There is a saying in the esports community that every year, one month belongs exclusively to League of Legends. With the rising popularity of LOL esports, many fans know about the World Championship event. Official Riot statistics show that the Worlds' audience numbers have been growing steadily every year. For this reason, many esports games avoid holding events in the same month as LOL to avoid being eclipsed by the LOL Worlds.

However, recently the national phenomenon mobile game Honor of Kings chose to directly compete with the LOL Worlds by scheduling its S15 finals the day before the LOL finals, and even held the event at the Bird's Nest. This move delighted many Honor of Kings players and commentators, especially since the female commentator highlighted that whoever wins at the Bird's Nest becomes the first Chinese team to claim a championship there. In fact, she mentioned this before the Honor of Kings final even began.

Because the female Honor of Kings commentator personally emphasized this, many fans and viewers of the game mocked LOL players and fans, claiming that the S7 Bird's Nest event where LCK had an internal match was embarrassing. Some Honor of Kings fans even argued that the world's top esports competition should be Honor of Kings, not League of Legends. As Honor of Kings players continued boasting about their Bird's Nest victory, many LOL fans started criticizing them for being self-congratulatory, especially since both finalists were Chinese teams.

As the fan arguments escalated, many LOL industry veterans stepped in to defend LOL. Several bloggers even found news from 2016 when IG participated in the NEA tournament, where IG's Dota 2 team represented China and won the championship by defeating the foreign team NB in the finals. IG fans at the time probably never expected that nine years later, esports audiences and official commentators would hype up winning at the Bird's Nest as a highlight.

After IG's championship was coldly taken away, many LOL fans flooded the Honor of Kings commentators' sections asking them to respond. Currently, many Honor of Kings commentators have disabled comments. So, which game do you think has more popular competitions? Personally, if we only consider domestic leagues, Honor of Kings definitely has higher popularity, especially since LPL hasn't won an international championship in recent years, causing its viewership to decline.

However, if we look at a global popularity ranking, I believe the LOL World Championship is more popular than Honor of Kings, since LOL has a massive global player and viewer base. Even TGA has awarded LOL as the best event for several consecutive years. That said, with Honor of Kings' rising popularity, I think it could soon expand into overseas markets and audiences. How long do you think it will take for Honor of Kings to become the world's most popular esports competition?

Conclusion

In my opinion, the reason LOL and Honor of Kings fans argue is mainly due to the lack of preparation by Honor of Kings commentators. If the official commentators had a better understanding of esports history, they wouldn't make statements that stir controversy in public.