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In a day filled with intense competition and dramatic comebacks, Nova Esports and Nongshim Redforce secured their spots in the grand finals of the Honor of Kings Invitational Season 3. Both teams emerged victorious from Ultimate Battles in the semifinal matches on February 28.
Nova Survives Team Vitality
Nova Esports, widely regarded as one of the tournament favorites, found themselves in a precarious position after taking the first game against Team Vitality. The European squad responded forcefully, winning three consecutive games to put Nova on match point with a 3-1 advantage. However, Nova Esports demonstrated their championship pedigree by winning the next two games to force an Ultimate Battle – a unique format where teams conduct a blind draft with no restrictions, potentially selecting the same heroes.
”Dreams ahead, brave hearts prevail”
The Supernova @NovaEsportsTeam the tables, rallying from 1:3 to a thrilling 4:3 victory! Welcome to the finals of #HOKInvitationalS3 !
Play Honor of Kings now!
https://t.co/SdNTPfeDat#HOKInvitationalS3 #HOKS3 #2025HOK… pic.twitter.com/ShWdJtaRgE
— HoK Global Esports (@HoKEsports) February 28, 2025
In the decisive Ultimate Battle, both teams selected four identical heroes: Dharma, Augran, Arli, and Dyadia. The difference came in the mid lane, where Nova’s Wang “Wendy” Jinwen chose Yixing against Guan “Wen” Ren Hao’s Mai Shiranui. Wendy’s masterful control-oriented gameplay proved crucial as Nova shut down Vitality’s aggression to secure the victory.
Nongshim Redforce Completes Reverse Sweep
The second semifinal featured a dramatic momentum shift as Blacklist International, the last remaining hometown team, stormed to a commanding 3-0 lead against Nongshim Redforce. With the Filipino crowd behind them, Blacklist appeared poised for a clean sweep. However, the South Korean squad displayed remarkable resilience, winning three consecutive games by turning around crucial team fights after weathering Blacklist’s early aggression in each contest.
The journey continues, the last battle of #HOKInvitationalS3 is awaiting.
Nongshim RedForce
, welcome to the finals！
Play Honor of Kings now!
— HoK Global Esports (@HoKEsports) February 28, 2025
In their second straight Ultimate Battle of the tournament, Nongshim Redforce showed refined tactics with a more varied hero selection. Only Augran and Mai Shiranui were picked by both teams. Nongshim secured an early Pentakill that set the tone for their victory, eliminating the last Filipino team and silencing the home crowd.
The Ultimate Battle system has emerged as a game-changer in the tournament, with three of the six Knockout Stage matches requiring all seven games. Nongshim Redforce becomes the only team to win back-to-back Ultimate Battles in the competition.
The Honor of Kings Invitational Season 3 grand finals between Nova Esports and Nongshim Redforce will take place today, March 1. The winner will be crowned champion of the first half of the Honor of Kings season and receive the largest share of the US$100,000 prize from the tournament’s US$300,000 prize pool.
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