Arena of Valor (Chinese: 傳說對決; pinyin: Chuánshuō Duìjué), formerly Strike of Kings,[2] is an international adaptation of Honor of Kings (Chinese: 王者荣耀; pinyin: Wángzhě Róngyào),[a] a multiplayer online battle arena developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Level Infinite for Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch for markets outside Mainland China.

[4][5][6] Arena of Valor was published in other regions by Garena, DeNA, Actoz SG, and TiMi Studio Group.

[8] Heroes start the game at a low level and can earn gold and experience (XP) in various ways: Killing non-player creatures such as minions or monsters, defeating other players, destroying structures, passively through time and through special items that can be purchased through the shop.

There are various game modes in Arena of Valor, with "5v5" most commonly referred to as Grand Battle or Ranked Match, played on the Antaris Battlefield and being the most popular.

[11] Black City Arena is a 1v1 game mode with only one lane, two brushes at the left and right side of the horizontal battlefield, an HP pot, one tower, and one core for blue and red.

Each player is able to use a Hook as a special ability, which can grab an enemy on the opposite boat or from long distances.

If only offensive items are bought, he will deal a lot of damage but will have a low amount of health and defense, which impacts survivability.

If Zephys buys only defensive items, he can boost his damage reduction passive to its maximum potential, being literally almost impossible to die in most circumstances like a Tank class character, but will deal drastically lower amounts of damage.This kind of playstyle can be applied to all heroes, allowing tanks to act as warriors, mages to act as supports, and vice versa.

[16] Tencent wanted to seize the opportunity to dominate the mobile market because there were not any strong competitors aside from Vainglory.

[18] Lightspeed & Quantum's We MOBA and TiMi's League of Kings (rough translation from 王者联盟 Wángzhě Liánméng) were launched on the same day, on August 18, 2015.

[21] Tencent responded that they would change its own game enough to sell as a standalone product with no relation to League of Legends.

The international release of Honor of Kings was canceled, and the game would have a western twin for markets outside Mainland China which is rebranded and featured different contents, leading to the creation of Arena of Valor, which also served as a response to Riot Games's complaints of "potential intellectual property infringement".

[22] Arena of Valor was developed by TiMi Studio Group with the same engine and user interface design as Honor of Kings and published by Level Infinite.

Moreover, the difference in content featured in the game made the publishing team decide that a better name is required.

[28] Arena of Valor also included several characters such as Butterfly, Violet, and Mina from Age of Gunslingers, a third-person shooter game that previously was also developed by a division of TiMi Studio Group.

[29] Additionally, Arena of Valor has multiple collaborations with other franchises, having crossovers with DC Universe,[30][31][32] Wiro Sableng,[33][34][35] Contra,[36] KFC,[37] Sword Art Online,[38][39] Ultraman,[40] Bleach,[41] One-Punch Man,[42] Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba,[43] Sailor Moon[44] and Hunter × Hunter.

[47] Subsequently, TiMi Studio Group had to redesign the game, creating the current appearance of Arena of Valor.

[49] The soundtrack for Arena of Valor was composed by TiMi Audio Lab in cooperation with different music composers each year, such as Jeff Broadbent in late 2016, Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe in 2017,[50][51] Matthew Carl Earl and Obadiah Brown-Beach in 2018,[52] Russell Brower, Paul Lipson, and Tom Salta in 2019,[53] Yang Lee and Michal Cielecki in 2020,[54] all creating a different atmosphere compared to the original score with Chinese music instruments in Honor of Kings.

Arena of Valor was first launched in Taiwan on 12 October 2016, by Garena, following a two-week closed beta testing period.

Additionally, several adjustments were made to the game to be playable on a bigger screen with traditional controls, and stats for characters have been reconfigured.

Instead, the assets of the defunct MOBA were recycled for Chess Rush, an auto battler game, which was released on July 4, 2019.

[69] Arena of Valor was reported to have caused a gradually straining business relationship between Riot Games and Tencent, and the relationship between the two firms became further strained when Tencent used notable League of Legends players to promote Arena of Valor and its esports tournaments.

[71][72] The case was initially dismissed in the Central District Court of California in the United States on account of forum non conveniens.

[78] Tencent then temporarily pulled marketing plans for Arena of Valor in Europe and North America in 2019, clearing room for Riot Games's announcement a few months later.

[84][85] TiMi Studio Group decided to no longer extend the license rights of the Arena of Valor franchise to Netmarble & Kakao.

[98] A total prize pool of $500,000 made AWC one of the largest mobile eSports tournaments in gaming history.

[citation needed] The second AWC tournament was held in Da Nang, Vietnam, from June 27 to July 14, 2019, with the same total prize pool of $500,000.

[99][100] The second AWC also marks Japan's first participation in the Arena of Valor international tournament since the game introduced their Japanese server on November 30, 2018.

[citation needed] Arena of Valor was part of the Esports demonstration event at the Asian Games 2018 held in Indonesia.