King Pro League
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Chinese Honor of Kings EventsKing Pro League
Series Information
Organizers:
Location:
ChinaCumulative Prize Pool:
$57,213,566 USD
Liquipedia Tier:
Links
Overview
[edit]The King Pro League (Chinese: 王者荣耀职业联赛, Traditional Chinese: 王者榮耀職業聯賽, commonly abbrivated as KPL) is the highest Honor of Kings league in China, run by Tencent Games. The tournament was launched in 2016 after Kings Champion Cup concluded.
History
[edit]KPL started off as a promotion/relegation league, acting as the league tournament for the Honor of Kings game. Starting off with 12 teams, it later slowly expended to 14 teams in KPL 2018 Fall, before capping off at 16 teams at the start of KPL 2020 Spring. The team initially adopted a single legue format, before splitting off to an Eastern/Western Conferece-based system, where teams play intra-conference matches twice, and inter-conference matches once. Over this time period, the league also changed their league format, starting of with an intra-conference playoff culmulating in a KPL-wide Grand Finals, and changed to the current mixed-entry format, with 4 teams starting in the upper bracket, and 6 starting in the lower bracket. The current playoff format, which was first adopted at KPL 2019 Spring, continues to be used to this day.
Spring 2020: The debut of the Dragon Ring
[edit]Prior to the start of the KPL 2020 Spring season, KPL announced that 6 teams would be chosen to represent a "home city", including AG Super Play will represent Chengdu, QG Happy will represent Chongqing, eStar Pro will represent Wuhan, EDward Gaming will represent Shanghai, Hero JiuJing will represent Nanjing, and Talent Gaming will represent Guangzhou. These teams also receives a symbol called a "Dragon Ring" inducted around their team logo. Later on, all the remaining franchised teams also received their "Dragon Ring" once they got themselves a "home city".
Fall 2020: Franchise System & Temporary Seat System
[edit]Prior to the start of the KPL 2020 Fall season, Tencent Games and KPL announced a restructure of the Honor of Kings league in China.[1] In particular, it marked the end of the promotion/relegation system, with all 16 existing KPL teams now being considered as franchised teams. To continue to cater to the masses and any players who aspire to play at the pinnacle of Honor of Kings esports, Tencent announced the Temporary Seat System, where the top teams of the rebranded KPL Growth League (KGL), formed with its merger with the King Pro League Global Tour (KPLGT), can compete in the KPL as a temporary seat team. In turn, the KGL will continue to have its promotion/relegation to a rebranded Honor of Kings National Championships, where teams formed by semi-professionals all around China can participate in order to fight for a chance to climb up the ladder.
Alongside the announcement of the franchise system, the league announced the establishment of a home city system. Selected teams, starting with eStar Pro, Hero JiuJing and Talent Gaming in Fall 2020, will be chosen to have a "home stadium" to be built in their "home city". In particular, eStar Pro will represent Wuhan, Hero JiuJing will represent Nanjing, and Talent Gaming will represent Guangzhou. In fact, this was actually planned prior to the 2020 Spring season alongside the Dragon Ring, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the plan had to be postponed.
Spring 2021: From a Conference System to S/A/B League Format
[edit]In January 2021, KPL announced a format change to the KPL. Also known as the KPL 3.0 format, teams will be split into S/A/B Leagues based on the performance of the teams in the previous season. To accomodate the change, the 16 franchised teams will have a pre-season placement round in KPL 2021 Spring, playing a series of matches to determine who will be placed in League S, League A, or League B. Mighty Tiger Gaming, as the (only) team to gain a temporary seat that season, will be placed in B League by default. All other new temporary seat teams for subsequent seasons will also be assigned to League B by default, with the other teams moving up to fill any gap vacated by a relegated temporary seat team(s). [2] This format replicates the format of the UEFA Nations League, except that each "league" is a single group; on the other hand, the Playoffs of KPL features teams from League S and League A instead of being exclusive to League A like the UNL.
In addition to a new sub-league format, KPL also introduced a new prize distribution format. In a nutshell, the only fixed prize money will be the prize money for the finalists; all teams will now receive prize money based on the number of games they have won during 3 phases of the season: Regular Season (Stage 1, 2 and 3 plus the Seat Decider matches), Playoffs (except Bracket Finals and Grand Final) and the Bracket Finals.
2022: Changing from a Spring/Fall split to a Spring/Summer split
[edit]With the creation of an Arena of Valor World Cup (later renamed Honor of Kings International Championship, KPL changed from having a Fall split to a Summer split.[3] This was the first time the KPL seasons were changed ever since its creation.
2023: Random draw for Round 1; Changing of the Temporary Seat System
[edit]In November 2022, KPL announced a modification to the format of KPL, in particular, the first round of every season. Previously, teams started the first round of the season based on the previous season's performance, this meant that a bottom-ranked team from League B will have to gain promotion twice to get into League S for Stage 3 of the season. Starting in KPL 2023 Spring, teams will instead be seeded into 3 pots by their performance in the last season, splitting into 3 groups comprising 2 from each pot. The results of the First Stage would determine the placement for the Second Stage, with the top 2 teams of each group into League S, next 2 into League A, and bottom 2 into League B.[4]
In May 2023, Honor of Kings announced another change to the league format. Since the creation of the Temporary Seat System back in KPL 2021 Spring, the temporary seat spots have only been held by Mighty Tiger Gaming and Xianyou Gaming (with the exception of KPL 2022 Summer, where Fire E-Sports replaced Mighty Tiger Gaming in the Promotion Round). As a result, in the name of "stimulating" more energy in the Honor of Kings league ecosystem, a change to the Temporary Seat system was announced. Starting in KGL 2023 Summer, the KGL champions will automatically clinch a temporary seat for the next KPL season, while the runners-up and the third-placed team (previously only the Champions and the Runners-up) will play in the Promotion Round for the other temporary seat slot, alongside the two KPL temporary seat teams from the previous season. This added value to being the KGL winner, and also guarenteed that at least one of the two temporary seat teams will change from season-to-season.[5]
2024: Introduction of KPL Grand Finals
[edit]As the global esports scene of Honor of Kings changed in 2024 (most possibly because of the dominance of KPL teams in the 2 KIC which has been held), KPL also introduced the KPL Grand Finals as the pinnacle event for Honor of Kings in China. The Finals will feature the best 12 teams based on a points ranking system, split into 2 groups: Masters Group for Top 6 and Elite Group for the other 6.
Events
[edit]Grand Finals (since 2024)
[edit]S
Tournament
Date
Prize Pool
Location
P#
Winner
Runner-up
Sep 28 - Nov 8, 2025
$9,832,358.29
Beijing Changsha Chengdu12 participants
Oct 2 - Nov 16, 2024
$9,678,529.04
Beijing Changsha Hangzhou Chengdu12 participants
Seasons
[edit]S
Tournament
Date
Prize Pool
Location
P#
Winner
Runner-up
Jun 1 - Sep 12, 2026
$1,722,553.97
Shanghai Xiamen China China China China18 participants
Jan 14 - Apr 11, 2026
$1,721,948.38
Shanghai Beijing Chengdu Chongqing Hangzhou Nantong Haikou18 participants
Jun 5 - Sep 7, 2025
$2,102,946.23
Shanghai Beijing Chengdu Chongqing Hangzhou Nantong18 participants
Feb 12 - May 10, 2025
$2,072,594.99
Shanghai Beijing Chengdu Chongqing Hangzhou Suzhou Zhengzhou18 participants
Jun 12 - Sep 15, 2024
$2,114,610.78
Shanghai Nanjing Chengdu Hangzhou Suzhou Foshan Chongqing Quanzhou18 participants
Jan 31 - May 18, 2024
$2,076,497.04
Shanghai Nanjing Chengdu Hangzhou Suzhou Foshan Chongqing Dalian18 participants
Jun 14 - Sep 10, 2023
$2,595,541.11
Shanghai Nanjing Chengdu Hangzhou Suzhou Foshan18 participants
Feb 10 - May 13, 2023
$2,703,425.20
Shanghai Nanjing Chengdu Hangzhou18 participants
Sep 22 - Dec 25, 2021
$2,900,390.68
Shanghai Wuhan Guangzhou Nanjing Chongqing Shenzhen Chengdu Xi'an18 participants
Mar 11 - Jun 26, 2021
$2,911,929.62
Shanghai Nanjing Guangzhou Wuhan Chongqing Shenzhen17 participants
Sep 16 - Dec 19, 2020
$1,223,802.97
Shanghai Nanjing Guangzhou Wuhan Chongqing16 participants
Qualifiers
[edit]S
Tournament
Date
Prize Pool
Location
P#
Winner
Runner-up
Player participation
[edit]Most appearances
[edit]| Player | TA. | Fall 2016 | Spring 2017 | Fall 2017 | Spring 2018 | Fall 2018 | Spring 2019 | Fall 2019 | Spring 2020 | Fall 2020 | Spring 2021 | Fall 2021 | Spring 2022 | Summer 2022 | Spring 2023 | Summer 2023 | Spring 2024 | Summer 2024 | Spring 2025 | Summer 2025 | Spring 2026 | Summer 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fly | 19 |   | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | | ||
| Cat | 16 |  | | | | | | | | |  | | | |  | | | |||||
| LinHeng | 16 |  | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | | |||||
| YiNuo | 15 |   | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ||||||
| Hurt | 15 |   | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |||||||
| XingYu | 15 | | |  | | |  | | | | | | | | | | ||||||
| Fox | 15 |  | |  | | | | | | | |  | | | | | ||||||
| Chance | 15 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ||||||
| Qfeng | 14 |  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |||||||
| Adou | 14 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |||||||
| Qing | 14 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |||||||
| Rong | 14 |  | | | | | | | | | | |  | | ||||||||
| JiuKu | 14 |  | | | | | | | | | | |  |  | | |||||||
| YiZ | 13 |  | | | | | | | | | | | | | ||||||||
| Tom | 13 | | | | | | | | | | |   | | |
- See here for the complete list.
Annual Awards
[edit]2025
[edit]- See: 2025 Annual Awards
2024
[edit]- See: 2024 Annual Awards
2023
[edit] 
2022
[edit] 
2021
[edit] 
2020
[edit] 2019
[edit] 
Overall Standings
[edit]From 2016 to 2020 (Round Robin Format)
[edit]This only counts the matches in Group Stage.
King Pro League Overall Standings (2016-20)
From 2021 onwards (S/A/B League format)
[edit]This only counts the matches in Group Stage.
King Pro League Overall Standings (2021-)
Trivia
[edit]- In Fall 2018, King Pro League implemented Global Ban-Pick Rules [6]
- In a Bo3 or Bo5, each team is only allowed to choose each Champion once in a series. Teams are allowed to pick Champions that have only been used by the opponents in previous games (following per normal ban-pick rules).
- In a Bo7 match, this rule will only apply for the first 6 games. For the 7th game, one of the following will apply:
- The game will return to Normal Ban-Pick, allowing Champions used in the first 6 games to be picked. (usually for Arena of Valor tournaments)
- The Ultimate Battle format will be used. (usually for Honor of Kings tournaments)
- See also: Global Banpick.
- With the creation of Global Ban-pick, there was also the implementation of the Ultimate Battle
- See: About the Ultimate Battle
In Honor of Kings Pro League: Fall 2018, starting from the playoffs, Global Banpick is used as a base rule for drafting (also use in AOV Tournament, started in AOG Spring 2019). Unlike in AOV, HOK tournaments use a special rule for the final game of a Bo7 in Game 7, called Ultimate Battle. Note that in subsequent tournaments, Ultimate Battle has been used for the final game in series of other lengths as well.
- In a series utilising the format, procedure for the Ultimate Battle will start if there is a tied series following the penultimate game (ie. 3:3 for a Bo7, or 4:4 for a Bo9). The offline procedure is laid out as follows:
- After the crystal has been destroyed, the referee will call upon the head coach of both teams to the center of the venue. The loser of the previous game will have 60 seconds to choose sides, and the side selection will be displayed to both teams and the audience.
- The head coach, assistant coaches, analyst and other staff will be allowed on the stage. The team will discuss and make their draft within 3 minutes. This process begins after the side selection.
- At the end of 3 minutes, the head coach must submit the hero lineups and challenger spells to the referee, and then coaches must leave the stage. There will be a penalty if the players don't use the same heroes and challenger spells as the coach submit.
- In addition, if a team failed to submit the hero lineups and challenger spells within 3 minutes, the team have to use the lineup from the previous game.
- The time will start when the coach come to the stage, and the referee will give a signal for the countdown at 1 minute, 30 seconds, and 10 seconds.
- Each team's hero lineups and challenger spells will not be visible for the opponent team till the game starts.
In an online tournament, the time durations are modified as follows:
- The coaches of the losing team will have 2 minutes to chose sides (instead of 60 seconds).
- The coaches will get 8 minutes (instead of 3 minutes) to submit the draft, with countdown signals given at 4 minutes and 1 minute.
- See also: Global Banpick
- As with other Chinese eSports leagues, KPL also applies several advanced technology on the gameplay, for example the heat map and the heartbeat measurement armband.
- KPL is also the first league to imply penalty cards for misconducts during the game.
References
[edit]- ↑ King Pro League (2020-08-24). "2020#全球电竞运动领袖峰会#暨#腾讯电竞年度发布会# 于8月24日圆满落幕，来跟K妹一起回顾下发布会上的重点吧~ " [The 2020 #Global Esports Leaders Summit# and #Tencent Esports Annual Press Conference# came to a successful conclusion on August 24th. Let’s review the key points of the press conference with Miss K~] (in Chinese).
- ↑ King Pro League (2021-01-26). "2021年KPL王者荣耀职业联赛【全新赛制】新鲜出炉！ " [2021 KPL Honor of Kings Professional League [Brand New Format] Hot off the Press!] (in Chinese).
- ↑ Honor of Kings (2021-08-28). "#王者荣耀AoV全球赛事# " [Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor Global Esports Event] (in Chinese).
- ↑ King Pro League (2022-11-13). "#KPL春季赛赛制升级# " [KPL Spring Format Improvements] (in Chinese).
- ↑ King Pro League (2023-05-26). "王者荣耀职业赛事体系升级公告 " [Honor of Kings Professional League System Changes Announcement] (in Chinese).
- ↑ Stind (2019-02-15). "New Ban-Pick Rules in Professional Tournament" (in
English). Reddit.
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