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The currently ongoing WePlay Academy League 2021 Season 2 is the WePlay Esports‘ second Academy league series tournament. The famous Ukrainian esports organizer recently added to their initial Season 2 announcement, that at least six CS: GO tournaments will be played using this the exact or similar format.
This is not the first attempt of the popular esports content production company to make a name for themselves on the competitive CS: GO scene. WePlay’s previous CS: GO championships included multiple series of online and LAN events.
Let us quickly remember the structure of the recent tournaments, and also take a quick look at the Academy League series and the latest WePlay Academy League 2021 Season 2 event.
Forge of Masters
One of the fresh examples was their Forge of Masters series, with the WePlay! Forge of Masters Season 2 tournament. It was the LAN championship, played in November 2019 in Kyiv, Ukraine, where one of the top CS: GO teams, namely 8 of them, including a few academy rosters, competed for the $100,000 prize pool.
During the event, the former European roster of team GODSENT from Sweden in the final game beat their opponents — Denmark‘s team Tricked Esport. The GODSENT vs Tricked Esport finals finished with the 2:0 score in favor of the Swedish organization. The first team earned $50,000 for their efforts, while the pursuers got $20,000.
Other teams in the final standings of this WePlay’s CS: GO playoffs event, such as Swedish-German organization GamerLegion and the youth roster of Russia‘s Gambit Youngsters, managed to finish third and fourth places, and received $10,000 of prize money.
Both teams lost their games in the semifinals stage. In the first semis, the match between GamerLegion vs Tricked Esport finished 0:2 in favor of the Danes. Gambit Youngsters vs Godsent, which was the second semifinals match, ended 0:2. The two winning teams headed into the finals of the Forge of Masters event.
Clutch Island
One of the next Ukrainian organizer’s CS: GO tournaments was WePlay! Clutch Island, which happened in June 2020. Unlike the previous tournament in 2019, the Clutch Island competition in June 2020 was already played online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The $50,000 RMR event’s 13 participants were the invited organizations, also teams from the RMR rankings table, and qualified CS: GO rosters, mostly from the CIS region.
The first place in the final standings was grabbed by Natus Vincere‘s squad. The Natus Vincere vs Team Spirit matchup was dominated by the Na’Vi organization — 16:9 scores on both maps in the Bo3 series. The Ukrainian team took the $15,000 prize and also collected 2000 RMR points.
Team Spirit finished second, they earned $10,000 and 1875 points. Virtus.pro and team Nemiga Gaming from Belarus were third and fourth. They brought home $6,000 and $5,000, with 1750 and 1625 points, respectively.
Academy League
Afterwards, this was the key moment for the esports provider, when the Academy League initiative from WePlay Esports started happening.
The first season of the youngsters’ CS: GO league from the Ukrainian tournament operator was played during the period of July-August 2021. The league’s first season, WePlay Academy League 2021 Season 1, was initially divided into two segments, and the overall prize pool was said to be $100,000.
First season
The first event of the first season was the Online Stage, where 13 teams competed for the $12,000 prize money. Some teams also played the separate play-ins matches. The CS: GO squads earned their 4 slots for the LAN finals of the Season 1 event.
The CS: GO teams, who participated in the finals stage of the event, were mouz NXT, Young Ninjas, team BIG Academy, and the EU roster of United Kingdom‘s academy team Fnatic Rising.
At the second offline phase of the WePlay’s event, four remaining teams were split into two pairs and competed in the double elimination bracket. All matches during this stage were Bo3 Series.
In the grand finals, the teams needed to go through the best of five series, to decide the overall winner. The first team, which was coming from the upper bracket, had one map advantage over the other opposing squad.
mouz NXT vs BIG Academy
The first playoffs pair of the CS: GO teams consisted of mouz NXT vs BIG Academy.
The upper bracket semifinals‘ first map, which was mouz’s pick, was dominated by the German team, as the players like Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek and Hubert “Szejn” Swiatly both had their star moments during the match.
siuhy came in first, as the Polish recruit performed during the first round of the map. The Terrorists team pushed middle, and Szkaradek reacted well enough, playing as the sole B defender and landing four quick headshots through the B doors with his USP-S, eliminating the entire enemy team.
Sejin was one of the players on the German squad who statistically performed the worse, in terms of the overall rating, but the siuhy’s fellow citizen striked when it was needed. He managed to score an ace, playing in the upper tunnels area, against the arcade play of his opponents from the safety side during their eco round, when the score was 10:12 in favor of the mouz team.
Ancient was played during the second set and it was picked by BIG, who managed to lose it 16:10. mouz team scored 10 rounds on the defense during the first half, and it was enough to close the game with a 6:5 second period. Second map in favor of the mousesports CS: GO academy roster.
The match between the two German CS: GO organizations ended in two sets, with the similar score of 16:10 on both maps, in favor of the mouz NXT squad.
Young Ninjas vs Fnatic Rising
The second opening match in the upper bracket of the WePlay’s Season 1 Academy League tournament was played between Young Ninjas vs Fnatic Rising team.
This match was played really straightforward, as the quick first and second maps both finished with the equal score in favor of the Swedes.
Overpass was the first map of the series, picked by Ninjas. They took 12 rounds on the first side, playing as attackers, and then closed the game with the fast 4:0 victory right after the swap.
The newer map, Ancient, was played during the second set. The map was picked by Fnatic’s academy team. Young Ninjas secured the first half with the equal 12:3 score, and on the subsequent CT side, they finished the match with the same 4 rounds earned as Terrorists.
The Fnatic team at this point were not really focused, and gave up the game quickly, as this map’s only real highlight moment was, when the young Swede Anton Palmgren, known as Sapec, quickly aced the opposing CT team during the second pistol round of the map.
The Fnatic squad’s teamspeak replay sounded like they were not really that energetic and disorganized. 2:0 — Ninjas won and moved on to the upper bracket finals, while Fnatic lost and fell down to the lower bracket to fight for their survival in the WePlay’s event against the BIG team.
BIG vs Fnatic
On the second game day, two more matches were played at the event. The first match was the duel in the lower brackets — BIG Academy vs Fnatc Rising.
The German squad picked Nuke as the first map of the Bo3 series. On this map, the spectators witnessed a pretty close game, as the final score was 8:7. After the switch, Fnatic took the initiative and managed to score nine rounds on the Terrorists side. The 4:9 score meant it was 16:12 in favor of the Swedish youth CS: GO squad.
Fnatic picked Inferno second and started on the T side, scoring 9 rounds in their favor, against the 6 of their opponents from Germany. The second half was really close. Germans had two highlight moments, with multiple AK headshots by Niklas “NIKZEj” Burmeister, and one versus three clutch from Alexander “glaVed” Pletz, but in the end, Fnatic managed to clutch the second map and the match in their favor, with the 16:14 score.
Fnatic moved on with the 2:0 win, and BIG dropped out of the WePlay Academy League 2021 Season 1 playoffs.
mouz NXT vs Young Ninjas
The first playing pair of the tournament’s second game day in the playoffs was the winners bracket final – the mouz NXT vs Young Ninjas match.
During the German-Swedish encounter at the WePlay event, all three maps needed to be played in the Bo3 match. Ninjas picked Inferno as the first map of the series, but managed to eventually lose.
mouz started as CTs and finished the first period with the 9:6 score in their favor. Then, the German CS: GO academy team managed to close the first set, picking 7 rounds on the attacking side versus only five of their opponents. 16:11, and the Swedes lost their pick.
Vertigo was the second map of the match and it was picked by mouz NXT team. The second map was a really interesting one, as the game managed to finish only during the overtime phase. Two equal halves, 8:7 and 7:8 scores, and Ninjas took four rounds in the overtime against 2 of their opponents.
The Swedes were the stronger team in the overtime, as two of their players had some highlight moments. Kalle “Ro1f” Johansson pulled a clutch against two enemies after planting the bomb, and his teammate, Tim “Mann3n” Isak, managed to finish the second map by himself with four kills against the German CS: GO organization.
As a result, Young Ninjas overcame their opponents with the 19:17 score and the match continued on the third map.
Mirage was third and the final map of this intense upper bracket finals series. Ninjas managed to end the half with the 10:5 score in their favor, playing on the safety side, and then, the Swedes closed the series with 6 unanswered rounds after the sides switched.
Ro1f was the the highlight player, as he managed to clutch again, this time versus two of his opponents, with the bomb planted by Ts. He first killed one enemy with his Famas on the B side, and then the other player in a 1v1 duel, defused the bomb, and secured the map and series win for his team.
2:1 map score — Ninjas to grand finals and mouz, unfortunately for them, fell into the LB to try and use one more remaining chance.
Fnatic vs mouz
The final day of the tournament started with the mouz NXT vs Fnatic Rising matchup in the lower bracket finals.
The LB finals or so-called consolidation finals of the first season of the WePlay Academy League 2021 was played as the full Bo3 series.
The winner of this match was going to face the Ninjas in the second and last match of the day — the grand finals of the event.
Nuke was a mouz pick. 10 rounds on the attacking side for the German organization, and six more after the switch. 16:7 and confident win on the first map by the mousesports academy team.
The second set of the series lower bracket finals was played on Inferno, picked by the Fnatic team. They started as the attackers, and managed to equalize the series in a similar manner. 9:6 and 7:2 afterwards resulted in the 16:8 score on the second map in favor of the British multigaming esports organization.
Vertigo was the third and the most interesting map of the series. The 19-year-old Adam “torzsi” Torzsas from Hungary already made a clear statement during the initial pistol round, when he scored four quick headshots, securing the round for his team.
The second mouz youngster, siuhy, made his highlight moment clipped on Twitch, when his squad was losing with the 2:5 score on the first half playing as Terrorists. His deagle killed two safety players and the third one was dead from the picked up AK.
The scores on both halves were close, as the first period finished 5:10 and second ended 9:6, which granted the Germans the final 16:14 victory in the map and 2:1 in the series. mouz to grand finals, and Fnatic were out of the WePlay Academy League event.
Ninjas vs mouz
The final matchup of the WePlay Academy League 2021 Season 1 tournament was Young Ninjas vs mouz NXT Bo5 series.
In this match, the Ninjas, who dropped only one map during the playoffs, were coming without losses from the upper bracket of the tournament, with the 1 map advantage in the finals, while their German opponents, who already lost to them in their previous head-to-head match, had to earn their spot through the earlier lower bracket game against team Fnatic.
mouz decided to keep things really tight in this match. Mirage picked by Ninjas and the very confident first map showcased by the German CS: GO squad, as they managed to destroy Swedes on their choice — 16:2. Team mouz had 13 rounds on the first side and then closed the game in their favor.
Second map was Nuke and the Germans picked this map to win over the Ninjas squad again. The final score was 16:11 in favor of the mousesports youth roster. Close first half, but eight rounds on the CT side by mouz after the swap, against only four of the Swedes.
The third and final map of the series was Inferno, picked by Ninjas. First half finished 7:8, but mouz were able to finish the game and win the tournament, with 8 rounds on the attacking side after the swap. 16:9 and 3:1 score, and 3:0 by the actual games in the finals.
torzsi was one of the heroes, and so was Israeli’s Dorian “xertioN” Berman. Two of the mouz players clutched, brought multiple kills, and secured the victory for their team. torzsi ended the match with 70 frags, and xertioN had 60, while the best fragger from Ninjas scored only 43 kills on all of the three maps in the grand finals.
In the first season’s final standings, the winning mouz NXT team grabbed $45,000, Ninjas finished second with $20,000, Fnatic’s youth squad took third place and $15,000, while the last team happened to be the BIG Academy CS: GO roster, who were fourth with $8,000. This sequence concluded the first event of the WePlay Academy League online series.
Second event
The opening matches of the WePlay Academy League 2021 Season 2 CS: GO tournament started a month after the first season’s playoffs ended. On September 28, the first games of the second tournament were live in the group A of the Ukrainian online event.
The list of participants of the championship’s first group included one of the strongest academy teams, such as Russian-Ukrainian squad of Natus Vincere Junior from CIS, the returning Young Ninjas from Sweden, Danish Astralis Talent, and also German BIG Academy squad. The other contenders from group B included Fnatic Rising’s CS: GO roster, FURIA Academy from Brazil, and Russia’s VP.Prodigy team.
Format
The teams were divided into two groups. The matches are played in the GSL, or two double elimination format, as the Bo3 series. As always, four best teams qualify for the next phase — the LAN finals event.
The first teams in groups head directly to the LAN stage of the WePlay’s tournament, while others additionally compete for the two remaining spots, in the play-in format.
The prize pool of this stage is $12,000, and the overall prize pool of the event remains $100,000.
Who to follow?
One can safely bet on the Natus Vincere Junior, as they are looking as the overall leaders of the group A, and the potential winners of the whole Season 2 event. The 24-year-old Egor “flamie” Vasilev, former Na’Vi superstar fragger, is now playing for the organization’s academy team. flamie surely is going to be the real force to reckon with.
One of the most interesting teams to watch in this tournament is going to be the roster of BIG Academy. The team finished last and was drastically changed since the last event. It may be interesting for a lot of actual viewers to follow the reformed German CS: GO team and witness their results.
Ninjas vs Astralis Talent
Speaking of games, the first WePlay Academy Season 2 tournament’s match was played between the Swedes and the Danes from the Astralis organization.
The opening Young Ninjas vs Astralis Talent matchup in group A started on Vertigo, which was the first map of the event. This map was picked by the Astralis Talent squad.
The very close game ended in favor of the Ninjas. They took 10 rounds on the attacking side after the switch. The final score was 16:14 in favor of the Swedish legendary esports organization.
Young Ninjas picked Inferno as the second series map. The second map of the match was also really tight. Ninjas again scored 10 rounds on the first T side. 10:5 in their favor and the 6:9 finisher. Astralis team was beaten 16:14 and the Ninjas moved on to the next stage of the event.
The highlight player of the match was definitely Love “phzy” Smidebrant from the NiP team, who managed to pull off two clutches on both played maps.
BIG vs Na’Vi
The Bo3 BIG Academy vs Natus Vincere Junior match was second on the list. Na’Vi team confidently outplayed BIG on two maps.
BIG first lost Mirage, their pick. The first half was equal with a 7:8 score, but then the Russian-Ukrainian squad managed to pull 8 rounds in the second half, playing as Terrorists, to finish the game 16:8 in their favor.
Germans again lost on the second map to the likes of the Ukrainian multigaming esports organization. Dust2 was picked by Na’Vi and they won with the same 16:8 score as on the first map of the series. 11 rounds on the attacking side was enough for Natus Vincere academy team to take the victory.
One of the best Na’Vi players, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov from Russia, was also the best performing player on the server, scoring 43 kills on the board during the two maps played. Interestingly, flamie was the worst player on the team, with 0.95 rating. Final score 2:0, and Na’Vi move on forward confidently in the WePlay Academy League.
mouz vs FURIA Academy
Two of the matches in the WePlay Academy League 2021 Season 2 event were aired in the second group during the second game day. The first matchup was mouz NXT vs FURIA Academy, which was the first match in the tournament’s group B.
mouz picked Mirage and beat the Brazilian CS: GO team on the first map. The first half ended with the 6:9 score in favor of FURIA, but after the swap, the German defense was indestructible — 10:1. mousesports team won Mirage 16:10.
Inferno was played second. The map was picked by the Furia Academy team. mouz played CT and won the first half with the 10:5 score. Afterwards, the Germans were first to score 6 rounds, and the game ended with the 6:2 score in favor of the mousesports academy team.
Prominent mouz’s members, such as xertioN and torzsi, were again the ones to follow. The Israeli player managed to clutch against the two opponents with his AUG rifle, to take the thirteenth round in favor of his team on Mirage, and torzsi made three frags with AWP, during the Inferno’s banana defense, extending his team’s lead to a comfortable 9:0 score.
VP.Prodigy vs Fnatic Rising
The last Bo3 of the game day was the VP.Prodigy vs Fnatic Rising matchup. The second match in group B was played using the full Bo3 format.
Ancient was the first map, picked by Fnatic. The Swedes managed to lose it, as the Russian squad finished the game with the 8:4 score as Terrorists, after the initial 8:7 first half.
Overpass was played next. The second map was Russians’ pick. The Swedish roster of the British multigaming esports organization scored 11 round wins during the first half of the map, when they played on the safety side, and then closed the set with five more rounds in the second half. 4:11 and 4:5 in the first and second half, respectively.
Fnatic won 16:8 and took it to the third and final map of the match.
Vertigo was the remaining map to be played last on yesterday’s evening. Both teams showcased decent play in the first 9:6 half. After the witch, VP.Prodigy were really solid on their CT side, picking seven rounds against the opponents only one win. 7:1 in the second period, and 16:7 win for the Russian academy CS: GO squad.
Astralis vs BIG
Today’s matches in the WePlay league included two teams — Astralis Talent vs BIG Academy, who faced off in their group A elimination clash.
Speaking of predictions, the Bo3 series was going to finish in favor of the German organization. According to betting companies’, the odds on the match were like 2.48 vs 1.50.
BIG won their previous two maps against their opponents earlier this summer, when the first season of the WePlay Academy League was still in full swing. The competing teams played on Nuke first, which ended with the 11:16 score in favor of the BIG organization, and the second map was Ancient, which ended fast — 16:3 victory for the German squad.
The match started on Inferno, which was picked by BIG squad. The German CS: GO team pushed the game to the victory with the 16:11 score, after taking 10 rounds on the Terrorists side during the first half, and making the score 6:6 in the second.
The Astralis academy team then picked Overpass as the second map of the match. BIG started the game on the Counter-Terrorists side, and the score was 9:6 in their favor right before the half time. 7:6, 16:12, and BIG closed the match 2:0.
David “prosus” Hesse scored 1.32 rating for the Germans and the total of 42 kills on two of the maps played. The current BIG domination over the Astralis roster in the head-to-head matchup continues.
Ninjas vs Na’Vi
The next pair of the group’s teams — Young Ninjas vs Na’Vi Junior, played their game in the upper bracket of the WePlay Academy League 2021 Season 2 CS: GO tournament.
The winner of the series was supposed to top the group A standings. The losing team did not instantly drop out, and were still able to qualify for the next stage.
Bookmakers were certain that Natus Vincere were stronger. For example, the odds before the game from GG.BET were 2.18 vs 1.65 in favor of the Ukrainian academy squad.
During the previous season of the league, two teams played twice on the same map, which was Mirage. They also managed to mirror the scores and beat each other. The first game ended with 11:16 in favor of the Na’Vi Junior team, while the next Mirage was then lost by them with the exact same round count.
Na’Vi picked the same Mirage as the first map of the match, and lost it. The first half was close, and the score was almost tied at 7:8 before the swap. Ninjas then pushed the tempo and scored 9 rounds on their T side against the opponents only 5 wins. The Swedes won Mirage 16:13 and both teams were heading to the next map, which was Inferno.
Ninjas’ second pick started with Na’Vi losing three rounds. The first half ended with minimal 8:7 advantage for the Young Ninjas team. Na’Vi took 9 rounds on T side after the swap, against only 5 wins of the enemy team. As the result, the CIS squad won the second map with the 16:13 score.
Vertigo was left as the final map of the series. Ninjas confidently grabbed 11 round on the T side, and finished the game and the match with the 5:1 score on the second part of the map in their favor. In the end, the Swedes managed to overcome Na’Vi, with the 2:1 score in the match.
Results
In group A, after the first play day, Natus Vincere Junior were the leading team, with one game win and +16 round difference. After the two matches played, they fell on the second place. Ninjas were second with the same stat, except they had only plus four rounds.
After defeating the Ukrainian organization, the Swedes are first in the group. Astralis and BIG are still the losing teams. Young Danes from the Astralis organization have a -13 round difference.
Group B also had two winning and two losing squads after the first day. +15 and 1:0 for the mouz NXT team. VP.Prodigy won against Fnatic, so they had it and also plus six in round difference. Fnatic and Furia were losing the group. Brazillians recorded minus 15 rounds in their statistics.
What’s next?
Tomorrow, there will be another two matches played in the WePlay tournament. First game on the list, FURIA Academy vs Fnatic Rising matchup, where both teams will try to evade elimination from the tournament. There will be also the second game of the evening, which will be mouz NXT vs VP.Prodigy team — the matchup of the group’s winning teams.
In the first pair, the odds are probably going to be against FURIA Academy, as the British team looks like a much more favorable opponent against Brazil’s academy roster. For now, GG.BET displays 2.70 to 1.44, and Parimatch offers 3.05 on Furia versus 1.35 for Fnatic’s team.
According to statistics, in the previous tournament’s season, FURIA played against Fnatic twice, losing both games on Inferno and Dust2, with the 5:16 and 13:16 scores, respectively.
In the mouz NXT vs VP.Prodigy matchup, bookmaker firms believe that the German squad is going to be victorious. The odds are currently against the Russians. GG.BET shows 1.21 vs 4.19 for the Russian team, betting firms such as 1XBET and Parimatch think almost the same.
In the first season of the WePlay league, two teams faced each other on two maps, and the games were really close. Vertigo ended 16:14 and Dust2 finished 19:17, both in favor of mouz. The German CS: GO squad managed to pull off the victory on the second map during the overtime.