The most successful academic lineups in CS:GO eSports

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Just like in other team sports, as esports developed, academic teams came to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive known cs:go eSports. One of the most popular projects can be considered NaVi Esports Camp: An eSports camp, according to the results of which players were selected for the academic staff of NaVi Junior.

Subsequently, most large organizations acquired second teams. Academies can be divided into three categories, the difference between which is in the purpose of their creation (of course, this is a conditional division, the composition can pursue the first two goals at the same time):

The so-called “farm clubs”, which rely on subsequent transfers of players. Including, they serve as a personnel reserve for their main teams.
A roster focused on results – winning academic leagues and various small tournaments.

Often such academies are staffed with experienced and proven players, diluted with young and promising ones. Over time, the composition rests on the ceiling, because according to the tournament rules, in order to prevent a conflict of interest in major tournaments, it is forbidden to participate in two teams from one organization.3. Commercial projects in which any player can work with experienced coaches for a certain fee (for example, forZe school). Let’s consider the most successful projects of academies.

Gambit Youngsters

Perhaps this is the best project for the entire existence of the academies in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, it was not immediately possible to assemble a star roster. In 2017, the Gambit organization was the first to open a youth roster and signed Ruslan Spyn Kalakov, Nikolai kkt Danilenko, Oleg neathz Kornev, Alexei Elian Gusev, and Artem malik666 Arkhipov. Rustam TsaGa Tsagolov was appointed as the coach. The composition did not last long, the players left it after a few months.

Subsequently, Rustam Tsagolov was also accused of inflicting physical injuries on the manager of the squad, Yegor Morin, and the club’s management for ignoring complaints. In 2019, the organization announced the restart of the academy and the signing of Vladislav nafany Gorshkov, Anton supra Chernobay, Dmitry Shiro Sokolov, Timofey interz Yakushin, and Danil Porya Order. Ivan F_1N Kochugov was supposed to train the squad.

The organization took into account the mistakes of the past and more thoroughly approached the selection. They were coached by the sports director Konstantin groove Pikiner and ex-coach Andrey B1ad3 Gorodensky, and the selection itself took place in two stages on the basis of the organization. The squad turned out to be really youthful, four players were 17 years old at that time, and one was 18.

After some time, the composition began to show results. Qualifications were won, and the potential was visible. The first substitutions followed, Sergey Ax1le Rykhtorov replaced Porya. At some point, the youth team bypassed the main one in the HLTV ranking of the best teams in the world. The organization decided to freeze the main and focus on its academy.

Gambit Youngsters decided to try out a 6-player roster and signed Abai HObbit Khasenov. They smoothly introduced him into the squad instead of supra, and then put Anton Chernobay on the transfer altogether. The official reason is the coronavirus epidemic, which prevents him from entering Russia to train with the team. With Abai, the results went up, although even before that the youth team had already set records – they had not lost for 17 matches in a row.

The team experienced the first shock after Ivan Kochugov was removed from work with the team, he was accused of using a coaching bug, with which F_1N did not argue. Konstantin groove Pikiner took over the coaching. The team has consistently held onto the top 30 list, and in October 2020, management announced that the roster is becoming the main roster. A great story and an excellent precedent for how the academic staff survived two replacements and a long training path.

Navi Junior

A vivid example of a “farm club”. As already mentioned, the roster was assembled based on the results of the huge NaVi Esports Camp media project. Andrey B1ad3 Gorodensky and NaVi Junior coach Amiran ami_R Rekhviashvili participated in the preselection. For the entire time of its existence, the youth roster of NaVi had no team achievements.

The main goal of the organization is to search for young talented players. Against this background, the team often changed its composition, and a huge number of players passed through it.

Subsequently, Ilya m0NESY Osipov was signed and announced. Then this news caused outrage among some fans, after all, he did not go through the qualifying stage, like the rest of the players. For a long time, NaVi Junior was regarded exclusively as an excellent media project, videos with the life of the squad collected a lot of views. However, there were no game results.

The first success of the long existence of the academy was the gradual integration of Valery b1t Vakhovsky as the sixth player in the main squad. He replaced Yegor flamie Vasiliev on certain maps, and then completely established himself in NaVi. There was a kind of castling, Egor was put up for transfer and announced as a NaVi Junior player in the academic league, and Valery began to play in the first team on all maps.

Evgeny Zolotarev noted this as the main result of the NaVi Junior project. The team won the first DreamHack Masters’ Spring 2021 tournament, and fit perfectly into the roster, and soon became one of its main stars. At his first major tournament in 2021, he set a record for the percentage of hits in the head, and later, he will become the winner in the nomination “Best Rookie of the Year” from the “‎Esports Awards”.

Another star of the project, Ilya m0NESY Osipov, was among the most popular players in the academy. He was signed at the age of 14, they skillfully used his talent, put in the necessary knowledge, and showed the basics of team play. Fans predicted a place for him in the first team, but his role as a sniper overlapped with another “boarder” of the main team, Alexander s1mple Kostylev.

Subsequently, Ilya was signed to G2 Esports, the PGL Major 2021 silver medalist team. The player’s transition attracted a lot of attention, everyone was looking forward to the first games of the roster to see if moNEY could adapt. The NaVi organization, in turn, received, according to various estimates, from 200 to 500 thousand dollars and the possibility of a priority buyout of the player.

At the moment, we are seeing the formation of another player in the youth team – Daniil headtr1ck Valitov. It was signed in April 2020, Daniil was 15 years old at that time. He, like Ilya, could not participate in tournaments, but only trained with the team and absorbed information.

Daniil had an opportunity to prove himself at ESL Pro League Season 15, then the captain of the main team, Kirill Boombl4 Mikhailova, was unable to participate in the tournament due to a positive test for coronavirus. You can read more about this in our material.

Now that Kirill has been officially removed from the main roster, the likelihood of signing Daniil is growing. If this happens, then it will be another “tick” in the results of the NaVi Junior project.

Mouz NXT

A relatively young academy, on May 31 it will be only one year old. However, in terms of team results, she is one of the most productive. Having recruited a predominantly Polish squad of young players, the team has excellent records, for example, winning three seasons of the WePlay Academy League. The lag of other academies at the moment is obvious, there are few such youth teams who can really compete with mouz NXT.

In January, the main mouz roster made a number of substitutions, Robin ropz Kohl, Frederik acoR Guldstrand, and coach Torbjorn mithR Nyborg left the roster. They were replaced by young academy stars John JDC de Castro and Adam Torzsi Torzhash. Dennis Sycrone Nielsen, who held this post at mouz NXT, also became a coach.

The players fit in well. The team began to show a stable game and currently ranks 20th in the list of the best teams in the world. Despite the loss of key players, the academy still recruited newcomers and continues to show results. This indicates a competent approach in the selection of players.

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Gambit Youngsters

Navi Junior

Mouz NXT

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