The King Pro League Spring 2020 is right around the corner, as China will take on the official Chinese version of Arena of Valor: as published by Tencent Games and released in January 2020. The KPL Spring 2020 will act as one of the first events making the most of the newly formed community, inviting teams that each represent a Chinese city and some that don’t. It goes without saying that the entire event won’t be hosted offline as planned, instead of being moved to a completely online format. Quickly adapting to the current global situation, nothing else has changed, and the 16 invited teams will still be competing for qualification into the KCC 2020 Main Event taking place this fall.
All the exciting action will take place from the 18th of March up to June, supposedly. The format has been modified somewhat and the organizers in Tencent and Fighting Esports Group are unsure whether the League will be able to return to an offline format before its end. This year will serve as the fourth iteration of the event, occurring yearly since 2016. With 16 teams back in the saddle itching to engage in some battle arena competition, the format looks to isolate the better teams of the KPL by the end of the league through two stages: Group Stage and Playoffs. First, we’ll take a look at the teams taking part and appreciate the fact that each one was supposed to play their home games in their very own home stadium to now only match-up online.
Teams
Let’s take a look at the participating teams:
- AG Super Play = Chengdu
- QG Happy = Chongqing
- eStar Pro = Wuhan
- Hero JuiJing = Nanjing
- EDward Gaming = Shanghai
- TTG X-Quest = Guangzhou
- Gank Gaming
- Dynamite Gaming
- TS Gaming
- Team WE
- YTG Gaming
- Rogue Warrior
- Royal Never Giver Up
- TOP Esports
- Vici Gaming
- LBD Goose (Qualifier)
Fifteen of the 16 teams already had a cemented position at this event while LGD Goose fought their way through a qualifier to earn their place. Technically, the competition is halved into an Eastern Conference (8) and a Western Conference (8), as will be evident in the way the groups will be split up.
Group Stage
Half of the teams originate from the Eastern Conference while the other half, from the Western Conference – the 16 teams were divided down the middle to form these two group in which they’d play a Single Round-robin, where placing in the bottom four eliminates in disqualification and a top 4 placing allows you to progress to the Playoffs. Each game will be an ardeous 5 rounds of Arena of Valor/Honor of Kings gameplay – 3 rounds are all one needs to win. The groups are as follows:
Eastern Conference: EDward Gaming, eStar Pro, LGD Goose, QG Happy, Royal Never Give Up, TOP Esports, TTG X-Quest, Vici Gaming
Western Conference: AG Super Play, Dynamite JC Gaming, Gank Gaming, Hero JiuJing, Rogue Warriors, Team WE, TS Gaming, YTG Gaming
The group stage will span a total of 5 weeks, with a total of 60 matches to be played in the first five weeks. Following a short break, 5 more weeks of competition will play out and by then we’d be somewhere in June, and the 2020 King Pro League Spring would be almost complete after roughly 120 games in the Group Stage.
The full schedule is available here: https://liquipedia.net/arenaofvalor/King_Pro_League/2020/Spring/Group_Stage/Week_1-5.
Only 8 teams will make it into Playoffs.
Playoffs
This is where the competition steps up another level – within the double-elimination, matches will now be best-of-seven. The KPL Stream will be more hyped up than ever as the eight remaining teams are seeded. The top two in each Group will land spots in the Winners Bracket, third, fourth, fifth and sixth will then file into the Lower Bracket or the Play-in corresponding to the position within the Group.
At this point in the competition, it’s essential to fight for at least, a 5th to 6th finish, as it’s here on up that a team earns a prize worth fighting for. These are outlined below:
- 1st – Seed into the KCC 2020 Main Event
- 2nd – Seed into the KCC 2020 Main Event
- 3rd – KCC China Qualifier
- 4th – KCC China Qualifier
- 5th – KCC China Qualifier
- 6th – KCC China Qualifier
Naturally, the top two spots are ideal, but placing anywhere from third to sixth is helpful nonetheless. Now the truth is that the Playoffs schedule has been erased for the time being due to the emergency shift to online. However, as they’ll take place in June, that leaves ample time for Tenent and Fighting Esports Group to forge a new timetable to allow for some Arena of Valor 2020 action.
Streams
The following channels are likely to host streams for the King Pro League Spring 2020, providing the only possibilities besides the traditional streaming platforms. All the action will be broadcasted live and commentated over by professional talent
All available streams will be in Chinese.
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0aZYjy5gkQdS3sVNJf-SLA
- https://pvp.qq.com/match/kpl/index.shtml
- https://www.douyu.com/kpl
- https://live.bilibili.com/55
Watch the King Pro League 2020 stream on esportsguide.com
You can also watch King Pro League Spring 2020 stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions
The last event within the Arena of Valor/Honor of Kings competitive scene (Major) was in fact, the KPL 2019 Fall event. It was here that AG Super Play came out on top to win the majority of $430.237 over the competition. All of the six teams who’ve earned city representation have done so for a reason, and they remain the biggest contenders to take home the entire event. Although the KPL has witnessed some upsets in the past, the fact that the event is three months long puts emphasis on the fact that consistency is everything here, and one lucky win won’t affect much.
To conclude, a little reminder that Honor of Kings is simply the Chinese version of Arena of Valor and plays exactly the same – so if you’re a fan of AoV you should definitely check this out!
