According to sources close to
Sheep Esports, New Zealand has selected Ben "
Benvi" Moore as head coach for its
League of Legends roster set to compete at the
Esports Nations Cup 2026. Currently active with
as an assistant coach, the Australian coach will therefore represent a neighboring country.
Active as a player from 2020 to 2024, mainly on the local scene, he started with Mammoth Academy in Australia before spending six months coaching Winthrop University and Legacy Esports, then returning to his role as a support. After stints with Kanga Esports and Team Bliss,
Benvi joined Ground Zero, with whom he won the Split 1 and Split 2 playoffs of the
League of Legends Circuit Oceania in 2024. From May 2024, he transitioned into the coaching staff of GZ before joining VKS in Brazil for the 2025 season. At the club, he took on multiple roles and even spent some time with the Academy roster.
All information about the ENC 2026
Scheduled to run from November 2 to 29 for its first edition in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, the nation-based competition, set to be the largest in esports history, is expected to bring together thousands of players from around a hundred countries competing across nearly 16 titles. Alongside the League of Legends tournament, which will take place from November 21 to 29, there will also be national competitions in Counter-Strike, Rocket League, and Rainbow Six Siege. For Riot Games’ MOBA, around 32 teams, each representing a nation, will compete on-site.
Before that, the participants still need to be determined. The Esports Foundation, which oversees the ENC and the Esports World Cup, two separate events, has decided that 16 of the 32 teams will qualify directly for the final tournament based on their representatives’ results in Riot Games’ official circuits. The remaining teams will have to go through one of seven regional qualifiers, each granting two spots. The final two slots are expected to be distributed by the ENC as wildcards, likely at the discretion of the event organizer.
