Filipino teams set for early collision in Honor of Kings Invitational Season 3

MANILA, Philippines -- With the Philippines hosting the upcoming Honor of Kings Invitational Season 3, fans war hoping to see an all-Filipino matchup given the three local teams competing.

The inevitable became reality Thursday night during the group draw of the tournament as local champion Blacklist International was seeded in Group A with fellow Filipino team, Elevate and Morocco champions, Gen.G Esports.

The third Filipino team, Rough World Era, is seeded in Group D with top seed Bigetron Sigma of Indonesia and South Korea's Nongshim Redforce.

Group B, which may be considered the group of death, has Brazil's Alpha7 Esports, the runner-up during the first Invitational, and Honor of King veteran teams Malaysia's All Gamers Global and Europe's Team Vitality; while Group C has Malaysian champion Nova Esports, Indonesia's Kagendra and wild card winners Impunity Esports from Myanmar.

The group stages of the Honor of Kings Invitational will kick off on February 21 at the The Block Atrium at SM North, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the single-elimination knockout stages.

The tournament also sees the Global Ban-pick system in place, which prevents players from using the same hero twice in a match series.