Movistar KOI sign British ex-LEC pro Alphari as coach

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 12/01/2026

Esports organisation Movistar KOI has announced the signing of Barney ‘Alphari’ Morris for its LEC team as an assistant coach.

The Welshman is a former League of Legends pro himself, playing in the toplane for Misfits Gaming, Origen, and Team Vitality.

He attended LoL Worlds twice, in 2017 with Misfits and again in 2021 with North American organisation Team Liquid.

MKOI had a pretty good 2025, winning the LEC Spring Split and attending both MSI and the LoL World Championships.

Many felt the roster didn’t fulfil its potential after losing both their series at MSI and throwing away a gold lead against eventual Worlds finalists KT Rolster.

Now the line-up is going into another LEC season with the aim of picking up more trophies and attending more international events.

And MKOI will be hoping that Alpahri can help the team with a fresh perspective, particularly for talented toplaner Alex ‘Myrwn’ Pastor Villarejo.

And Alphari confirmed this in his first interview with the organisation:

“What drew me to Movistar Koi is that I’m a fan of Myrwn. This was actually one factor.

“Being a toplaner myself, I watched him for the past few years. I think it’s a shame I never got to play against him because he entered right as I left.”

Back in his playing days, Alphari was well-known for his excellent laning, and that may be more prevalent this year following LoL Patch 26.1.

New homeguards and tower pushing tools will make laning crucial.

Alphari says his “very intricate knowledge of small details” will help the team’s early game and laning phase, admitting it’s his area of expertise:

“I think there’s a lot of skill expression in being able to play 1v1, and thinking about matchups and jungle pathing.

Movistar KOI roster for 2026

MKOI are running a completely unchanged LEC roster next year to build on last year’s success.

They seemingly aren’t the only team with the same idea.

After making no roster changes either, GIANTX also signed a British ex-LEC pro in Maxlore as assistant coach.

MKOI’s roster for 2026 is:

• Top – Mrywn
• Jungle – Elyoya
• Mid – Jojopyun
• ADC – Supa
• Support – Alvaro

Elyoya is rumoured to have signed with the organisation through until 2027 as the leader of the franchise.

Meanwhile, the bot lane duo of Supa and Alvaro currently have contracts which expire at the end of 2026.

The duo have been challenged by the organisation and will have to perform well in order to earn new contracts.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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