WePlay Academy League groups conclude as three teams advance to Finals

Just one more spot at the Finals taking place in Kyiv in late August is left to be determined via the Play-in stage.

The WePlay Academy League Season 1 group stage has come to its conclusion on Sunday, with MOUZ NXT, Young Ninjas, and BIG Academy advancing directly to the seasonal finals. FURIA Academy have been eliminated, and the remaining four teams are set to play for the final spot at the $100,000 event next weekend.

fnatic Rising, the newest team of the pack whose lineup was only finalized on the day before the group stage began, have been seeded the furthest in the Play-in stage after placing fourth in the round-robin. NAVI Junior await one round behind, with VP.Prodigy and Astralis Talent set to clash in the first round and requiring three consecutive victories to qualify for the finals.

1.65 rating

m0NESY in groups

Although NAVI Junior found themselves in the middle of the pack with a 7-7 record, all eyes were drawn on the CIS side throughout the groups thanks to 16-year-old Russian sensation Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov. The AWPer was putting up monstrous performances from start to finish, ending the group stage miles ahead of the competition with a 1.65 rating, with the second-best — fnatic Rising's sniper, Iulian "⁠regali⁠" Harjău — at 1.24.

It was MOUZ NXT who ended up at the top of the group, however, locking down their spot at the finals with ease after initial struggles saw them kick off their campaign with an overtime win and two losses on the first three days.

Young Ninjas finished off strong as well following a troublesome start, stealing second place from BIG Academy in a final head-to-head showdown of the group stage between the two teams, with both teams joining Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás & co. at the Kyiv Finals.

The final standings of the group stage look as follows:

Group A

TEAM

M

P

MOUZ NXT

14

33

Young Ninjas

14

30

BIG Academy

14

27

fnatic Rising

14

24

NAVI Junior

14

21

Astralis Talent

14

12

VP.Prodigy

14

12

FURIA Academy

14

9

Below you can find the schedule of the seeded Play-in stage, which will run from August 7-8:

Saturday, August 7
16:00 - VP.Prodigy vs. Astralis Talent
19:00 - NAVI Junior vs. VP/Astralis

Sunday, August 8
19:00 - fnatic Rising vs. NAVI/VP/Astralis