French esports organisation Team Vitality has expanded its esports operations into Honor of Kings, a mobile MOBA title created by TiMi Studio Group, a subsidiary of Tencent, and published by Level Infinite.
The organisation will enter the Honor of Kings Invitational Season 2 as the fifth and final partner team of Honor of Kings new esports programme.
The international roster marks the first time that Team Vitality has entered the Honor of Kings competitive ecosystem. Interestingly, the French organisation is the only Western team in the league’s partnership programme, together with Southeast Asia’s REX REGUM QEON, South America’s ISURUS, Türkiye’s FUT Esports and the Saudi Arabian organisation R8 Esports.
As one of the partner teams, Team Vitality will get a direct invitation to the game’s top tournaments and will also receive support and promotion from the game’s creators to maximise the growth of the game’s ecosystem. The newly-created partnership venture comes after Tencent and Level Infinite allocated a $15m (~£11.8m) budget to grow the game globally. In addition, the game will launch in more regions on June 20th, expanding its reach even further.
According to a release, Team Vitality’s entry into Honor of Kings is part of a larger move to create competitive rosters in more games, thus allowing the organisation to accumulate more points in the Esports World Cup Club Championship. By qualifying teams in more games for the cup, the chances of winning the $20m (~£15.6m) Club Championship increase.
Interestingly, Honor of Kings already has a ‘Westernised’ version, called Arena of Valor, which features the same mechanics but different visuals. Both games exist together and have high-profile esports tournaments.
Fabien ‘Neo’ Devide, co-founder and President of Team Vitality, commented: “We are grateful to Tencent for their confidence in Team Vitality.
“We have the unique opportunity to occupy a special place in one of their flagship games, the most played and watched mobile MOBA in the world. We can’t wait to show our ambition and take part in the show.”
