Honor of Kings is planning an epic coming together of two games for 2026 Esports World Cup

If you haven’t noticed, World Cup fever is gripping the world. No, I am not talking about the football; I am talking about the upcoming 2026 Esports World Cup. Honor of Kings will be holding its World Cup starting July 30th, bringing together elite teams from both this and Arena of Valor. 

To achieve this new format, the tournament will be played on a custom-made World Cup patch. Teams will have 11 heroes to pick from for even more tactical depth than before. Who do you play and who do you ban? The options are limitless. Or, you know, 11, but still.

Despite this expanded format and team quality, Honor of Kings is not resting on its laurels. Teams from India, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan are joining for the first time, expanding the reach Honor of Kings has around the world. They won’t stop until we are all in their thrall. Which I am ok with, since they have a prize pool of $3 million up for grabs.

Fighting to take their slice of the pie, we have a pantheon of fantastic teams. Title Defenders AG.AL, of course, will be trying to earn that repeat.  But standing in their way will be giants from the Philippine Kings League Spring 2026, like BOOM Esports, or Team Nemesis from Indonesia Kings Laga Spring 2026. 

The KWC will kick off July 30th with the Play-in. This will be a Best-of-3, double elimination between two groups of eight, with the top two per group qualifying for the Group Stage. There will also be a BO3, double elimination between 16 teams in four groups. The top two per group will march onwards to the Playoffs in a mammoth best-of-7 in single elimination, with a 3rd place best-of-5 match.

Honor of Kings is available to download from the App Store and Google Play. For more Tournament fun, Summoners War closed the application to its 2026 World Championship recently, so the fun will kick off there soon.