The prize money for the Honor of Kings Women's Series 2026 is a huge insult

As Honor of Kings expands its international esports scene in 2026, Level Infinite has announced some big changes to the Honor of Queens side of things as well. 

Honor of Queens is the women's esports circuit for Honor of Kings. For 2026, it will become the Honor of Kings Women's Series (KWS). 

Honor of Kings Women's Series 2026

The Honor of Kings Women's Series 3 will be taking place alongside the Honor of Kings Invitational 2026 Season 4, creating a year packed with HoK action. There will be a $10,000 prize pool throughout the season, which pales in comparison to the Invitational. 

The Group Stage will begin January 17th, 2026, which is quite soon. It will run to the 30th. During that month, the teams will be split into eight groups of eight, competing in a best-of-one, round-robin format. Every team that gains 1 point in the Group Stage will earn $25 (or $5 a player). 

Again, this seems almost like an insult when you remember that the Honor of Kings Kings Pro League Grand Finals match had over 62,000 fans in attendance, posters and trading cards on each seat, and tons of money on the line. It was almost like the Honor of Kings competitors were celebrities in China. 

Of course, women's esports often doesn't get the same amount of fanfare. However, offering such low prize money will not help boost the scene. Esports organizations won't see the opportunity as lucrative enough to fund and train an all-female team. Just for a chunk of $10K? You can't expect full-time training around the clock for that. Thus, women won't get the same practice and skills as their male counterparts.

Meanwhile, fans don't really want to watch lower level players compete for pennies, which means less viewership, which means less sponsors, which means a cycle of nobody wanting to fund female esports. 

It's a vicious cycle that $25 won't solve. 

Anyway, the top teams from the Group Stage will advance to the Knockout Stage from February 3rd to the 7th. This is also single-elimination, but best-of-three matches. Oh yeah, teams will get $100 for competing at the Quarter Finals... That's about $20 a player (assuming the organization won't take a percentage of the winnings). 

Keep in mind that the KPL Spring 2026 tournament series has over $2.1 million on the line alone and it's just one of many tournaments and circuits. The Kings Invitational Season 3 had over $1 million this year and likely will have more in 2026 as the competition continues alongside the KWS. 

I would never expect the women's circuit to have equal money on the line, but a drop to $10,000 is crazy work. 

The official Honor of Kings announcement has shared that registration is opening January 1st, 2026. Teams can fill out a Google Form if they want to learn more about the circuit format and rules.