[NA] KDS Esports Announce 2026 Roster Amidst Pre-Season Drop Scandal
- BSEN
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
KDS Esports have announced their roster for the 2026 season: ex-Spacestation. In a shocking twist of events, the Turkish organization has decided to pursue a different roster than previously announced amidst drama surrounding the formerly signed organization, Big Talents.
Big Drama for Big Talents
As reported on December 31st, 2025, BSEN was confident that German organization Big Talents was in fact the organization of choice for NA’s most notable players. Rumors had been circulating since the conclusion of the T-esports Championship Season 2 Finals, in which BGT’s EMEA roster placed second. On December 21st, 2025, Big Talents formally announced their expansion into North America for the 2026 season, a large step for an organization that found its roots running Matcherino tournaments. With rumors circulating about the signing of other rosters, it quickly became clear that by process of elimination, BGT was the organization of choice for Alexander “Patchy” Voigtlander, Daniel “bobby” Levitt, and Curtis “Sans” Whitaker.
In a series of now deleted tweets (pictured above) on the same day as our initial report, BGT teased their 2026 roster featuring an AI generated image of Santa Claus and a giveaway prompting the community to guess their new team. Although the face was blurred out, close examination of the portraits and internal sources have confirmed that the player shown was sans, intending to act as a hype campaign for the eventual roster announcement. The image is still visible on their website as of the publication of this article (January 24, 2026).
Drama Abound - for BGT and KDS
After nine days of radio silence from BGT, disaster struck. Bobby took to X (formerly Twitter) on January 10th, announcing the return to free agency for him and his team. This came as a shock to most considering the signing was announced just a few days prior. Rumors started flying - and with posts deleted, the narrative was all but confirmed that BGT had “failed to deliver their end of the deal.” While publicly unconfirmed, the most reliable and circulated information is that BGT’s primary sponsor backed out of their deal, resulting in BGT lacking funds to meet the agreed salary amount for the roster. This then led to them being released late into the-off season.
While this drama was going down in NA, KDS was embroiled in a drama of their own. On January 9th, the organization announced the signing of Masli, Movess, and Spocki, alongside coach Synergy and manager Lollo as their main roster for the 2026 season. From just missing LCQ in EMEA, to signing the second seed from SEA to represent them in Sao Paulo, this was a far fall for KDS – and the comments were brutal. Under a post about goals for the 2026 season, semi-pro European player “Yannic” took a jab at the organization. KDS swiftly clapped back with a post of their own showing Yannic’s lost to their new roster, but the result was more clowning than owning. Despite their efforts, few were confident in KDS’ new roster’s ability to even make it to day 2 of Qualifiers, much less Monthly Finals or the post season.
KDS’ new roster comes as a surprise, but it is certainly a welcome one for fans of both bobby’s team and the organization itself. With Synergy staying on as a coach for the organization and old friends Lukiebear and Real Canadian serving as additional team staff, KDS will look to pursue greatness in a new region away from home. After a disappointing return to the World stage, bobby and sans will look to finally return North America to the top in their fifth year as a duo.
KDS | Esports’ roster is:
🇨🇦 bobby
🇺🇸 Sans
🇺🇸 Patchy
🇬🇧 Synergy (Head Coach)
🇨🇦 Lukiebear (Manager)
🇨🇦 RealCanadian (Analyst)