The Arena of Valor World Cup is coming to North America, bringing a new challenger in the realm of MOBA esports. Being the new game in town there’s a lot of questions surrounding this new event, particularly for those wondering just how the competitions will play out. Twin Galaxies was able to speak to a Tencent representative who shed a little more light on what to expect from the AoV Cup.

The original competition announcement mentions some “regionalized and collegiate-level tournaments." When we asked for more information on those, the Tencent rep, whose name was not provided, was happy to expand on them.

On the question of if these events would be stadium-level competitions or outfitted for smaller venues the answer was plain and simple: both. “We would love to see a national intercollegiate championship, but we also realize that we need to start small,” the rep explained. “So, the strategy will be to start with smaller venues and, when the time is right, we will go big.”

As the World Cup is slated for July, we asked if these regionals would be taking place before or after the big event, particularly if there’s enough time to get some regional events off the ground before that July timeframe. The rep was quick to assure us that there is a firm and carefully planned schedule in place.

“We are committed to a long-term esports scene in US, but we need to take our steps very carefully,” the rep continued. “Currently, we have the Arena of Valor World Cup planned for July with some small-sized tournaments taking place likely around April or May, and we hope this tournament can lay a good foundation for our US esports scene.”

Considering this is the first AoV World Cup, will the success of the event impact the future of the company’s esports campaign here in the United States? According to the Tencent rep, every tournament serves as a measuring stick and the upcoming Cup will be no different. “We continue to modify our esports plan after each tournament, including the Arena of Valor World Cup,” the rep responded. “Once again, it is a long-term commitment, but we want to approach this organically.”

The last question to the insider was lighter, but no less important: who are some of the big teams we should expect to see come World Cup time? The answer was a trio of teams that I was told to watch for in the coming months, all of which have shown major prowess in earlier AoV competitions.

First is Team Liquid, who has already assembled a core group of talented AoV players to its North American team. Names like Chen-Long “Nyjacky” Wang, who retired from League of Legends in order to play AoV; Jordan Dean “Zested” Scott, a former MLG Pro in Halo and other FPS games that currently sports a 71% win ratio in AoV; and Willard Hyrum Welsey “TheBigDog” Goodwin, a former Vainglory champion who achieved the highest rank in Vainglory while only playing for two years.

Next is Vitality, the well known League of Legends and Call of Duty esports group that signed French phenoms Team 404 specifically for Arena of Valor play. The team consists of Azure, Flow, Moon, Redemption and Suitaro, and they come to Vitality after playing in multiple tournaments together across Europe.

Finally there’s SK Gaming, who like Vitality signed a top European team in Turkey’s Team Viivax to represent them on the AoV stage. Team Captain Yunus “Pich” Saral, mid player Yunus “Lui” Ata?, roamer Okan “EDU” Hapakaz, and the rest will look to bring SK Gaming the first ever Arena of Valor World Cup when the tournament kicks off in the summer.

Tencent has itself a hit with Arena of Valor, but the company’s first major push into Western esports could be the difference between its current standing and total domination of the MOBA scene. We’ll see what happens come July, but for now it’s refreshing to have a new name trying to take on the LoL/DoTA 2 giants. Competition always benefits the consumers, as the saying goes, and the success of AoV can only mean great things for the MOBA world. With a plan like the one described above, Tencent might have the winning formula.