Bushido Wildcats announce their roster for the TCL 2026

On Tuesday, Bushido Wildcats announced their roster for the 2026 TCL season: Soner "StarScreen" Kaya on the toplane, Taha "Elramir" Yurdagüven in the jungle, Alihan "Alix" Özdemir in the midlane, Mikhail "Kenal" Karpenko as AD Carry, and support Alexander "Lekcyc" Lexikov.

Although the Bushido Wildcats carry the legacy of the Istanbul Wildcats — a renaming resulting from a new partnership between DenizBank İstanbul Wildcats, HolyPhoenix, and Turkish streamer Jahrein — their 2025 season was far from remarkable. They placed 5th in Winter, 6th in Spring, and 2nd in Summer, the latter largely thanks to the arrivals of Kim "Zest" Dong-min, Lee "Peach" Min-gyu, and Emre "Kofte" Akça, narrowly falling one game short of the grand final against the dominant MISA Esports.

Unfortunately for the team, the end of their 2025 season is remembered more for the controversy surrounding their EMEA Masters Summer run rather than their results. Ahead of their second-round match against the Polish team Forsaken, several players from both sides engaged in online insults and inappropriate behavior, sparking a major drama that forced Riot Games to step in after the match — which Bushido Wildcats eventually lost 1–2. The organization now looks to move past these events and start fresh in 2026.

Two of them have already proven themselves with the club in the past. StarScreen spent the early years of his career with the Wildcats, first in the academy team and then on the main roster, at a time when the TCL was still a Tier 1 league. A three-time champion of the Turkish league, the toplaner also took part in several international competitions with the club: two MSI appearances in 2021 and 2022, as well as the 2022 World Championship. After a stint with FUT Esports, StarScreen went on to experience two new ERLs—the Superliga and the Arabian League—but has not won another ERL title since leaving the Wildcats.

Elramir, a seasoned Turkish jungler, also returns to the Wildcats after first joining the team in early 2023, when he won the EMEA Masters Spring title alongside Polat "Parus" Furkan Çiçek — still the biggest achievement of his career. He already competed with the team at GAMEON Revival 2025 in late November and is expected to remain as their starting jungler for 2026. At nearly 26 years old, he rejoins the TCL after two and a half years in the Arabian League, where he played

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