Mobile MOBA ‘Arena of Valor’ launching in PHL this month

Garena, the publisher of “League of Legends” in Southeast Asia, has announced that mobile game “Arena of Valor” will be launching in the Philippines this month. The game has also already entered the pre-registration phase in the country.

“Arena of Valor” is a MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) designed specifically for ease of control on mobile phones. It features several unique battlefields, as well as multiple gaming modes including 5v5 Grand Battle, Valley Skirmish, Abyssal Clash, Solo Battle, and Hook Wars.

It also boasts over 40 heroes (with more on the way), such as a gun-toting hunter, a sea creature with the head of a hammerhead shark, a 6-armed murder goddess, and Batman. Yes, Batman.

Upon release, “Arena of Valor” will give players the opportunity to obtain and permanently own up to 14 heroes for free. The tutorial itself will give away two heroes within your first 20 minutes of play.

In the succeeding Road to Glory quest, eight more can be acquired—all the player has to do is use each hero three times. The last four can be acquired by having matches with friends.

“Arena of Valor” originally launched in Taiwan in October 2016. It has since made its way to other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, where it has proven an extremely popular App Store and Play Store download.

The game has been prominently featured in various eSports events organized by Garena and other international corporations. There have been grassroots and campus competitions, professional leagues, regional tournaments, and global tournaments that have seen the likes of North America, South Korea, Europe, and the Middle East competing for the grand prize and the ultimate honor of champion.

Examples of such tournaments include Vietnam’s Throne of Glory, which boasted a total prize pool of $65,000 and a peak concurrent viewership of 273,626 fans, and Taiwan’s Garena Challenger Series, which offered a $114,000 prize pool and whose concurrent viewership peaked at 50,000.

In August 2017, “Arena of Valor” was also featured at Gamescom and ESL Arena.

“We are excited to launch ‘Arena of Valor’ in the Philippines as Asia represents a multi-billion dollar gaming industry with 80% of its gamers playing mobile games,” said Garena Philippines country manager Jan Frederic Chiong.

“Arena of Valor” was co-developed by Garena and Tencent Games, the latter the same studio behind “Honor of Kings.”

Gamers in the Philippines can already pre-register for “Arena of Valor.” For more information about the game, visit its official Facebook page. — BM, GMA News