It is a luxury coaching staff that the United States has assembled for the Esports Nations Cup. Two LCS head coaches will lead the American team in Riyadh: Nicholas "
Inero" Smith, currently at the helm of
, will serve as HC, announced the US team on Thursday. Per sources, he will be assisted by Thomas "
Thinkcard" Slotkin, who is currently leading
, the team announced on Thursday.
Moreover, this is not the first time Inero and Thinkcard have combined forces within the same coaching staff. During the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split, they were both at the helm of Echo Fox, finishing fourth in the league. Seven years later, they reunite to lead their nation, aiming to represent the United States as strongly as possible.
Two Prominent Coaches From The North American Scene
Inero began his coaching career in 2015 in the EUCS with MOUZ NXT before moving to North America. He went on to work within some of the biggest organizations in the region, including Golden Guardians and Immortals in the LCS, Disguised in the NACL, and more recently Cloud9 from 2025 onwards. With C9, he has repeatedly reached the league finals, but has never managed to secure a title throughout his career.
Thinkcard, on the other hand, first had a short career as a jungler before transitioning into coaching in 2016 with Cloud9 Challenger. He then took charge of FlyQuest in 2017, before joining Clutch Gaming, which he led to Worlds qualification, and later moved to Dignitas. He went on to coach Counter Logic Gaming and NRG, with whom he reached his second Worlds appearance, making it all the way to the quarterfinals.
More recently, he was at the helm of FURIA in LTA South before returning to FlyQuest in 2026 to lead their new roster. Thinkcard therefore holds a more decorated résumé, having won the 2016 NACS Summer with C9, the 2023 LCS Championship with NRG, and Split 2 of the LTA with FURIA.
Potential Roster
The United States has a very deep player pool, one of the largest in the West. In the toplane, we could see Niship "
" Doshi, as he is the only American currently playing in the LCS. In the jungle, the options are much broader, with Robert "
" Huang, Lawrence Lin "
" Xu, Johnson "
" Le, and Juan "
" Garcia, all American players competing in the LCS.
For midlane, the league features three options: Isaac "
" Chou, Cristian "
" Palafox, and the frontrunner for the role, Eain "
" Stearns, while at AD Carry, the team could rely on either Sean "
" Sung or Sajed "
" Ziade. Finally, in the support role, Alan "
" Cwalina stands out as the clear choice and would also be the only American player in this lineup not currently playing in the LCS.
All information about the ENC 2026
Scheduled from November 2 to 29 for its first edition in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, the nation-based competition, the largest in esports history, is expected to bring together thousands of players from around a hundred countries, competing across nearly 16 games. Alongside the League of Legends tournament, set to take place from November 21 to 29, there will also be nation-based competitions in VALORANT, Counter-Strike, Rocket League, and Rainbow Six: Siege. For Riot Games’ MOBA title, around 32 teams, each representing a nation, will compete on site.
Before that, the participants still need to be decided. The Esports Foundation, which oversees the ENC and the Esports World Cup (two separate events), has decided that 16 teams out of the 32 will qualify directly for the final tournament, based on the results of their representatives in Riot Games’ official competitive circuits. The other participants will have to go through seven regional qualifiers, each offering two spots. The remaining two slots will reportedly be allocated by the ENC in the form of wildcards, likely at the discretion of the event organizers.
