The Winter I. T. T. 2026 - Ones To Watch

Pairings drop today (Wednesday 28 January 2026) — and this is exactly the moment teams players live for. Because once the matchup matrix is out, you’re no longer “getting ready for a weekend”… you’re getting ready for a pairing room war.

And the stage couldn’t be bigger.

This Winter ITT is at 158 teams / 790 players — the biggest teams event in the world, and bigger than last year’s 695 players.

So if you’re prepping properly, you’re not asking “can I win my game?” You’re asking: what result does my team need from my table , and how do we force it? 

With that in mind, here are two teams that will look to be repeating their previous ITT performances. We are going to take a deeper look at their compositions and look at the thought process behind the top teams building their roster.

Mind Goblins: the Winter crown-holders, back with the “toolkit” roster

Why they matter

In the 2024/2025 season, Mind Goblins finished #1 in the National Team Rankings, won Winter ITT, and won Spring ITT. That’s not a hot streak. That’s a team that understands how to turn roles into trophies.

In 2025/2026, they’re currently #5 nationally, which is exactly the kind of ranking that creates a terrifying dynamic: they’re still elite, but they’re no longer “the obvious #1”… and that’s what they are setting out to fix this time round.

Winter ITT Mind Goblins Team

Player	Faction	UKTC Rank (25/26)
Christopher Langton	Chaos Daemons	117
Louis Ballington	Adeptus Custodes	283
Dom Maidlow	Astra Militarum	315
Aidan Brocklehurst	Adepta Sororitas	537
Struan Robertson	Space Marines (Astartes)	300

What their comp is trying to do (roles)

UKTC’s Winter meta read is clear, (you can read our post on teams pairings in more detail if you want a better idea of what these terms mean): teams are building “a toolkit”, this typically looks like an anchor, attacker, flex, skew, patch. Mind Goblins show up with one of the cleanest versions of that idea:

• Astra Militarum (Dom Maidlow) — The Attacker - We literally calls Guard a “classic teams attacker”: mission play + output + the ability to punish specific archetypes and build differentials.

  • Translation: this is the slot you line up to win big when the pairing room gives you oxygen. But being fine into the wider field makes this a fantastic first defender.

• Adeptus Custodes (Louis Ballington) — The Hammer Custodes are described as a “problem solver” style pick - durable bodies, high-quality trading, and enough threat to play fair into a lot of the field.

  • Translation: if you need to take a punch without collapsing, this is often the name on the defender card.

• Chaos Daemons (Christopher Langton) — The Anvil previously I called Daemons a “quiet pairing weapon” with matchup-tech and scoring angles in a diverse field. Chris is easily the best Daemons player currently in the UKTC scene having dominated the past year with his now iconic section.

  • Translation: this list exists to make the opponent’s offers feel bad. There is no simple way to deal with it and not sacrifice the other match ups.

• Space Marines (Struan Robertson) — The Flex Marines have a huge combined representation because of their “complete range of skills and tools.” And struan is running the most popular of these, the Ultramarines. A truly brutal list rocking a significant amount of firepower this will be a bully in the pairings process for sure.

  • Translation: Marines are the roster glue — the piece you use to stop the draft from collapsing.

• Adepta Sororitas (Aidan Brocklehurst) — The Defender When the roster already has clear push players (Custodes/Marines) and pairing leverage (Daemons), Sisters often become the closer: the list you send in to take the bad match up.

  • Translation: No matter what match up, the goblins will be looking to Aidan to bring back points.

    
    

The Mind Goblins pairing plan to expect

Mind Goblins’ win condition is usually not “have five perfect matchups.” It’s force five survivable matchups and spike two of them — the exact “roles-first” thinking UKTC describes in their pairing process explainer.

If you draw them, assume they’ll try to:

• defend with something hard to blow out (often Custodes/Daemons),

• keep Marines in the chamber as the “go get us a number” attacker,

• use Daemons to create draft leverage and steer you into awkward choices.

Carnage: the Summer champions — now bringing a loaded roster

Why they matter

In 2024/2025, Carnage finished #7 nationally… but won Summer ITT. That’s the loudest possible signal that when they hit the right draft, they don’t just place — they take the trophy.

In 2025/2026 they sit at #20 nationally, which will fool exactly nobody once you look at the names on their sheet.

Winter ITT rosterr

Player	Faction	UKTC Rank (25/26)
Matthew Langton	Tyranids	88
Chris Cuerden	Adeptus Custodes	343
Joe Senior	Chaos Daemons	23
Craig Bedford	Black Templars	12
Scott Morris	Adepta Sororitas	1

This roster brings UKTC #1 (Scott Morris), #12 (Craig Bedford), and #23 (Joe Senior) in the same five. That is absurd top-end scoring power for a teams weekend.

What their comp is trying to do (roles)

Carnage’s roster reads like a captain saying: “Fine, if you want a pairing fight, we brought knives.”

• Adepta Sororitas (Scott Morris) — The Specialist This is your “if you give me a chance, I’ll win the round” slot. Long before his recent success with Tyranids - Scott was one of the highest ranked Sisters players in the country. He is returning to his roots here with a very stable scoring list that has the ability to blow out a game if his opponent gets complacent.

  • Translation: This list will not get run over, and can very easily spike points out of any matchup.

• Chaos Daemons (Joe Senior) — The Pairing Weapon A similar story to Mind Goblins here: Daemons create uncomfortable offers and win on matchup-tech, Joes list looks frighteningly close to Chris'. Perhaps unsurprising given these players regularly run into eachother and workshop lists.

• Adeptus Custodes (Chris Cuerden) — The Defender / Problem-Solver Again, Custodes as the “I'm not going to play fair into lots of things” tool. Chocked full of land raiders and Custodian Guard, this list is a midboard bully, it will take significant putting down, and if it connects... I expect we will see some big numbers coming out of Mr Cuerdens score sheet this weekend.

• Tyranids (Matthew Langton) — The Specialist Flex Nids often function as the tempo piece: board pressure, mission denial, and forcing mistakes under time. In teams, that’s gold - because it can turn “fine” matchups into “why are we losing 13–7?” situations. and Matt is up there with the best of them. He will look to leverage the lack of popularity for the bugs here to create a knowledge gap in pairings and push his list to the max.

• Black Templars (Craig Bedford) — The Specialist Trap Card in our faction review, we flagged Black Templars as one of the rarest factions at the event, and called them “a specialist choice.” This is a raw skew list into melee pressure, and with its newest detatchment can look to bring down some very large C'tan shaped targets.

  • Translation: Carnage didn’t bring this to be safe. They brought it to hunt something.

The Carnage pairing plan to expect

It is not a typo at the number of Specialists in my analysis here - Carnage came with a plan, and they came to play:

• throw out a defender that won’t implode (Custodes / sometimes Nids),

• use Daemons + Sisters to force you into two bad attacker choices,

• and keep Black Templars in the pocket for the moment your team exposes a weak slot.

If these two teams collide, there will be fireworks - and not just for the sibling rivalry the Langtons enjoy, both of these teams are well ranked to win the event and it would be no surprise to see them in the top cut.

The Bottom Line:

These two teams don’t just have “good players.” They have proven win conditions:

• Mind Goblins: the team that already knows how to win Winter ITT - and shows up with a roster that screams “toolkit discipline.”

• Carnage: the Summer champions, arriving with three top-25 UKTC players and a rare specialist pick that looks designed to swing a pairing room.

Pairings are now live on BCP.

This when the hype becomes real - because now everyone has to answer the only question that matters:

What is our first defender? And how do we deal with theirs?

So get your matchup reps in, lock your game plans, and come ready for the pairing room. This weekend is the world’s largest 40k team tournament, and it’s even bigger than last year… which means every round matters.

Missed out? Both Winter and Spring ITTs are SOLD OUT.

If you want a last-minute shot for May, jump on the waitlist. And if you don’t want that feeling again - make sure you save the date and sign up for our newsletter ahead of our upcoming launches.

Tickets go live this Friday 30 January at 2:00pm (UK time) for the all-new Manchester GT: Summer and the Birmingham GT. Set an alarm and be ready. You won't want to miss them.

Grab tickets via the UKTC Store