The 2025 Summer Split will mark NAVI’s very first appearance in the LEC following their acquisition of Rogue’s slot. From the previous roster, three players have been retained: French toplaner Adam "Adam" Maanane, Swedish midlaner Emil "Larssen" Larsson, and former jungler Kim "Malrang" Geun-seong. The latter will be role-swapping to support, forming a Korean duo in the botlane alongside Lee "Hans SamD" Jae-hoon. Rounding out the lineup is Spanish jungler Francisco "Thayger" Mazo Sánchez.

NAVI’s roster moves were largely influenced by their acquisition of Rogue’s slot, which came with keeping the contracts of Rogue’s existing players and coaching staff. They retained Simon "fredy122" Payne as Head Coach, his assistant Kim "Trick" Gang-yun, and Nico "Blueknight" Jannet as Head of Analytics. In toplane, the choice was straightforward: despite Rogue finishing in the bottom two in both Winter and Spring Splits, Adam was their best performer. He held his lane well, and most of the team’s rare standout plays often came from him.

NAVI’s jungle and botlane situation

As reported by Sheep Esports, NAVI will indeed keep Malrang but not in the jungle role. Instead, Thayger, formerly of Barça eSports—who won the SuperLiga Spring Split and reached the EMEA Masters grand final before being swept by Los Ratones—will take over jungle duties for the Summer Split. It’s also important to note that Thayger is signed only for the Summer Split, as NAVI is already planning for the future with the signing of Turkish jungler Enes "Rhilech" Uçan from LFL champions BK ROG Esports for their 2026 roster.

Still per Sheep Esports sources, Larssen’s decision to stay was tied to his acceptance of a significant salary reduction—particularly notable given that he was one of the highest-paid players in the LEC at the start of 2025, according to a previous Sheep Esports report. His new deal is now reportedly closer to the league average. As for the botlane, NAVI made a strong move by securing Hans SamD as their AD Carry, after buying out his contract from Ici Japon Corp. The Korean botlaner, who previously played for Gen.G Academy, Hanwha Life Esports in the LCK, and ThunderTalk Gaming in the LPL, is finally getting his shot in the LEC—a move many in the community believe was long overdue.

As confirmed by NAVI’s CEO in an interview for Sheep Esports, the organization is still paying the salaries of their former benched players, which made benching Malrang and signing a new support financially difficult to manage. At the end of last season, after the team’s starting support Lee “Execute” Jeong-hoon was suspended for disciplinary reasons, Malrang temporarily stepped in as support for two games. Since then, he has been playing almost exclusively support in solo queue and, as of July 28, is very close to reaching Challenger.

A stacked group

NAVI are in Group 1 for the LEC Summer Split, where they'll face the reigning LEC champions Movistar KOI and Winter Split winners Karmine Corp—two teams that currently look stronger on paper. Their real contenders for a potential Playoffs spot will be Team Vitality and GIANTX. Many fans see this group as the group of death, and while it does appear slightly tougher than the other one, that's partly due to NAVI's slot acquisition and roster upgrades, as Rogue were originally meant to be in this group.

While NAVI’s roster sparks curiosity and uncertainty about whether or not it can work, expectations remain fairly low given that this will be the organization’s first split in the league. Debut splits often come with growing pains, as seen with Karmine Corp in 2024 or BDS in 2022. Adapting to a new environment will take time, even if it’s not out of the question that things could click quickly between the players. NAVI may be focused on the Summer for now, but they’ve already begun planning for the future—evidenced by the signing of Rhilech for 2026.