Gen.G has announced the first four members of its 2027 Valorant roster during a live stream on t3xture’s SOOP channel, with former Nongshim RedForce duelist Lee “Dambi” Hyuk-kyu and former KRX controller Kim “MaKo” Myeong-gwan leading the reveal. Kim “Karon” Won-tae is also staying with the team after entering the offseason on an expiring contract, and t3xture said the fifth player is still being trialed and will be announced later.
The announcement leaves Gen.G with the outline of a lineup that already has clear strengths and a few obvious questions. Dambi arrives after a strong 2026 season with Nongshim, where he helped the Ascension side win Masters Santiago and was named MVP. MaKo joins after years in the DRX and Vision Strikers setup, while Karon returns as one of the team’s holdovers from 2026.
Dambi joins after Masters Santiago MVP run
Dambi is the headline addition in terms of raw firepower. VLR.gg reports that he comes over after helping Nongshim lift Masters Santiago, where he earned MVP honors. That season added to a reputation that had already made him known as one of the world’s best Neon players for much of the past two years.
Nongshim’s year changed when Neon was nerfed earlier this year. The team experimented with Dambi in different roles before eventually returning to the Neon-Yoru setup it used in Chile. Even with the agent changes, his duelist game expanded beyond a single pick, with Raze and Waylay also in his pool depending on the map.
That gives Gen.G a duelist who has already adapted to shifting conditions rather than one who is locked into a narrow role. Dambi has long been associated with Neon, but the source material says he has added more layers to his play, which should give the roster more options once the final lineup is complete.
MaKo leaves the DRX/Vision Strikers line
MaKo’s arrival is the more historic move. He is leaving the DRX colors for the first time in his career after competing for Korea’s first Valorant dynasty since 2021. He started as a 19-year-old rookie on a veteran roster and has since built a reputation as one of the region’s most reliable Controllers.
Along the way, MaKo has both taken on and stepped away from the in-game leader role, but his Controller work has stayed consistent. He also lifted the Pacific Kickoff trophy with DRX in 2025. According to the source text, he left KRX a few weeks ago after the team decided to release almost its entire roster, following the organization’s failure to secure one of the two Korean partnership slots for 2027.
Those slots went to Gen.G and T1, which makes MaKo’s move part of a larger shuffle in Korean Valorant. His departure also closes a long chapter for a player who had been tied to the Vision Strikers and DRX structure for years.
Karon stays as Gen.G tries to settle the roles
Karon remains with Gen.G after entering the offseason on an expiring contract, giving the team one familiar piece alongside the two new signings. Even so, the roster is not fully defined yet. The source says there was no indication of who will handle IGL duties, despite Gen.G using two different in-game leaders during the 2026 season in Lakia and Efina.
The early shape of the lineup suggests immediate overlap. Karon and MaKo are both smokes players, while t3xture and Dambi are both established duelists. Gen.G experimented with Karon in the Sentinel role at the start of the year, but the report says his best play came in Controller positions. Among the four announced players, there have been only two maps played as Initiator, so the fifth arrival is expected to fill that role.
That leaves the final trial spot as the last major roster question. The team has not named the player yet, but the role balance points toward an Initiator signing being the most likely outcome. The current core gives Gen.G multiple veterans with Pacific experience, but it also creates a lineup that will need clear role assignments before competition starts.
- Dambi and MaKo are the two new signings.
- Karon has been retained after his contract expired.
- The fifth player is still being trialed.
- No IGL has been named.
Gen.G tries to rebound after a quiet 2026
The move comes after a difficult stretch for Gen.G. Since rising to the top of Pacific and VCT in 2024, the organization has not kept that level. It reached just one international event in 2025, then missed the international stage entirely in 2026, with a fifth-to-sixth finish in Stage 2 as its best result of the year.
That downturn explains the scale of the rebuild. Gen.G is not simply making one change; it is piecing together a new core around two proven signings and one retained player, with one more spot still open. The mix is unusual because so much of the role structure is still unsettled, but the roster already includes players who have won on big stages and handled pressure in Pacific events.
The provisional lineup now includes Xiesta, Karon, t3xture, Raxcal, Dambi and MaKo in some capacity, although Raxcal’s contract runs through the 2028 season and no Gen.G future has been confirmed for him. The one clear development is the first four names on the 2027 roster card: Dambi, MaKo, Karon and the still-unannounced fifth trial player. What remains open is how Gen.G will divide duelist, controller and initiator duties once the full lineup is finalized.
so what do you guys think Gen.G needs most here, an initiator or another flex? Dambi and MaKo sounds nasty, but the role overlap looks messy on paper