MOUZ NXT 3.0: CS' most successful academy enters a new era

The German organization is overhauling its academy program again, bringing in four new players, three of whom are as young as 15.

There has been a flurry of activity in MOUZ's headquarters. Not because of MOUZ's recent group stage exit at ESL Pro League 20 — alarm bells still haven't gone off in Hamburg — but because the German organization has been hard at work mapping out the future of its academy roster, MOUZ NXT.

MOUZ, along with Spirit and NAVI, have built one of the best academy projects in the Counter-Strike scene. Version 1.0 of MOUZ NXT yielded four WePlay Academy League titles and saw three players, as well as head coach Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen, make the step up to the main squad.

NXT 2.0 continued the trend of producing high-quality prospects, but considering the success that the MOUZ roster has enjoyed under Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek — another academy graduate who was brought back after a spell at GamerLegion —, the doors to the first team opened only for Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo, forcing players like Christoffer "⁠Chr1zN⁠" Storgaard, Ryan "⁠Neityu⁠" Aubry and William "⁠sirah⁠" Kjærsgaard to seek opportunities elsewhere.

In a way, the previous MOUZ NXT roster had become a victim of its own success. The team broke into the top 50 in the world rankings and was once inside the top 30 in Valve's Regional Rankings for Europe. This would have put the young roster in contention for an RMR closed qualifier spot, if not for Valve's regulations prohibiting organizations from fielding multiple rosters in a Major cycle.

Fully aware that the team had outgrown its status as an academy project, MOUZ tried to move the entire roster to another organization, but talks went nowhere.

This forced MOUZ to listen to individual offers for the players. Chr1zN and sirah were transferred to OG and TSM, respectively, while Neityu is on the market as a free agent.

Read more

Neityu earns high praise from apEX: "I'm pretty sure he will play in a top 10 team"

"Our NXT team is not made to be a permanent place for players," Jan Dominicus, MOUZ's Chief Business Development Officer, told HLTV.

"It doesn't mean they aren't great players, but rather that we don't believe that in the near future we will have a position open on our main team."

Oldřich "⁠PR⁠" Nový is the only player transitioning from the previous roster, with Tobias "⁠TOBIZ⁠" Theo remaining as head coach. The organization initially thought about keeping Denys "⁠Burmylov⁠" Buraga , but eventually decided to move on from the Ukrainian AWPer as the travel restrictions in place in his country because of the war "make it extremely difficult to work with him in person," Dominicus explained. MOUZ are currently evaluating the best move for the player's career.

Despite the lack of first-team opportunities, there is no doubt in Dominicus' mind that the previous NXT roster was a success, and he firmly believes that PR can still break through. "We have high hopes for him," he said about PR, whom he described as one of the top prospects in the scene. "We believe that he can follow in the footsteps of someone like Jimpphat in the future."

TOBIZ echoed the same opinion, predicting a bright future for the Czech teenager.

"He is a generational talent and a diamond in the rough, just like Jimi was and still is," the Danish coach said. "I'm happy to have him, and he is also happy to be here, taking up more responsibilities on the server, leading and showing the way for the rookies. He will only develop from this.

"He knows his time will come at some point, and I definitely see him playing at the very top in the future."

PR is the cornerstone of the new team, its oldest and most experienced player. This rebuilding, TOBIZ acknowledged, was "a little bit harder" than the previous ones: he wanted to assemble a much younger roster, which reduced the pool of players he could choose from.

Prior to the announcement of the new NXT roster, Brimir "⁠Blick⁠" Birgisson, Niki "⁠Cliqq⁠" Kinnunen, Georgi "⁠Jorko⁠" Mitev and Adrian "⁠xelex⁠" Vincze had 13 maps on HLTV between them. It's a significant departure from the previous iterations of the roster, where players had considerable competitive experience prior to being picked up by the German organization.

"They are very green," TOBIZ said, laughing. "But I see many similarities with the past players that now are on the main team or competing at a high level [elsewhere].

"As a group, socially it works very well. On the server it's still all new, playing in a team environment for some and speaking another language as a 15- or 16-year-old at this level. They're doing just fine.

"There is no limit to what they can reach if they put in the effort and remain as open-minded as they have shown to be so far. Time will tell, and that is exactly what we will give them."

The announcement of the new NXT roster came just weeks after MOUZ partnered with Ølgod Efterskole, a Danish institution that offers Counter-Strike instruction as part of its curriculum.

This collaboration aims to provide a pathway into the academy program for Ølgod students while also contributing to the school's program by having coaches and management staff serve as guest lecturers in classes.

Somewhere down the line, a FACEIT hub will be created for students to help identify potential academy prospects.

"Maybe in the future we can make this sort of collaboration in other countries and markets," Dominicus added. "It's something we're strongly considering."

Dominicus is the first to admit that what the maiden NXT roster accomplished will be almost impossible to replicate. "It was extraordinary," he admitted. "It had a lot to do with the chemistry the team had, the great environment of the WePlay League. And, of course, we also got lucky."

Selling players is a good way to offset the costs of running an academy project if players are not called up to the main team. Still, Dominicus insisted that he is not obsessed with NXT's finances. He mentions Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool and David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský to explain how fostering the next generation of CS talent has become part of MOUZ's DNA.

"It is what we are good at," he said. "We want to invest more in the space and professionalize it.

"Young players can look at MOUZ NXT and see that we will take care of them, that we will make them better players and that there's a chance we will promote them to the main roster. We've done it over and over. And if that doesn't happen, we will help them find a good place to play.

"We've been pretty successful at that, if you look at basically every single MOUZ NXT alumni. So I think it's important to continue that investment and strengthen the division. I'm super excited to see what happens next."