Honor of Kings International Championship 2025 preview

The Honor of Kings International Championship 2025, also known as KIC 2025 or Honor of Kings World, is the world championship for the Honor of Kings season. It’s one of the biggest events that the esport has to offer, where the best Honor of Kings players from around the world will compete for a mighty prize pool.

These teams will travel to the Philippines, competing in Makati City (Shooting Gallery Studios) and Parañaque (Ayala Malls Manila Bay), for the offline LAN tournament. All participants at the Honor of Kings: World will be using the TECNO POVA 7 Ultra 5G as the event’s official device.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Honor of Kings International Championship 2025, including its schedule, participating teams, prize pool, and how to watch the event. 

When is the Honor of Kings International Championship 2025?

The KIC Honor of Kings 2025 will begin on November 14, with the group stage, which will continue until November 18. The knockout stages begin on November 20 and end with its grand final on November 30.

While the biggest event of the calendar, the Honor of Kings Championship 2025 is not the last event of the year, with the top three automatically qualifying for the Challenger Cup in December.

As part of the event, in-game assassin hero, Jing, will receive a commemorative skin. The final MVP of the tournament will also be rewarded with a dedicated themed in-game skin after the event’s conclusion.

KIC 2025: Teams and qualification

While the Honor of Kings KIC 2025 will consist of the 16 best international teams, the top Chinese teams (from the KPL) will not be part of the event. They have their own grand event, called the KPL Grand Finals. In total, 14 of the KIC teams qualify through their leagues’ Fall period (or Spring in the Brazilian league’s case), with each having a different number of slots. 

The remaining two teams go through special qualification. One route is Last Call qualification, where the runners-up of the Major West League, Major East League, and Wild Card Kings Series compete for the spot. The other route is Phoenix Reborn, where the top two teams that have gathered the most in-game votes among teams that didn’t qualify on merit fight for the final spot.

Here are the teams and how they qualified for the Honor of Kings International Championship 2025:

Team	Region	Qualification Route
HomeBois BSE	Malaysia	MY Honor of Kings League (MKL)
Nova Esports	Malaysia/China	MY Honor of Kings League (MKL)
Alpha Gaming	Malaysia/China	MY Honor of Kings League (MKL)
Blacklist International	Philippines	Philippines Kings League (PKL)
BOOM Esports	Philippines/Indonesia	Philippines Kings League (PKL)
Elevate	Philippines/USA	Philippines Kings League (PKL)
A.C.T Esports Club	Philippines/Thailand	Philippines Kings League (PKL)
Bigetron by Vitality	Indonesia/France	Indonesia Kings Laga (IKL)
Kagendra	Indonesia	Indonesia Kings Laga (IKL)
Vesakha Esports	Indonesia	Indonesia Kings Laga (IKL)
Loops	Brazil	Honor of Kings Brazil Championship (CHOKBR)
Alpha7 Esports	Brazil	Honor of Kings Brazil Championship (CHOKBR)
Nongshim RedForce	South Korea	Honor of Kings Major East League (KME)
OG	Europe/Italy	Honor of Kings Major West League (KMW)
Twisted Minds	Italy/Saudi Arabia	Last Call
Rex Regum Qeon	Indonesia	Phoenix Reborn

KIC 2025: How to watch the event

Those who are unable to make it to the Philippines to watch the Honor of Kings Championship 2025 in person can follow the event on multiple platforms:

• Twitch: Streamed on the HoK Esports Twitch channel.
• YouTube: Broadcast on the HoK Esports channel.
• TikTok: Streamed on the HoK Esports TikTok account.

KIC 2025: Tournament structure

The Honor of Kings Championship schedule begins with its group stage. There are four groups, A, B, C, and D. Curiously, none of the teams in these groups are seeded, with each of the teams playing through a round-robin with Bo3 matches. The top two teams from each group will embark on the knockout stage.

Unlike the group stage, the knockout stage will have seedings. The teams that top the groups will be seeded to face the runners-up of those groups, making up the quarter-finals. The knockout stage will be a double-elimination bracket where players go through Bo7 matches. This will eventually lead to the Grand Finals on November 30 to close out the tournament.

KIC 2025: Prize pool

Teams will be competing for a total prize pool of $1 million, a mighty sum in the world of esports, although it isn’t the largest amount an Honor of Kings tournament hands out. The record-breaking KPL Grand Finals had a prize pool of ¥70,000,000, roughly equating to $9.8 million.

Still, those at the KCL have plenty to fight for, with the Honor of Kings Championship prize pool distributed as so:

• 1st: $300,000
• 2nd: $150,000
• 3rd: $110,000
• 4th: $80,000
• 5th – 6th: $60,000
• 7th – 8th: $40,000
• 9th – 12th: $25,000
• 13th – 16th: $15,000

Conclusion

With the overwhelming and recent success of the KPL Grand Finals, the Honor of Kings International Championship 2025 promises to be a massive event for one of the fastest-rising esports in the world. With the announcement of the 2026 roadmap, it seems there will be plenty more to see from Honor of Kings next season. 

Mobile games are becoming giants in the esports scene, especially in Southeast Asia, and the Honor of Kings International Championship will likely prove this by building on the game’s recent competitive success. With a $1 million prize pool, it’s already one of the biggest events in esports, and promises to be one of the most exciting events, too.

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