The Queens’
demise was greatly overstated—long live the
Eternal Queens. After initially disbanding at the end of 2025 following their
victory in the inaugural League of Legends Game Changers: Rising, Eterna returns in 2026 with a reshaped roster, ready to reclaim its place at the top.
Last year, the team broke onto the scene against all odds, leaving nothing but scorched earth in their wake despite competing on a part-time basis without funding—aside from FlyQuest’s
last-minute support to cover their LAN attendance in Paris, France.
Now, new challenges await the squad. While doubts remain around their return, the retention of three core players and the coaching staff makes Eterna a clear contender once again. Established teams would be wise not to underestimate them, lest history repeat itself and the reigning champions once again turn would-be challengers into vassals.
“Our conversations haven’t been about just trying to win. They’re about doing our best to go undefeated.”
— Ivy "Starrie" Starr, Toplaner of the team
Eterna’s completed Game Changers roster
- Toplane: Ivy "Starrie" Starr
- Jungle: Alexis "Thorn" S. (ex-Solary)
- Midlane: Sasha "Sashy" Barrault
- ADC: Fabienne "Clef" Kersting (ex-Solary)
- Support: Nova "sea" Jenčáková (formerly AD Carry)
- Coach: Frank "RdHausFoX" Biondo
- Manager: Myra "myra" Davis
- Substitute: Lilly "Lilium" Cintosun
With only two new additions to the roster—
former Solary Academy jungler Thorn and AD Carry Clef—the now-iconic transatlantic organization aims to pick up right where it left off. Nevertheless, the squad’s adaptation, as well as sea’s ongoing role swap—a recurring tradition in her career, having
now played all five roles as a starter in the women’s scene—raises the question whether Eterna will simply continue as usual or reveal an entirely new identity.
“Both Delicate (Chara Giannopoulou) and Virtuosa (Skylar Hew) had very, very strong voices in game. Losing them both changed our way of communicating a lot,” toplaner Starrie explained. “Comms are more controlled now. There are fewer people shouting all the time. We’re just more naturally on the same page,” she concluded.
Historically a strong AD Carry in the scene, Clef nevertheless joins the team under
lingering scrutiny. Earlier this year, she
was initially set to play for Yumeea alongside Sashy and sea, though her stint with the roster was cut short after screenshots allegedly showing racist remarks from the player surfaced online.
Those screenshots were
later deemed “impossible to verify” and were ultimately traced back to an individual who had
harassed and attempted to blackmail Clef over an extended period, as confirmed by one of Yumeea’s co-owner. Despite that, Clef was still removed from the team for other unspecified reasons.
Though the team’s announcement comes only days prior to the start of the season, Eterna have in fact been intermittently scrimming over the past two months, albeit on a part-time basis. This period was also spent finalizing the roster and coaching staff, as several alternative iterations were initially considered.
Diverging Timelines
If there’s a guiding philosophy behind Eterna, it is undoubtedly the friendship and synergy of its core.
“We’ve always really gotten along both in-game and out of game, and I think they’re just really good players,” Starrie explained. From nights spent playing the
hit co-op game PEAK to long hours together with players—including Clef—and coaches alike, whether scrimming or dismantling the competition in official matches, that principle has guided the squad from the start.
“From the beginning, even before Nova Series ended, these were the people I wanted to team with.”Nevertheless, as
originally announced—and notably due to the team’s lack of funding—Eterna’s return was far from guaranteed in advance. After their magical 2025 run, the roster went their separate ways:
jungler Delicate joined Vitality,
Virtuosa refocused on North American play, while Sashy and sea joined Yumeea ahead of the
LFL Invitational. Throughout this period, Starrie explained that she still hoped for a reunion and kept messaging her former teammates to gauge interest, even as she explored other options herself, including a one-time scrim trial for Mental Rush, which ultimately went nowhere, by her own account.
As the Yumeea project eventually fell apart, an opening emerged. Things only began to solidify in March, though early plans looked quite different. Initially, Starrie explored a roleswap to jungle to allow sea to return to toplane, while bringing in Ana "IanaTheAlpha" Ioana Popp to fill the support role, who had been Eterna’s substitute in 2025. However, that plan did not materialize, as Iana ultimately decided to step back from competitive play. After evaluating options in both jungle and support, the team ultimately landed on Thorn, who was suggested by her former teammate Clef, who had since joined the roster.
“All of us agreed that Thorn was by far the best jungler available. Even with other junglers available, she would still be one of the top picks for sure.”
— Ivy "Starrie" Starr
Limited Resources
A team without funding, Eterna’s run last year stood out especially when compared to established organizations with salaries, offices, bootcamps, and more. This year, that same reality is once again set to be a challenge.
The issue is only exacerbated by Starrie’s position as the team’s sole North American import: “I have a full-time job. I work 30 hours a week, and sometimes go straight from three games of scrims into a seven- or eight-hour shift at work. If I manage my time well, we can still get in two to three days of scrims every week,” Starrie explained.
For other reasons, midlaner Sashy also has to navigate her own obligations, per Starrie: “University is also difficult to manage. Sashy is in her final year right now. She has a lot of field work to do and is away from her computer for long periods of time.”
“Overall, those issues are manageable. They just eat away at your life a bit.”
— Ivy "Starrie" Starr
Time was also of the essence for RdHausFoX, who nearly missed rejoining the roster due to commitments in his real-life job as a critical care paramedic. A large part of the last two months was spent trying to find a suitable coach for the team, before FoX ultimately managed to find an opening to reprise his role.
“We tried a couple of coaches, but nothing really clicked. The only one who did was Takimon (Davin Ramtahal), but he couldn’t commit the time required,” Starrie explained. “The time we’ve worked with FoX has been great. He does so much more for a team than any other coach I’ve worked with in my career.”
The toplaner then confessed she believes her lack of tryouts and offers is closely linked to her status as an American player and the team’s limited resources:
“A lot of teams emphasize the media aspect of having a female team as much as the competitive aspect, because that’s what makes them money at the end of the day. When you live in America, it’s much harder to do media days, videos, and promotional content.”
She continued: “The optimist in me is hopeful that if the scene grows enough, and if I continue to distinguish myself, then eventually the budgets will be high enough and the investment will be worth it for a team to help me relocate and play full-time for them.”
“Right now, it feels more like a temporary career—something I’m doing to create memories I can talk about for the rest of my life.”
— Ivy "Starrie" Starr
Defending the Crown
Competition is fast approaching, and Eterna are preparing to make their long-awaited return to the scene. The squad is set to make its debut on the weekend of May 16–17 in the
first qualifier for the Equal Esports Cup, where it will compete for one of two spots at the main event in July.
Later on, the team will also take part in the
first of five stages of LGC: Rising 2026, running from May 30 to June 2. There, Eterna will face some of the scene’s most established competitors in a bid to earn points toward playoff qualification, where the reigning champions hope to defend their title and remain the only team to have ever won a Game Changers trophy.
“Everyone on the team is confident that we are an extremely competitive team. We genuinely think we’re going to win, and if we can iron out our hiccups, we’ll be the best team in the scene, by far.”
— Ivy "Starrie" Starr
