The Esports World Cup Foundation announced Sunday that it has added Tencent’s popular mobile MOBA Honor of Kings as an official title of the inaugural nations vs. nation competition, the Esports Nations Cup, set to take place in November in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Honor of Kings joins other previously announced titles Dota 2, Chess, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves, and Trackmania. Also announced on Sunday as an official competitive title is Valve’s popular team-based tactical shooter, Counter-Strike 2 (see more on that in this story).
The Honor of Kings tournament at ENC will begin on Nov. 24, 2026, and will conclude with the playoff final on Nov. 29.
A total of 24 national teams will compete in the Honor of Kings tournament. The first stage will feature 24 teams competing in a round-robin group stage, featuring four groups of six teams. The top four teams from each group will then advance to the next stage. The second stage consists of a 16-team single-elimination playoff stage.
The top 12 teams will be directly invited based on the ENC National Team Ranking, with nine teams able to qualify through ENC regional qualifiers and three teams finding a path from wildcard slots.
ENC will determine its direct invites through the ENC National Team Ranking for Honor of Kings, which takes into account official HoK events. The national ranking will calculate the points of the top five players on submitted national rosters, with an official cut-off date for the Honor of Kings National Team Ranking of June 7.
The Honor of Kings regional qualifiers will take place from July 3 – 5, 2026. Qualifiers will be double-elimination brackets, hosted in each of the following regions:
- North America + North Latin America (1 slot)
- South Latin America (1)
- Western Europe (1)
- Eastern Europe + Central Asia (1)
- Middle East (1)
- North Africa (1)
- Southeast Asia + Oceania (1)
- East Asia (1)
- South Asia (1)
The Esports Nations Cup is set to take place Nov. 2 -29, in Riyadh Saudi Arabia. The competition is being produced by the EWCF, which is funded through a so-called “sports grant” by the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Projects backed by the Saudi government are often accused of being used for “sports washing,” or as a cover for the government to gloss over its record on human rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, its mistreatment (and executions of) journalists, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms have been highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.