This page traces the history of ROTK (Return of the King), the fan project bringing H1Z1 back to life, since its first playable version on July 17, 2026. Dates come from the team's official announcements unless stated otherwise.
Before ROTK
Early 2016: Daybreak splits H1Z1 into Just Survive and King of the Kill. King of the Kill will later become Z1 Battle Royale.
January 25 to April 21, 2017: King of the Kill Pre-Season 3, the version of H1Z1 ROTK is inspired by (movement, UI, recoil, division names).
2021: a community mod, Project Preseason 3, recreates the look of Pre-Season 3. ZEmu would later claim that ROTK reused these modifications without credit.
Before July 2026: the ZEmu project is already rebuilding an H1Z1 server based on the exact Pre-Season 3 (see ROTK and ZEmu).
July 2026
Date
Event
July 17
ROTK launch by MaszuKa and LeBerga, v1.0.0: login, hosted matches (Red Vs Blue), Combat Training and Solo, synchronized shooting for the AR-15, AK-47 and pump shotgun. The team states that the rebuild was produced with the help of an AI.
July 26
v1.1.0: first vehicles, spectator mode, destructible objects. Combat Training is the only open mode.
July 27
v1.2.0: fixes after the first stress test, shoe tiers, 215 doors.
July 30
v1.2.4: proximity voice chat, installation guide on rotk.app.
August 2026
Date
Event
August 1
v1.3.0: Pre-Season 3 restoration (movement, UI, models, animations, sounds), thanks to ghostkappa's assets. According to rotk.app, leaderboard Season 0 starts that day.
August 7
According to ZEmu, ROTK now presents itself as a "Pre-Season 3" emulator.
August 16
v1.3.32: Season 0 announced, leaderboard on the website, vehicles in Solo.
August 17
v1.3.36: PS3 crouch, five grenades in Solo, new healing values.
August 20 to 24
v1.3.41 to v1.3.44: players visible during the parachute drop, no more trades, gunshot audio correctly positioned.
August 22 and 24
The servers suffer DDoS attacks; the team advises restarting the game if a match is bugged.
August 24
First crate drop for players from the previous 48 hours. Followed by drops on August 26, 28, 30 and 31 (see Events).
August 28
Twitch skin set given to everyone who streamed ROTK.
August 29
End of Season 0 and start of Season 1. Rewards: Twin Galaxy Black set for #1 (Hxvachi), AR Scorpio for the top 3. The same day: database migration, Z2 map live, vehicles and dynamic gas.
August 30 and 31
Maintenance, then a fix for invincibility at high altitude. MaszuKa returns to the project; crate compensation for players active from August 24 to 31.
September 2026
Date
Event
September 1
Dev update "We are growing up!": thanks, conciliatory message toward ZEmu, bans, roadmap.
Early September
ROTK at ZEvent: about €7,000 raised for charities.
September 6 and 7
1,000 concurrent players, 10,000 Discord members, announcement of a community-reviewed anti-cheat.
September 10
v1.3.89: vehicles return to matches, pump shotgun buffed.
September 12
v1.3.94: North American servers open.
September 13
v1.3.104 to v1.3.106: season ranks; the AK-47 goes from 30 to 24 body damage.
September 14
v1.3.114: airdrops, bombing runs, 175 players per match.
September 16
Duos release, ROTK friends, team voice chat. North America moves to Dallas. In the evening, fix for the ping spike on landing.
September 17
v1.3.131: Sydney server for Oceania; Singapore becomes the Asia region. Lobbies of 150 players at night and 200 during the day. Combat Zone closed because of crashes.
September 18
Official position: ROTK will not go back to a Pre-Season 3 base and remains "its own version" of H1Z1. New friends system, no more slowdown when firing the pump shotgun. The Discord passes 20,000 members.
September 18 to 21
Duos event: a country t-shirt skin for each win.
September 19
20,000 unique players over 24 hours. A dedicated server is bought for European Solo, separate from Duos.
September 20
New Solo spawn points. DDoS attack; 22,038 players receive 11 crates as compensation.
September 22
234 accounts banned for cheating, including more than 200 in 24 hours. A real anti-cheat with hardware bans is in preparation.
September 23
Update against stuttering and new skins, after several delays.
September 22
Record of 6,009 concurrent players.
September 24
v1.3.142: PS3 recoil, vehicles in the lobby, Magnum in the loot, preparation for the "Kick Drop". New voice chat moderation rules (mic ban) and a reminder: no donations, no skins sold.
September 24
AyeZee Championship announced: $25,000 and 3 one-of-one skins, 150 players including the top 75 of the Europe Solo leaderboard.
Coming up
Announced by the team, with no date. ROTK says it refuses to give made-up release dates.
Fives, private matches and new modes: mentioned in the September 1 dev update.
AyeZee Championship: Europe Solo top 75 snapshot about three weeks after September 24; tournament date to be announced.
Kick Drop: Kick integration added in v1.3.142.
Official league and tournaments: divisions per season, verified registrations.
Battle Pass: ten levels, XP synced with the game, cosmetics.