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UK esports organisation Verdant have announced their 2025 roster for the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC).
This includes UK jungler noname, who has played in the Spanish Superliga and made his EMEA Masters debut in 2023.
He’s joined by Portuguese top-laner PapiTeero, Romanian mid-laner Ronaldo, Swedish bot laner Mishigu (formerly of MNM Gaming and Schalke) and Portuguese support player Obstinatus, who was most recently with UCAM Esports Club.
These will be led by Danish manager Nicklas ‘NDanskmand’ Danskmand, who says it will be an ‘easy league’, Turkish head coach Emre ‘Arkhe’ Akpınarlı and British psychologist George Horne.
Esports News UK understands Verdant were also in talks with LEC players and former LEC players, but these negotiations ultimately stalled. Rhuckz tweeted out, saying he was in talks to join Verdant with ‘two different players’.
The roster is also playing in the group stage of the European Pro Series.
Verdant founder Sam ‘Sami’ Cunningham told Esports News UK: “We are extremely pleased to have acquired a strong roster ahead of the 2025 season, which is set to be one of the most stacked seasons we have ever had in the NLC.
“We have strong competition this year with teams such as Los Ratones, Nord and Ruddy bringing strong line-ups, which is only good for the league.
“We are excited to see the competition commence on the rift, as we look to show what ERL talent is capable of doing!”
The news comes after Verdant won the 2024 NLC Aurora Cup and UKEL 4 Nations double recently.
“We are extremely pleased to have acquired a strong roster ahead of the 2025 season, which is set to be one of the most stacked seasons we have ever had in the NLC. We have strong competition this year with teams such as Los Ratones, Nord and Ruddy bringing strong line-ups, which is only good for the league.”
Sam ‘Sami’ Cunningham, Verdant
NoName added: “Thanks for Spain for the last few years, but it’s time to take a detour to win on my home turf. NLC 2025 looking exciting.”
The NLC, the EMEA Regional League for the UK and Nordics region, is enjoying a resurgence right now, with streamers like Caedrel and NoWay involved, plus big-name players like TheBausffs, Santorin and many more.
Caedrel’s new team, Los Ratones, are taking part in the NLC this year, which should ramp up viewership, and Nord Esports’ roster is adding to the NLC 2025 hype with UK talent xMatty and more.
UK org Ruddy Esports are also due to make their roster announcement too.
We’ll also aim to do some kind of roundup/preview once all the announcements have been made.
Get the latest NLC esports news here
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
