Despite surprises and upsets, Malaysia still holds the crown for international HoK superiority.
History repeated itself more than once at Ayala Mall Manila Bay as Malaysia’s HomeBois BSE successfully defended their throne to become the KIC 2025 champions. They made short work of Malaysian rivals Nova Esports with a decisive 4-0 sweep in the grand finals.
Before the tournament started, many were already expecting one of the three Malaysian teams would become the KIC 2025 champions. In fact, predictions were that the top three would all be Malaysian teams, therefore making all three of the international scene’s representatives to the Challenger Cup 2025 this December from Malaysia. While that ended up being the case, the path there was far from what everyone expected.
What KIC 2025 highlighted was how quickly the other younger regions were developing. From Indonesia’s Vesakha Esports coming from grassroots tournaments to Twisted Minds showing that EWC 2025 was not a fluke. And of course, the Philippines HoK proved just how deadly they could be Blacklist International and BOOM Esports making deep runs and exceeding their previous international performances.
But Malaysia still has an edge over the other regions, as evidenced by the performance of their three teams. Alpha Gaming were the ones to deal the final blow to both Blacklist and BOOM despite being Malaysia’s third seed. Then they were dispatched by Nova with a 4-2 match score, and we all know what happened after that.
With a 4-0 victory in last year’s KIC, to 4-0’ing Nova in the Malaysia league, to another definitive 4-0 sweep, HomeBois BSE make it clear why they and the Malaysian region are the KIC 2025 champions.
Banner photo from HoK Global Esports.