VALORANT: Team Liquid completed VCT EMEA 2026 roster

After a 2025 season defined by contrasts from winning VCT 2025: EMEA Stage 2 to an early group-stage exit at VALORANT Champions 2025, Team Liquid approach 2026 with a renewed project. The organisation, a regular presence on the international circuit but still searching for consistency on the biggest stages, has chosen to retain the core that carried it to the top of the EMEA league while introducing new blood around it. Rather than starting from scratch, Liquid have opted for some continuity.

The club has indeed confirmed Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin and Kamil "kamo" Frąckowiak, both already present in 2025. They have completed the lineup with three significant additions: Dominykas "MiniBoo" Lukaševičius, Semyon "purp0" Borchev and Wayne "wayne" Chang. It is a substantial challenge for Team Liquid, who are nonetheless changing the majority of their roster following the departure of one of their standout talents, Georgio "keiko" Sanassy, to reigning world champions NRG, as well as the non-renewal of Nikita "trexx" Cherednichenko and Patryk "paTiTek" Fabrowski.

Team Liquid have chosen to double down on the defensive backbone that underpinned their strength in 2025. nAts, still regarded as one of the strongest and most influential Sentinels in the circuit, remains at the centre of the system and continues to play a pivotal role in overall game organisation. Alongside him, kamo, who joined last year, is retained after a solid season on Duelist roles that allowed Liquid to maintain a high level of explosiveness in entry situations and clutch scenarios.

Around this duo, the club has pursued an ambitious approach with three simultaneous arrivals. MiniBoo, purp0, and wayne join the lineup for 2026, completing a roster oriented towards proactive play. The trio is expected to add tempo and flexibility, giving Liquid more options in both composition and pacing. The objective is clear: build on the existing structure while increasing the team’s capacity to take the initiative against other top sides in EMEA and beyond.

The construction of this lineup fits into a broader strategy in which nAts' international experience and kamo’s development form the spine of a younger trio accustomed to moving between regional leagues and major events. MiniBoo, who has already made a name for himself at the highest level in EMEA with Team Heretics, purp0, long monitored as one of Europe’s top prospects and most recently competing with Joblife. wayne, a more recent profile, has already competed in Pacific tier two, after reaching Ascension and giving his team a chance to qualify for the VCT Pacific.

They embody the organisation’s intent to rely on players capable of scaling over the course of the 2026 season. With a solid core renewed and three targeted additions, Team Liquid enter this new campaign with a straightforward objective: turn their VCT EMEA 2025 title and international experience into a springboard toward a more complete 2026 season. It remains to be seen whether this five, designed to blend stability, aggression, and tactical depth, can turn this bet on reinforced continuity into sustained results on the international stage.