Ho Chi Minh City, early December 2025. Twelve teams representing three regions, one cup, and a crowd that made the casters sound like background noise.
Full Sense defeated Flash Wolves 4-1 at the grand final of AIC 2025 – the most important event in the world of Liên Quân Mobile that year – and the semifinal stage was held in Hanoi, not Bangkok or Taipei as usual.
It is not an insignificant achievement. Vietnam has held world finals of this game before, but it has never managed to hold both of them on its territory in one competition.
Teenagers who would usually browse through Melbet Vietnam odds pages while a boring game takes place were watching the screen intently because a traditional round robin system was used in the group stage instead of a Swiss system, which fans have been demanding for ages.
Arena of Valor was released by Garena in Vietnam as far back as November 2016.
It is not the earliest example of mobile MOBA; however, it was timed perfectly to when smartphone ownership reached peak levels among Vietnamese teenagers, and the esports competition around the game was formed almost unintentionally.
The first competition was called Đấu Trường Huyền Thoại and included a prize fund in excess of a billion dong and eight teams selected through qualification tournaments at the level of cities.
A domestic league that plays by different rules
There is one major thing that makes AOG stand out from other esports leagues in Southeast Asia: No foreigners at all.
The RPL league in Thailand and the GCS league in Taiwan employ foreigners. Vietnam does not. All the players who have won any trophies in AOG were trained in the same regional system.
This could be one reason why ten trophies of Saigon Phantom are seen as less domination but rather something that is happening generation after generation.
However, since Spring 2026, the situation will change.
In September 2025, it was announced by Garena that AOG will become a partnership system league without any promotion and relegation. Some new features appear with such a decision:
- Bounty Prize pools, introduced from Honor of Kings, make their debut in the AoV Pro League.
- The existing teams will be reconsidered according to the new standards and won’t be accepted by default.
- The semi-pro league is organized below the professional one, allowing lower-rated players to play for their places.
Certain fans leave the application running on their smartphones for match previews; at times, they even switch to browse the Melbet casino bonuses in between the two halves and then right away come back to the drafting stage.
The calendar keeps getting busier
2026 will be the noisiest season ever for Liên Quân fans in Vietnam because there is now not only AIC.
The APL (Arena of Valor Premier League) comes back to Vietnam after many years of absence and holds games both in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, where a final of the tournament will happen for the first time. Sixteen teams, $500,000 of prizes, Swiss group stage will go from June 18 to 28.
What really stands out this season is not the location but the format of the competition.
The solo match format makes its return to APL, providing star players the opportunity to perform on their own without being part of the team, and in July comes the first-ever Female Showdown with six women’s teams selected from AOG, RPL, and GCS.
| Event | Timing | Scale |
| AIC 2025 | Nov 17 – Dec 7, 2025 | 12 teams, Vietnam hosting both semis and final |
| AOG Spring 2026 | Starts early 2026 | First franchise-model season |
| APL 2026 | June–July 2026 | 16 teams, $500,000 prize pool |
| Esports World Cup 2026 | July 30 – Aug 8, 2026 | 20 teams, $3 million pool, first AoV crossover with Honor of Kings |
And then there is the participation at the Esports World Cup, an all-new experience for the AoV team.
With 20 teams, a $3 million prize pool, and a crossover system designed just for the EWC platform, where both AoV and Honor of Kings are used in the same event.
The top three teams from each of the AOG, RPL, and GCS qualify, and thus the Vietnam spot is almost assured.
Why the fanbase sticks around
It doesn’t say anything about why it matters to the kids, though.
And some of that goes all the way back to Team Flash, still the only team to win AWC and AIC in the same year to date, 2019, when Vietnam played host to the AWC world championship in Da Nang, and Flash took it down.
That’s the benchmark by which every young gamer and fan compares their own generation, the Grand Slam no one else has managed to pull off domestically.
There’s a reason that the broadcasting system has responded to the market demand. The entire system of broadcasts now rests with VTVcab, including ON Live, ON Live TV, and ON Plus.
There are no longer pirated streams or other countries’ broadcasting channels for a semifinal to be found. A kid watching from a provincial area sees the exact same quality stream as a kid in the stands of the Ho Chi Minh City stadium.
