Global esports organisation Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP) has officially announced its full LPL line-up for the 2026 competitive League of Legends season.
The new roster will include two Korean imports, top laner Yoon ‘HOYA‘ Yong-ho and Koo ‘Guwon‘ Kwan-mo, alongside the Chinese trio of mid laner Yang ‘Care‘ Jie, ADC player Zou ‘Assum‘ Wei, and support Wang ‘Zhuo‘ Xu-Zhuo.
Announced through an official post on NIP’s social media channels, the team will also have a sixth member and substitute top laner Zhou ‘Alley‘ Yu. The Head Coach will be Zeng ‘Maizijian‘ Xin-Yi, re-joining the organisation after his previous stint between 2023 and 2024.
Hoya joins the team from fellow LPL side ThunderTalk Gaming, while Care and Assum last year competed for FunPlus Phoenix, which has now left the league. Support Zhou joins NIP following a stint at JD Gaming, where the organisation finished 3rd in the 2025 LPL Regional Finals.
NIP Rebuilds Roster From Scratch
It was a major rebuild for Ninjas in Pyjamas during the offseason after a year full of ups and downs. At the start of the 2025 season, the team had put together a strong core of players from 2024, including top laner Deng ‘shanji‘ Zi-Jian, bot laner Hu ‘Leave‘ Hong-Chao, and former world champion Kim ‘Doinb‘ Tae-sang.
The team had a strong start in the LPL, finishing in the top six in Split 1. The following split, however, several members had a drop in performance, pushing NIP back to the mid-pack.
Despite changing three of the five members (top, jungler, and support) between the second and third split, NIP was barely able to enter the top eight and ultimately missed out on the Worlds qualification, which was on home ground in China.
After parting ways with its whole roster, the new line-up is expected to be competing once again in the mid-pack of the league. On paper, most of the players have plenty of experience built over the years.
The only exceptions are jungler Guwon, who previously played for T1’s academy team in 2024 and made his tier-one debut this year with the Japanese team DetonatioN FocusMe in the LCP, and Alley, who is, however, not expected to play as the starting top laner.
The new NIP lineup is set to first compete in the year-end Demacia Cup, which kicks off on December 15th, before the new season starts in January 2026.
