The biggest competitor to
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang in the mobile MOBA niche,
Honor of Kings is trying to move beyond its Chinese divide by increasingly opening up to the rest of the world. Already featured at the Esports World Cup, Tencent’s game is also on the list of 16 titles set to appear at the
Esports Nations Cup. According to sources close to
Sheep Esports, here are the five players and the coach selected to represent France on
HoK*.
Xu "Xu" Ruoran, a Chinese coach for Virtus.pro, is expected to lead the French national team. Having previously worked in the academy league of the King Pro League, the world’s top competition, he later coached Paws Gaming, a Hong Kong-based club, with whom he qualified for the Honor of Kings World Cup 2025, held as part of the Esports World Cup. He recently joined VP, which competes in Europe and recently qualified for KWC 2026.
Within the European organization, he currently coaches Ryan Maaroufi, better known as "
Clue", one of the most recognizable French players on the scene, who will play as a Roamer, the equivalent of a support role in League of Legends. Until recently, he was playing for Gen.G Esports alongside Wahil “
Wawa” Hassani and Sofiane “
Inua” Akarkach, who play on the Clash Lane (toplane) and in the Jungle respectively. Before this project with the South Korean club, the trio played for Team Falcons, alongside “
Nabil,” the team’s midlaner at the time. The quartet is completed by Benjamin “
Benji” Bourdeau, who plays on the Farm Lane, the equivalent of a botlaner in LoL, who played for Team Vitality between mid-2024 and early 2025. It should be noted that, for the time being, no replacement has been appointed for the competition, despite the team being permitted to have two.
All information about the ENC 2026
Scheduled from November 2 to 29 for its first edition in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, this nation-based competition, the largest in esports history, is expected to bring together thousands of players from around a hundred countries, competing across nearly 16 games. Alongside the
Honor of Kings tournament, which will take place from November 24 to 29, there will also be national matchups on
League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Rocket League, and Rainbow Six Siege. For Tencent’s mobile MOBA, around 24 teams representing different nations will compete on-site for a $1,320,000 prize pool. Twelve teams will be directly invited, two others will qualify via Wildcard, while the remaining ten spots will be decided through qualifiers.
Before that, the participants still need to be determined. The Esports Foundation, which manages both the ENC and the Esports World Cup (two separate events), has decided that 16 of the 32 teams will be directly qualified for the final tournament based on the results of their representatives in official Riot Games circuits. The remaining teams will have to go through regional qualifiers—seven in total—each granting two spots. The final two slots will, it seems, be distributed by the ENC as wildcards, likely at the discretion of the event organizer.
*Pending Esports Foundation approval.
