, Asian competitors also hold competitions in mind sports like chess or Go. E-sports are participating for the first time in 2023.
- The Chinese have now won the first E-sport gold in the history of the
Asia Games
in the game ‘Honor of Kings’.
Honor of Kings was released in Europe in August 2017 under the name Arena of Valor
:
Honor of Kings is a LoL clone that is huge in China
What kind of game is this? The Chinese gaming giant Tencent acquired the studio Riot Games in 2011 and, according to reports, asked the LoL team to develop a ‘Mobile LoL’ for the market in China, because although League of Legends is popular there, the Chinese prefer to play on mobile devices rather than PCs.
However, Riot Games refused, stating that LoL would not work on mobile devices. The Chinese then built a pretty audacious LoL clone for mobile devices, called ‘Heroes of Kings’, and distributed it through their super app WeChat.
In the years that followed, ‘Honor of Kings’ became a massive game in China, played by millions of people, including 163 million women.
Why don’t we know this? Tencent’s attempt to introduce the game to the West as ‘Arena of Valor’ in 2017 failed. In 2017, we even published a tier list for the game on MeinMMO and saw some quirky heroes like Batman.
By now, there is also an official mobile version of LoL. It seems to be possible to bring LoL to mobile devices after all.
So, the grandson faces off against the grandfather
Thus, China won: China, as the home country of ‘Honor of Kings’, clearly defeated Malaysia 2-0 in the tournament. Thailand came in third.
The final was played in an E-sport center for 4,500 spectators in Hangzhou.
The coach of Malaysia said after the defeat that China is a giant in this game. Competing against them feels like the grandson challenging his grandfather. They are disappointed that they couldn’t give Malaysia its first gold but gave their best.
League of Legends is also played at the Asia Games. For South Korean professionals like Faker, it’s not just about gold and glory, but also about dodging military service:
BTS fans find it totally unfair that LoL stars like Faker are treated better than their favorites
