Venezuela appoints League of Legends Roster for the 2026 Esports Nations Cup

The League of Legends 2026 Esports Nations Cup rosters have been revealed on Thursday, and Team Venezuela looks like a contender to grab one of the two South American slots from the regional qualifiers. Team Argentina and Team Brazil qualified for the Main Event thanks to the Nations Ranking, which makes the Vinotinto one of the strongest rosters competing on the South American Qualifier.

The Venezuelan roster will mix players with different experiences throughout the Latin American ecosystem, and will be commanded by their flashy rookie jungler, Eloy “" Rodríguez:

STEPZ shone brightly down in CBLoL with RED Canids . From a young age, he has been widely known in the Latin American community for its prolific Solo Queue performances. The rest of the roster includes players with experience competing on the Collegiate League of Legends scene, or in the LRN, Latin America North’s premier Tier 2 league.

The Esports Nations Cup Ranking places Venezuela inside the Top 25 rosters in the World. They have a history of showing Latin America what they’re capable of. During the 2025 Copa Naciones edition, a yearly regional offseason tournament that aims to crown the best National Team in Latin America, Venezuela emerged as one of the two winners but couldn’t play the decisive match against the Latin American South Champion: Chile.

The only regional nation ranked above them by the ENC is Peru, a team Venezuela beat during the Copa Naciones. Bejjanii, STEPZ, Foxy, and Adjudicator, who then worked as a coach, were part of the roster that reached the final, even though they lost against Chile. The Vinotinto received the Revelation Nation award after the 2025 Copa Naciones, and STEPZ and Foxy were named on the First Team All-Pro from both regions.

Historically, Latin America has always been divided into two regions. First, the Latin America North, which was associated with Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, and Latin America South, which included countries like Chile, Peru, and Argentina. The Bolivarian Republic is geographically located in South America, yet the country has better ping when playing in the Latin America North servers.

According to a tweet made by the Head Coach of the Colombian National Team, both teams had petitioned the Esports Foundation to compete in the North American Qualifiers. However, this petition appears to have been denied, as they are scheduled to play in the South American Regional Qualifier.

The South American Regional Qualifier will start on June 20. The Vinotinto will kick off their tournament with a best-of-one match against Colombia in Round 1. Though Venezuela got the upper hand during the 2025 Copa Naciones, Colombia has handed them a defeat this year.

Colombia has won consecutive qualifiers for the 2026 Juegos Deportivos Centroamericanos y del Caribe against a Venezuelan National Team, with four of the seven players selected for the ENC South American Regional Qualifiers. The winner of this match will face the winner of Bolivia vs Peru.