Finland has found its head coach for its League of Legends national team for Esports Nations Cup, according to sources close to Sheep Esports, in the person of Aleksi "Hiiva" Kaikkonen, currently with Arctic Pandas in the NLC. The former support for Gamers2, Denial eSports, and Misfits Gaming competed between the EUCS and LCS EU circuits from 2014 to 2019, before transitioning into coaching in 2021.

Hiiva began his new role at in the LFL before returning to Misfits, still within the LFL, after spending nearly a total of a year and a half as a player for the organization between 2016 and 2019, with several back-and-forth moves. With Misfits, he won the LFL 2021 Summer Playoffs and the LFL 2021 Finals before being promoted to the LEC within the same club the following year. In 2023, he joined ’s coaching staff and participated in the 2023 Worlds before stepping away, then returning in 2026 with Arctic Pandas in the NLC, a roster largely composed of Finnish players.

As a result, Hiiva and his national manager, Eemeli Ikonen, currently Head of Academy at ENCE, Finland’s biggest esports organization, will need to agree before the end of April on a selection of five players and two substitutes who will represent the country in League of Legends. There is an important restriction, with a maximum of three players from the same club allowed to join the national team, substitutes included. It is therefore impossible for the coach to bring his four Finnish players from Arctic Pandas to the competition.

Available on Sheep Esports in the Nations Cup section, League of Legends fans worldwide can vote for the players and rosters they believe should compete in the tournament, acting as the national team selector. Out of nearly 1,000 votes, the community selected Matti Antero "" Sormunen for toplane, Janne "" Heikkonen in the jungle, Anselmi "" Rintanen in mid, with Aleksi "" Merta as botlaner and Luca "" Nucci completing the lineup as support.

Scheduled from November 2 to 29 for its first edition in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, the nation-based competition, the largest in esports history, is expected to bring together thousands of players from around a hundred countries, competing across nearly 16 games. Alongside the League of Legends tournament, set to take place from November 21 to 29, there will also be nation-based competitions in VALORANT, Counter-Strike, Rocket League, and Rainbow Six: Siege. For Riot Games’ MOBA title, around 32 teams, each representing a nation, will compete on site.

Before that, the participants still need to be decided. The Esports Foundation, which oversees the ENC and the Esports World Cup (two separate events), has decided that 16 teams out of the 32 will qualify directly for the final tournament, based on the results of their representatives in Riot Games’ official competitive circuits. The other participants will have to go through seven regional qualifiers, each offering two spots. The remaining two slots will reportedly be allocated by the ENC in the form of wildcards, likely at the discretion of the event organizers.