An underwhelming season of Chinese Dota 2 has left only two teams representing the region at The International 2023. Now, both LGD Gaming and Azure Ray will look to clear the competition, all while bringing potential bonus rewards to millions of players around the world who enjoy their surprising title sponsor Honkai: Star Rail.
According to the official LGD Weibo account, miHoYo has stepped in to sponsor both LGD and AR ahead of TI12 and is offering a bevy of bonuses to everyone playing the Space Fantasy RPG depending on how well the teams perform on Dota’s biggest stage.
“Honkai: Star Rail will support LGD and AR at TI12. We wish these teams will show off their skills in this tournament without any regrets!” miHoYo said on Weibo on Oct. 6.
Since there are 18 teams competing at TI12 from Oct. 12 to 29, miHoYo has confirmed that if LGD and AR place anywhere outside of the bottom four, every Honkai player will get free Stellar Jade—one of the game’s premium currencies. The amount of Stellar Jade given out will only increase as the Chinese teams climb the standings too.
Starting at a 16th place finish, meaning both LGD and AR will need to clear the group stage and make it to the playoffs, 100 Stellar Jade will be given out to all Honkai players. That number increases by 100 Stellar Jade for each placement, all the way to 1,000 Stellar Jade in total if one of the teams lifts the Aegis of Champions—which would equate to a decent number of Warps in Honkai.
This announcement, which has yet to be made on either team’s English social media pages, has already started swaying some Dota fans to start rooting for the Chinese teams. There is a large crossover between Dota players and games like Honkai or Genshin Impact, as shown by Chinese legend Ame cosplaying characters from the latter earlier this year.
Because of that crossover and TI being one of the largest esports events in the world, miHoYo is likely using this partnership as a way to market its newest title as Honkai will launch version 1.4 and new content on Oct. 11, right before TI begins.
It could also serve as a boon for Valve as Honkai players interested in the partnership could tune into the event to at least check on the Chinese teams because Stellar Jade is on the line.
It is unclear if this official sponsorship will lead to any additional content, such as LGD or AR wearing Honkai-branded jerseys at TI, or if these rewards stack, but at least there is a nearly guaranteed bonus for Trailblazers watching at home.
