Blacklist International, BOOM Esports headline inaugural Honor of Kings' PH pro league PKL

Blacklist International and BOOM ESports, who have represented the country in various international Honor of Kings tournaments, will now get to ply their trade in a local fixture with the launch of Philippines Kings League (PKL) next month.

Game developer Level Infinite announced the development during the grand finals of the HoK Invitational Season 3 in front of the home crowd at SM North EDSA.

PKL will feature two tournaments this year, the Spring and the Fall editions which will commence in April and August, respectively.

Spring and Fall will serve as pathways to two huge international HoK events: the Kings World Championship in the Esports World Cup (EWC) in July and the Honor of Kings International Championship (KIC) in November.

Blacklist International and BOOM Esports lead the eight-team field alongside Eureka, Team Flash PH, and TNT Tropang Alab with the five squads all considered as "partner teams" and have fixed status, meaning they no longer have to go through qualifiers before each edition.

The other three teams, meanwhile, will have to qualify through the Open Series to earn a spot in PKL.

Aside from the Philippines, HoK will also launch a professional league in Malaysia, Indonesia, Wildcard Kings Series (Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Brunei, Hong Kong, and Macau), Major East League (Korea, Japan, Middle East, and North Africa), and Major West League (Americas, Europe, and Turkey).

The six leagues will join China's KPL (King Pro League) and CHOKBR of Brazil as HoK hopes to expand its reach within the ecosystem.

With the launch of a pro league here, the Philippines is tipped to catch up with the rest of stronger nations moving forward. In fact, that has already started when Blacklist International reached the semifinals of the Invitational Season 3 last week.

Blacklist, which also bannered the Philippines during the HoK Championship last October, impressed by sweeping the group stage and defeating Impunity in the quarterfinals. The Filipinos, though, fell to Nongshim RedForce of Korea in the semis to bow out.

But for the organizers, the loss meant the Philippines is on the right track.

"For one, HoK is very new in the Philippines, we’re less than a year. But as of the moment, even though we haven’t gotten the chance to qualify for the finals today, we’re still proud of the teams that we have because they’ve shown that with that short of a time to learn the game and strategize, they were still able to make it to the semifinals," Benj Dalmacio, senior business development manager for Level Infinite, said in a press conference Saturday.

"In terms of lacking, it’s more of the other way around, I think they have everything that it takes to be able to win a trophy eventually and we hope to see that this year."

—JMB, GMA Integrated News