In a twist that surprised many fans, the Esports Foundation revealed on Tuesday that Nassim "nass" Bali will headline the Dutch roster at the Esports Nations Cup. The Gentle Mates star who competed for Morocco at the two previous FIFAe World Cups has pivoted to represent the Netherlands in November.
The 19-year-old will be joined by the Ninjas in Pyjamas duo Joris
"Joreuz" Robben and Ole
"oaly." van Doorn. Long-time Dutch RLCS player Justus
"justuszzz" Zielhuis, who currently plies his trade in the North American collegiate scene for Fisher College, completes the lineup. The Netherlands is one of 24 nations to have
already secured a direct invitation to the offline main event.
Nass, Mr. Worldwide
As one of Europe’s premium talents, nass has every opportunity to build an impressive international résumé. Since the retirement of former Major Champion Amine "itachi" Benayachi in 2025, nass and fellow countryman Samy "dralii" Hajji had to find a new talent to complete the Moroccan lineup.
Marouane "skyrix" Biba was chosen to feature at the 2025 FIFAe World Cup, but at that time he had made zero regional Open appearances in his career. The team, which had earned a top-four finish in 2024 with Itachi, crashed out in the group phase in 2025 despite featuring two of the world’s best individual talents.
In an
interview with Sheep Esports at the Paris Major, nass applauded the strength of the original Moroccan lineup but commented that “
now it's kind of going downhill”. In the same interview, he actually already indicated he had the opportunity to play for the Netherlands at the Esports Nations Cup due to his Dutch passport.
A title contender
Nass will be joining a more balanced squad featuring Joreuz and oaly, two RLCS veterans who appeared at the Paris Major earlier this month for Ninjas in Pyjamas. In the past three years, the duo has competed for the Netherlands with Mike "Mikeboy" Verkuijlen, earning top-eight finishes at the FIFAe World Cup in 2024 and 2025. The team will be coached by Shopify Rebellion coach Jos "ViolentPanda" van Meurs, who appeared for the Netherlands in Rocket League’s first national team tournament, the LOR World Cup, back in 2017.
Invitations to the main event were determined by the number of ranking points accumulated by the top three members of each roster – including the substitute – across all events in RLCS 2026. The Netherlands collected 221 points during the season, with nass contributing 101 points by himself. As a result, the country ranks 8th overall and could easily contend for the title with the usual favourites, France and Saudi Arabia. With the event set to take place in November, the roster has plenty of time to build chemistry despite not competing together for the FIFAe World Cup 2026.
