Where Esports Feels Like the Future
Mara Aquino and Chantelle Hernandez on Witnessing China’s Honor of Kings Universe Up Close
There are trips that jolt you awake, reminding you why you ever cared about a thing so deeply in the first place. For Honor of Kings hosts Mara Aquino and Chantelle Hernandez, China was the latter: an sudden pilgrimage into a country where esports is a full-grown ecosystem with its own texture, rituals, and culture.
“Ito sobrang happy. Medyo pagod pero tuloy-tuloy kasi events,” Chantelle laughs, still trying to process the sensory overload of Beijing and Chengdu. She went in expecting “a field trip,” and walked out with a working blueprint of what a mature esports landscape could look like.
A Different Scale Entirely
If the Philippines treats esports like a promising adolescent, China treats Honor of Kings like a cultural institution—something between the NBA, Disneyland, and K-pop machinery.
“Sa kung HOK lang sobrang laki ng HOK doon… kahit yung tubig ka-collab nila is Maserati,” Chantelle says, still incredulous. In Tencent’s headquarters, she saw “a specific floor dedicated for HOK alone,” complete with a gallery of soundtrack awards. “As in talagang kung paano ginagawa yung music, lahat nandoon.”
And then there was the finals.
“Sobrang speechless ako… mas na-intensify yung feelings pag patapos na yung game kasi rinig mo yung may tunog ng heartbeat. Dugdugdug dugdug! Tapos yung production on a different level.” She describes holograms, synchronized light effects, and the ominous heartbeat sound pumped into the arena in the final moments of each game. “
But the insight that struck her deepest wasn’t the tech.
It was the people.
“The reception of the community… Sobrang celebrated yung game itself apart from the esports side.”
In China, fans they support the game’s universe. Cafés themed after heroes. Popmart-style collectibles. Cosplayers treated with reverence. “Kahit mga matatanda… nagpapapicture.”
In her words: “Ecosystem. A healthy ecosystem.”
The Culture Shock from Honor of Kings
Mara, meanwhile, arrived with an entirely different set of expectations—ones she quickly realized were outdated.
“I didn’t think China was so incredible… I thought China was like the Philippines or Indonesia… very polluted… full of factories,” she admits. “But when I went there, it was so clean… It reminded me of North America. I didn’t see a single piece of garbage.”
And then came the magnitude of everything Honor of Kings.
“The entire shop was filled with Honor of Kings merch. As in everything—keychains, stuffed animals, phone cases, figurines,” she says. Even 7-Eleven had HOK plushies. “It’s not just a game. It’s part of their culture.”
But nothing prepared her for the KPL playoffs.
“Their tickets sold out in 12 seconds,” Mara says. “I’ve never seen—was this esports or a K-pop concert? I felt like I was watching Super Bowl.”
Fans carried armfuls of merch “as if it was limited edition.” Entry required facial scanning. Passport verification. Hyper-precise seating logistics. “It was so advanced.”
She remembers entering the Bird’s Nest—the same stadium used for the Olympics—and thinking, This should not be possible for a mobile game.
A Feeling They Haven’t Felt in Years
For Mara, the opening ceremony was the moment she knew something inside her had shifted.
“I was having tingles… I had to ask myself, am I just feeling cold or is this goosebumps?” she recalls. “It was literally radiating from the tips of my fingernails to my shoulders… I was about to cry.”
It was the kind of awe that resets a person.
“I want to do so good so I can be sent there again.”
She says this without irony, without performative humility but just earnest ambition.
“It gave me this drive… We need to do good so Honor of Kings can grow in the Philippines.”
The Luxury and the Lesson
Tencent’s hospitality only deepened that feeling.
“They brought us to this room but only governors and VIPs can stay there and eat. They were literally feeding us… at least 15 different Chinese dishes.” Mara says the treatment “made us feel so special”—but more importantly, it showed how the company values its ecosystem from top to bottom.
And for both hosts, the lesson was simple but confronting:
China treats esports like a world-class cultural product. The Philippines treats it like entertainment.
What the Philippines Can Learn
Mara is painfully aware of where we stand.
“We’re so far right now because HOK in the Philippines is just a baby,” she says. But she’s also relentlessly hopeful. “When something is growing, you make the fans happy by giving them something so beautiful and grand.”
The takeaway?
- Rehearse like it matters.
- Build an ecosystem, not just tournaments.
- Treat every event as if it’s the biggest one of the year.
- Let production quality shape culture.
- Show fans what the future can look like.
Chantelle echoes the point: “We tend to just support the teams… not the game as it is.”
But what they saw in Beijing and Chengdu convinced them that change is possible—slow, painful, but possible.
“Even if it’s far, even if it’s 2%, it’s still possible,” Mara says. “However long it takes to get there, you just know you want to get there.”
The Vision Forward for Esports and Honor of Kings in PH
For Mara, her role has transformed.
“Like a mommy to the game… I really want to take care of it really well.”
And for Chantelle, it’s the scale and the sincerity of the fandom she wants the Philippines to someday match.
“Sobrang happy ko doon,” she says. “Sobrang saya ako.”
Between the holograms and the hero cafés, the goosebumps and the stadium roar, both hosts returned with a shared conviction:
If the Philippines wants its esports scene to mature, we don’t need to copy China.
We just need to believe that our players, our fans, and our games deserve something world-class.
For more exclusive esports stories, click here.
