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[Review] Analysis of HMB vs ARC in IBL in Infinity Kingdom

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Article Publish : 09/06/2026 12:21

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💠Introduction

What’s up, folks? Welcome back to my Illusion Battlefield League(IBL) series, where I take a closer look at different matches. The IBL tournament differs from regular IB in that everyone will construct marches and skill builds using a fixed set of skills. At different stages of the tournament, more immortals and skills will become available. Everyone has access to the same immortals and the same skills. Castle skins and Lord Talents do not affect the more fast-paced battles of IBL. Relocations and marching speed are also faster. The event is one of the most entertaining events in Infinity Kingdom, and players enjoy spectating, almost like a sporting event. In this article, I’m going to take a closer look at the match between Server 52’s Hakuna Matata(HMB) and Server 73’s The Arcane(ARC).

💠Table of Contents

Overview
Starting Positions and Talents
HMB
ARC
Tower 1
Tower 4
Central Tower
Altars
Home Towers
Play-by-Play
Summary

💠Overview

HMB entered the Group Elimination phase with a 6–1 record, with their only loss coming against tournament favorite AoW. They remain a solid mid-tier team but have struggled to compete with the top alliances, and their absorption of IMPK’s experienced IBL players has not elevated them as much as expected. ARC finished the Points Phase at 7–1, also losing to AoW in similarly convincing fashion, but dominated the rest of their schedule, including several opponents that finished inside the top eight. Based on their performances so far, ARC is significantly stronger overall and should enter the matchup as the clear favorite.

💠Starting Positions and Talents

HMB

Started with 17 players and ended with 20
12 Attack talents
4 Defense talents
1 Support talents

ARC

Started with 27 players and ended with 30
15 Attack talents
8 Defense talents
4 Support talent

💠Tower 1

HMB sent just one player to Tower 1, while ARC committed eight, effectively signaling that HMB was conceding the objective from the start. Once ARC recognized the massive numbers advantage, they should have canceled at least half of their relocations and redirected those players toward more heavily contested objectives.

💠Tower 4

HMB sent eight players to Tower 4, while ARC matched them with eight of their own. Generally, as the bottom-sided team, HMB would have been better off conceding Tower 4 and prioritizing Tower 1, since Tower 4 is naturally closer to the top-sided team’s spawn. However, this matchup was somewhat different because ARC did not have any favorable edge spawns that could be used to block HMB’s relocations, giving HMB a better opportunity to contest the tower than usual.

💠Central Tower

At the Central Tower, HMB sent five players, with one attempting to relocate to ARC’s side of the objective to block two incoming relocations. ARC committed ten players and should easily reach the tower first with such a massive numbers advantage. If ARC recognizes HMB’s aggressive relocation and blocks it instead, they should have little trouble establishing control of the area and securing the objective.

💠Altars

Neither team sent anyone to either altar.

💠Home Towers

HMB stationed two guards at their home tower. They could have taken a gamble and left it open until six minutes into the match since they had fewer players. ARC had one player guarding their home tower.

💠Play-by-Play

At Tower 1, ARC completed all eight relocations despite HMB effectively conceding the objective, when at least half should have been canceled and redirected elsewhere. ARC immediately began besieging the tower while attacking the lone HMB defender, who was quickly zeroed within a couple of minutes. ARC captured the tower shortly afterward, allowing several of those players to finally rotate toward the Sun Altar.

At Tower 4, ARC landed first but failed to destroy any of HMB’s incoming relocations. HMB drew first blood by quickly zeroing one ARC player before ARC responded by eliminating an HMB player on the bottom side. Reinforcements from the Central Tower and ARC’s spawn gradually strengthened their position, allowing them to zero several more HMB players, but HMB remained persistent. After effectively conceding Tower 1, HMB desperately needed to win Tower 4 and continued replacing their losses as both sides traded players. However, ARC’s significantly larger numbers eventually gave them the advantage in the battle of attrition. Despite HMB’s best efforts to deny the capture, ARC finally accumulated enough players around the objective to secure Tower 4 at the 17-minute mark.

In the middle, ARC immediately took control by blocking one HMB relocation and destroying another. When two additional HMB relocations began building, ARC quickly destroyed both before turning their attention to the three remaining defenders and zeroing them one by one. With HMB completely cleared from the area, ARC surrounded the Central Tower and captured their second objective just 11 minutes into the match. HMB was unable to generate any meaningful offense and spent the entire engagement simply trying to survive ARC’s pressure.

Eight minutes into the match, ARC began relocating toward HMB’s home tower, where three players were defending. At the same time, ARC players from Tower 1 rotated to the Sun Altar, eliminated two HMB players who had relocated nearby, and then began advancing toward Tower 3. This forced additional HMB players who had been flown from Tower 4 to rotate back and defend their home tower, reducing HMB’s pressure at Tower 4. With ARC already comfortably ahead, forcing HMB to commit more resources to defense only strengthened ARC’s position elsewhere on the map. ARC continued teleporting reinforcements toward Tower 3, gradually pushed HMB farther back, surrounded the objective, and captured their final tower at the 23-minute mark. ARC had already built a 30,000-point lead by then, and taking the final tower was effectively the nail in the coffin.

💠Summary

ARC dominated HMB 100,000 to 12,000, with Dahon earning MVP. HMB’s poor attendance was a major factor in the loss, but the bigger concern was their lack of individual strength and coordination, as too many players allowed nearby teammates’ relocations to be destroyed instead of garrisoning and protecting them. HMB put up a respectable defense at Tower 4, but struggled everywhere else on the map. ARC did an excellent job leveraging control of its winning objectives to reinforce other battles, first using pressure from the rest of the map to help secure Tower 4 and then using the pressure generated at Tower 3 to further dismantle HMB’s defense. ARC advances to the next round to face Server 209’s HK, while HMB drops into the Silver Bracket to face Server 474’s WAFL.