Tencent, which owns League of Legends, is about to launch Heroes of Newerth beta in China

As the Chinese operator of League of Legends and the parent company of LoL developer Riot Games, Tencent is clearly at the top of China’s MOBA heap. So here’s some news that may surprise you: Tencent is planning to introduce some competition for its own most popular game by launching Heroes of Newerth in a China beta this Wednesday.

Yes, Heroes of Newerth, the S2 Games-developed MOBA game that has been in operation globally since 2010, is finally coming to China via Tencent. It has an official Chinese title—超神英雄, or loosely: Ultra-God Heroes—and it’ll be available to lucky gamers who got their hands on a closed beta key starting tomorrow.

The game will compete with League of Legends in the MOBA space, but Tencent is probably hoping it’ll also challenge China’s other most popular MOBA games, the domestically developed Meng San Guo and Valve’s Dota 2, which is published by Perfect World in China.

How much interest there will really be in Heroes of Newerth in China remains to be seen; League of Legends and Dota 2 have eclipsed the game in popularity elsewhere, but that doesn’t mean Chinese gamers won’t be open to another new flavor of MOBA, especially since Heroes of Newerth is so similar to the original Dota Warcraft 3 mod that many Chinese gamers still adore.

(via Sina Games)

UPDATE 6/17: This article has been updated to remove the phrase “first-ever” as Tencent has actually run a few brief beta rounds of HoN in China previous to this round.