Natus Vincere has officially built what can be called its first real roster. After taking over Rogue’s slot for Summer 2025 and fielding a line‑up partly made of former Rogue players, the team plans to play its own hand in 2026 and is putting forward one of the most intriguing offseasons in the league. It is intriguing because, for once, a European organization has built its entire line‑up around fresh blood coming almost exclusively from the LFL, with very little experience at this level of play.

Already in Summer, they had promoted Lee “Hans SamD” Jae‑hoon and secured Enes “Rhilech” Uçan from the LFL, even though the latter did not play that split, having been promised gametime in 2026 no matter what as the cornerstone of the roster. The rest of the offseason was driven by Vasilis “TheRock” Voltis, Summer LFL champion with Karmine Corp Blue, who was given the keys to the coaching staff very early in the transfer window.

Coaching staff first

Indeed, right after their early Summer exit, TheRock’s arrival was reported, and almost all players were then allowed to explore their options, as every contract except Emil "Larssen" Larsson’s and Hans SamD’s was coming to an end. Very quickly, a lot of dominoes started to fall.

Adrien “GotoOne” Picard and Jorge “Lopon” López were locked in early, rapidly forming the backbone of the staff, but the process itself was extensive, with TheRock interviewing a particularly large number of coaches, including names like Nicolas Perez who eventually ended as head coach for G2 NORD in the Prime League, Erik “Treatz” Wessén, and Ali “Craft1x” Aklan.

Three lanes to fill and a lot of options

With the jungle already secured through Rhilech, despite Fnatic’s interest and a proposed jungler swap with Iván "Razork" Martín, and the AD carry role already filled by Hans SamD, NAVI looked at many options for the three remaining positions while letting Kim "Malrang" Geun-seong, Adam "Adam" Maanane, and Larssen explore theirs.

The first signing was Volodymyr “Maynter” Sorokin, fresh off an LFL and EMEA Masters Summer title with Karmine Corp Blue; he will become the face of the team thanks to his Ukrainian nationality and will be making his debut in a Tier 1 league, chosen over Panagiotis “Empyros” Tantis, who will end up on Fnatic, and Óscar “Oscarinin” Muñoz.

NAVI then secured Polat “Parus” Çiçek, who was actually one of the very first targets on their list. Contacted at the very start of the offseason, Parus was NAVI’s number‑one option at support, but he initially declined, preferring to wait and see other opportunities as Worlds teams were eliminated.

The Turkish support also spoke with Fnatic and GIANTX, while NAVI, in case the deal fell through, considered options like Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus, Oh “Career” Hyeong‑seok, and Yoon “Jun” Se‑jun, who will end up on Team BDS, Dplus KIA, and GIANTX, respectively, in 2026.

Securing the midlane

The midlane took longer to lock in because of a quiet bidding war across several LEC teams for Vladimiros “Vladi” Kourtidis. NAVI was in that race, but after struggling to present a project that convinced the player, the organization turned to Marek “Humanoid” Brázda to bring veteran leadership. He ultimately chose Team Vitality instead, and the club finally moved to Yoon “Poby” Sung‑won, preferred over the last remaining option, Mateusz “Czajek” Czajka.

In the end, this is a project with little LEC experience, since only Parus has played a full year in the league in 2025, it is also one of the youngest rosters on average. Four of the five players come from the LFL, while Poby spent time in Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok’s shadow in LCK CL with T1 Challengers before coming to Europe last Summer.

Rather than inheriting Rogue’s legacy, NAVI has fully committed to betting on regional talent and a rookie international midlaner; on paper, the potential is very high, but the eventual ceiling of their level of play remains one of the league’s biggest question marks.

Natus Vincere's 2026 roster:

For more roster changes, check out our Transfers Hub and Offseason Live Tracker.