The biggest stage in Honor of Kings is almost ready. The Honor of Kings World Cup 2026, better known as KWC at EWC26, kicks off on July 30 in Paris, and for the first time ever it will not be an Honor of Kings-only party.
Twenty teams, a $3 million prize pool, a dedicated tournament patch and a cross-title twist that brings Arena of Valor squads into the same bracket. Here is everything you need to know before the first draft is locked in.
🏆 KWC Moves to Paris
The tournament runs from July 30 to August 8, 2026 as part of this year’s Esports World Cup, which has relocated from Riyadh to Paris for its 2026 edition. A new city is a fitting backdrop for a competition that keeps pushing further beyond its Asian roots.
The headline change, though, is what happens on the battlefield itself. KWC at EWC26 is a cross-title event: elite teams from both the Honor of Kings and the Arena of Valor competitive scenes will compete under one ruleset, on one client, for one trophy. Both games come from the same developer family, and this is the first time their top leagues meet head-on at a world championship.
🎮 A Tournament Patch with 111 Heroes
To make the cross-title idea work, every match will be played on a special Esports World Cup tournament patch built on Honor of Kings Season 15. The organisers have opened up a pool of 111 heroes for the event.
That number matters. A deep hero pool combined with the competition’s draft rules means teams cannot simply lean on three or four comfort picks all week. Expect wider drafts, surprise counter-picks and a lot of homework for the Arena of Valor teams, who are learning a new client on the biggest stage of all.
⚔️ The 20 Teams Heading to Paris
Every team in the field earned its spot through a regional league or qualifier. The defending champion gets a direct invitation, while the Arena of Valor leagues each send one invited team.
Honor of Kings Leagues
- AG.AL – defending champion
- Kuaishou Gaming – King Pro League (KPL) Spring 2026
- Team Vitality, Team Nemesis, OG Esports – Indonesia Kings Laga (IKL) Spring 2026
- Aurora Gaming, Geekay Esports, ROC Esports – MY Honor of Kings League (MKL) Spring 2026
- BOOM Esports, Titan Esports Club, Blacklist International – Philippine Kings League (PKL) Spring 2026
- MIBR.LOS, Influence Rage – Honor of Kings Brazil Championship (CHOKBR) Fall 2026
- Virtus.pro, Nongshim RedForce – Honor of Kings Major League (KML) Spring 2026
- S8UL Esports, Revenant XSpark – King’s Arise India qualifier
Arena of Valor Invited Teams
- Buriram United Esports – RoV Pro League (RPL) 2026 Summer
- Team Flash – Arena of Glory (AOG) Spring 2026
- Deep Cross Gaming – Garena Challenger Series (GCS) Spring 2026
India, Thailand, Vietnam and the Taiwan region are all represented at the KWC for the first time, which makes this the most geographically diverse edition so far. Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines alone send nine teams, while China sends a single but very dangerous KPL representative alongside the title holder.
📋 Format: Three Stages in Ten Days
The tournament is split into three stages, and every series uses Global Ban&Pick.
Play-in
- 8 teams split into two groups
- Best of 3, double elimination
- The top two of each group advance to the Group Stage
Group Stage
- 16 teams in four groups
- Best of 3, double elimination
- The top two of each group reach the Playoffs
Playoffs
- 8 teams, single elimination
- Best of 7 for every series, with a best-of-5 third-place match
- Global Ban&Pick plus the Ultimate Battle
The Grand Final is set for August 8.
💡 Global Ban&Pick and the Ultimate Battle, Explained
If you mostly play ranked, the draft rules are the part most likely to confuse you when you tune in.
Global Ban&Pick means a team cannot pick a hero it has already played earlier in the same series. Every game you win with a comfort pick removes that hero from your own options for the rest of the series, so the deeper a series goes, the deeper into their hero pools both teams have to dig. In a best-of-7, that is a brutal test of preparation.
The Ultimate Battle is the twist reserved for the playoffs. If a best-of-7 reaches 3-3, the deciding game throws the restrictions away: it is a blind draft where every hero is available again, including ones already used or banned, and both teams can even lock in the same lineup. It is the purest “show me your best” moment the game has, and it is exactly the kind of ending everyone in Paris is hoping for.
🔥 Storylines to Watch
- Can AG.AL defend the crown? The title holders arrive with a target on their backs and a much bigger, more varied field than before.
- How fast can the Arena of Valor teams adapt? Buriram United, Team Flash and Deep Cross Gaming are strong squads in their own leagues, but they are competing on a different client with a different hero pool from the one they play at home.
- Southeast Asia in numbers. Three teams each from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines means at least one of them should go deep into the bracket.
- New regions, new styles. Brazil, India and the KML teams bring playstyles that rarely meet the Asian powerhouses outside of events like this.
📺 Final Thoughts
With a $3 million prize pool, a 111-hero tournament patch and two MOBA communities sharing one stage, KWC at EWC26 already feels like a different kind of world championship. The Play-in opens on July 30, and from there it is ten days of drafts, upsets and, if we are lucky, at least one Ultimate Battle before a champion is crowned in Paris on August 8.
Follow the official Honor of Kings esports page for the full schedule and broadcast details, and pick your team before the first game goes live.