Karmine Corp unveils LEC and VCT 2026 Rosters

French esports organisation Karmine Corp has unveiled its LEC and VCT rosters that will be competing in the upcoming 2026 competitive season.

Announced during a livestream on January 7th, KC co-founder Kamel ‘Kameto‘ Kebir unveiled the teams for Riot Games’ titles, the new 2026 jersey, and its new commercial partners going into the new season.

The LEC team was the most anticipated announcement ahead of the livestream, as Karmine Corp looks to contend for domestic and international success in 2026.

The French organisation has kept top laner Kim ‘Canna‘ Chang-dong, jungler Martin ‘Yike‘ Sundelin, and ADC Caliste ‘Caliste‘ Henry-Hennenbert as the core trio. As a result, the team has brought in North American support Alan ‘Busio‘ Cwalina and Korean mid laner Kang ‘kyeahoo‘ Ye-hoo.

Busio previously played for FlyQuest and has competed at Worlds in the past two seasons, while kyeahoo was picked up from LCK team DRX.

The French team will also have a revamped coaching staff line-up, led by Korean head coach Bok ‘Reapered‘ Han-gyu with the support of assistant coach Quentin ‘Zeph‘ Viguié and Head of Data Benjamin ‘Xenesis‘ Castet. Reapered is a known face in the competitive scene, having previously worked with North American teams Cloud9 and 100 Thieves. This, however, will be his first time coaching an EMEA squad.

Karmine Corp has also announced the line-up for its academy roster, Karmine Corp Blue (KCB), which is set to participate in LEC Versus, a new kick-off tournament featuring two squads from the European Regional Leagues (ERLs) alongside the 10 LEC partner teams.

The only returning player from the 2025 roster is Johnny ‘Yukino‘ Dang, who will be joined by Italian-Chinese top laner Xu ‘Tao‘ Hongtao Alessandro, mid laner Kamil ‘Kamiloo‘ Haudegond, as well as the bot lane of Costin ‘Hazel‘ Pestrițu and Olivier ‘Prime‘ Payet. Ianis ‘Blidzy‘ Paul will be the head coach of the academy squad, replacing Vasilis ‘TheRock7‘ Voltis.

Both teams will kickstart their 2026 seasons with the start of the LEC Versus on January 17th and will face each other in the opening match.

The VCT EMEA roster saw the departure of three players: Martin ‘marteen‘ Pátek, Matias ‘Saadhak‘ Delipetro, and Artur ‘pyrolll‘ Minin.

In their stead, Karmine Corp has brought in Burak ‘LêwN‘ Alkan, Dastan ‘dos9‘ Zhumagali, and Bogdan ‘Sheydos‘ Naumov.

LêwN and Sheydos are familiar names in the EMEA scene: the latter previously played for KOI until the team was removed from the franchised league, while LêwN played for BBL Esports. The new entry is dos9, who played in VCT Pacific on BOOM Esports in 2025.

The coaching staff remained unchanged going into the new season, with head coach Andrey ‘ENGH‘ Sholokhov and assistant coach Ahmed ‘ZE1SH‘ Sheikh leading the squad.

The VALORANT Game Changers (GC) roster has also been fully retained, including its coaching staff, with Anastasiya ‘Glance‘ Anisimova, Azra ‘Alkyia‘ Erin, Anastasia ‘anesilia‘ Ivanova, Şura ‘Jiex‘ Yıldırım, and Safia ‘safiaa‘ Leghzal all staying heading into the new competitive year. The team had a strong start in 2025, winning both Stage 1 and Stage 2 in EMEA, but only came in sixth place at the VCT Game Changers Championship.

The VCT EMEA team will make its debut on January 20th with the start of the VCT 2026 EMEA Kickoff, while the GC team will start one week later with its VCT GC Stage 1 on January 26th.