Last year witnessed just how powerful young players can be. Take the hype around the M0NESY transfer. However, young people rose to fame even prior to that: ropz joined mouz when he was still a schoolboy and became one of the discoveries of 2017.
At present, esports clubs are seriously committed to encouraging young blood. Almost all the major clubs have set up youth squads. There are so many second lineups that whole tournaments are already taking place among them. One of the biggest — if not by far the most important — is the WePlay League. The third season of the event ended recently, and today, the CS.MONEY Blog is going to try and choose five promising players from the list of WePlay Academy League 3 participants.
Let’s roll!
A couple of words about the tournament
If you thought that a youth team tournament is some kind of “online weekly event for those who can’t really play,” you’re deeply mistaken. Scope-wise, WePlay Academy League 3 matches up to the DreamHack tournaments. You’ve got dozens of participants, a $100,000 prize pool, and coverage by professional and renowned commentators and analysts. Long story short: there’s some serious action.
Another critical detail: there were almost no overwhelming, crushing defeats. It was only in few encounters that one side failed to score more than six or seven rounds. The battles were intense, and the hundred-places gap in the HLTV rankings between MOUZ NXT and Young Ninjas cut no ice.
Speaking of the format. The tournament consists of three stages. In the Group Stage, the teams were divided into two groups of five clubs each. Under the Round-Robin system, each participant played one map with each other twice. After that, the best team in the group advanced to the Playoffs, while all the remaining teams went to the Play-In Stage.
All Play-In Stage matches were Bo3, with the bracket based on the classic Olympic system, meaning there was no margin for error. At the end of the second stage, two more Playoff participants were determined. The Playoff stage used the Olympic system with a double-elimination gauntlet; all games were Bo3. MOUZ NXT won the event, reproducing their triumph of the first and second seasons of the league. Let’s now proceed to talk those prominent players. Finally!
Milos “mhL” Knaszak of MOUZ NXT
The AWPer of the MOUZ NXT lineup had a great tournament. He boasts the second-highest ranking, the highest number of AWP frags per round, and an impressive 64% success rate in entry duels. The 19-year-old Polish player languished in the AGO roster for a long time and only moved to the MOUZ youth team at the beginning of the year.
Currently, the sharpshooter of the second lineup looks extremely promising. He could become part of the main enterprise if the current five-man roster doesn’t take off. It’s too early to say anything regarding the fate of the MOUZ first lineup, though: the team hasn’t played a single actual tournament.
Dorian “xertioN” Berman of MOUZ NXT
The dexterous rifler of that same MOUZ NXT lineup. Over 15 maps at WePlay Academy League 3, he scored more than 300 frags, half of them by headshots. More interestingly still, he managed to destroy more than one opponent in every second round. Under his belt is also third-best kill/death ratio in the tournament.
That’s an incredible result for a rifler. Just like Milos “mhL” Knaszak, xertioN is one of the contenders for the main roster. Considering the guy’s still only 17 years old, he’s very far from his peak shape. In a few years, he might be the one to replace NiKo as the “star rifler.”
Danyyl “headtr1ck” Valytov of NAVI Junior
The path of NAVI’s youth team in the WePlay Academy League is rather extraordinary. Over the league’s three seasons, the squad has only made it to the finals once. This time, the club dropped out of the second stage (out of three). What’s so remarkable? The fact that despite taking 7th–8th place overall, it was a player from NAVI Junior who took the lead in a bunch of categories, from the rating to multikill rounds.
Danyyl “headtr1ck” Valytov spent the entire tournament with a positive rating on maps, with the single exception of the encounter versus Astralis Talent. Another talented rifler. If we take into account how swiftly Natus Vincere moved m0NESY from the youth team to the main G2 squad, headtr1ck has every chance of making it to the tier-1 club by the end of the year.
Peppe “Peppzor” Borak of fnatic Rising
The nineteen-year-old player of Swedish origins performed with flying colors at WePlay Academy League 3 in several categories at once. He’s first in terms of entry frags per round, top five in KAST, and top five in multikill rounds. An amazing result given that his team didn’t make it past the first round of Play In.
One more thing is noteworthy: fnatic has good experience with youth players. The former captain of the main roster, Golden, came to the club from the second team — and revitalized the legendary Swedish tag. It’s unlikely the experiment with Golden was the last one.
Evgeny “delus1onn” Plottsov of VP.Prodigy
The best clutch player of the tournament: he scored 9 clutches, with victories in 1 vs. 3 and 1 vs. 4 situations. Besides the clutches, he also demonstrated a high rating, great performance in opening duels, and a high impact. Bottom line, a true locomotive of VP.Prodigy.
Even though the player is already 20 years old, he hadn’t played for any clubs until recently. VP.Prodigy is the player’s first club; he joined it recently through a process of selection. A most interesting way to start a career. It’s too early to tell yet, but we can definitely say that delus1onn’s debut was impressive.
Clubs’s attention to youth squads is absolutely paying off. The recent WePlay Academy League Season 3 was chock-full of exciting highlights and spectacular gaming moments. If you follow CS:GO eSports, you should definitely keep an eye on the five players we’ve talked about today.
