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There were some bumps on the road, but the kings of Malaysia arrived at the KIC trophy all the same.
Malaysia are at the top of the international HoK esports scene and even above that are HomeBois BSE as they’re once again the KIC champions.
While they cleanly defended their title with a clean sweep against Nova Esports their year wasn’t all smooth sailing. They actually lost MKL Sping 2025 to Nova after a close seven-game series, then had their shocking 13th place exit at Esports World Cup 2025. But that was all motivation for them to get stronger, leading to the success we see today.
“It’s been a very successful season because we’ve won so many championships even though I’m a newcomer,” said HomeBois BSE’s Bot Laner Xu “VV” Siwei in an interview with the media. He joined the team for MKL Fall 2025 yet has integrated seamlessly into HomeBois BSE. “I’ll cherish this moment because I was only with the team for a short period of time but we’ve already achieved something great.”
With a 4-0 sweep, one would think that this win was practically a cake walk for HomeBois BSE. However, assistant coach Yang “Broccoli” Zecheng says that it’s deceptive and doesn’t really show how hard both teams have worked.
“We actually know Nova Esports very well, that’s why we always get good results against them. We have a lot of strategies specifically aimed against Nova. Mechanically, I don’t think we’re that different and we’re much closer in skill.”
Still, the results speak for themselves and it seems like nothing can stop HomeBois BSE. As the only remaining player from last year’s championship roster, Jungler Chan “MusangKing” Yann has big expectations for his team.
“We’re the back-to-back champions so we’ll definitely be back next year to defend it against whatever opponent.”
Impressing the Kings
HomeBois BSE’s certainly dominated all opposition on their way to the KIC 2025 trophy. When asked if there was any team that really challenged them, coach Broccoli told the media that they saw the Philippines’ Blacklist International as equals simply because they were the only team in KIC 2025 to push them to seven games.
“Our match against Blacklist was very unexpected,” added head coach Lai “Joker” Kiong. “The Philippine region really improved a lot, it’s very impressive. They have no Chinese players or coaches, they’re all Filipino. To get this far with these results with no imports, it shows that they worked hard and have a lot of heart.”
“I spoke with [Blacklist coach Gerald “Tgee” Gelacio] and he told me that they would scrim till 11:30pm. Then after all that they’d spend time reviewing and learning from our matches. That’s why they reached top four in KIC 2025. It also sends a message to other regions. If you want to get good results, you have to work two times, three times harder than the other teams.”
That’s some heavy praise coming from the undisputed kings of international HoK. Hopefully the other Filipino teams, not just Blacklist, take this to heart and maybe next time we’ll not just be challengers, but contenders for the trophy as well.
Banner photo from Level Infinite.