Day 6 of the WePlay Academy League saw a change of fortunes on Vertigo, double trouble on Overpass and a nailbiter on Inferno.
NAVI Junior turn their fortunes around on Vertigo
Fnatic Rising started brightly on the T side, with Peppe ‘Peppzor’ Borak finding three kills on the fake towards B site on the pistol round. They converted the pistol and continued their foray towards B with success as they raced to a 3-0 lead. However, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov brought his AWP online and a double kill in a 2v2 post-plant situation at B handed Na’Vi Junior their first round.
Fnatic responded immediately through Francisco ‘kst’ Fragoso, who opened up the B site with a triple kill. Rodion ‘fear’ Smyk brought it back for Na’Vi with a wallbang towards A entry before taking two more casualties after a push from the sandbags area. Na’Vi started stepping up and a goof-up from Fnatic saw them leave the bomb near spawn as Na’Vi drew level at 4-4. Fnatic rallied to win three rounds on the trot before m0NESY started providing entries on each round as Na’Vi raced to an 8-7 lead.
The two teams swapped sides but m0NESY continued his trail of entries, handing Na’Vi the pistol and the subsequent anti-eco. A double from the 16-year-old towards A short yielded another round for Na’Vi, with m0NESY now 8-0 in opening duels for the map. Though Fnatic seemed to find their footing in the gun rounds, with David ‘prosus’ Hesse sticking the defuse at B in the 1v1 against Daniil ‘headtr1ck’ Valitov in the 19th and Iulian ‘regali’ Harjau clutching the round with the AWP against m0NESY in the 20th, it would be their final victory on Vertigo.
There was no way through: m0NESY’s entries did not stop anytime soon and Eugene ‘Aunkere’ Karyat stepped up as well with an ace on the 22nd round, stretching Na’Vi’s lead to 13-9. Thereafter, m0NESY took triple kills in each of the rounds that followed as Na’Vi recorded a rather comfortable 16-9 victory over the current leaders of the WePlay Academy League.
It was the m0NESY show on Vertigo, with the 16-year-old ending the match on 33 kills and 10 deaths. m0NESY won 10 opening duels for Na’Vi, which proved crucial in their comeback after an early push on the scoreboard from Fnatic Rising.
Young Ninjas score a comfortable victory
FURIA raced to an early lead on the T side of Overpass, converting the pistol and winning the subsequent two rounds before the Young Ninjas could put a stop to their early rampage. Their aggressive long push in round 5 was roundly shut down by the Brazilians who then failed to convert the ensuing 4v2 with their late attempt to take the stacked A site.
Though FURIA’s academy side immediately bounced back after this disappointment, it was their opponents who took the next three rounds with two strong site holds and then building on Erik ‘ztr’ Gustafsson’s early double entry in connector for the third, forcing an eco on the T side, which Young NiP easily had covered.
Round 11 featured a late attempt at a B site take after Young Ninjas secured the entry frag, and the CT side’s defenses held firm. It was not the case on the subsequent round when the FURIA players’ desperado force buy caught the Young Ninjas off guard, shrinking the gap to two, 7-5.
The action continued on the B site with a 3v3 afterplant, and though Kalle “Ro1f” Johansson snuck up all the way to barrels in the cover of a smoke, he failed to convert a crucial double kill, which meant another round win for FURIA. Another B site hit followed as Ro1f’s triple kill was followed by a hat-trick of Lucas “decenty” Bacelar, setting up yet another afterplant situation where the Ninjas managed to secure.
The last round of the half ended in just 40 seconds as the Brazilians’ mid push disintegrated under the watchful eyes of Linus “nilo” Bergman and Love “phzy” Smidebrant.
The Young Ninjas took a page from their opponents’ book and pushed B on the pistol round, setting up a 10-6 lead and a very strong position for themselves. They then secured a 3v3 afterplant on A, opting to plant for CT, straight into FURIA’s rotation. It was a scary sight but they managed to convert with two players to spare in the end.
The Brazilians picked up an AWP in round 19 to stem the bleeding but it was only good enough for one frag in the hands of Leonardo “zmb” Toledo, and the Ninjas managed to barely cling onto the site in a 3v4 hold. It was the beginning of the end as FURIA fell short on the subsequent eco round and lost three straight kills in round 21 before opting to save for the long game, but the Young Ninjas hunted down both weapons before converting the first of their nine match points, winning every single T side round to secure the victory on Overpass.
VP.Prodigy woes continue
The third series of the day also took place on Overpass, beginning with an extremely messy pistol round as an initial trade of kills on the B site was followed by a full retreat from BIG’s academy side with over a minute on the clock. Their IGL, Christian “LapeX” Preuß kept up the lurk near Monster and as VP.P’s players eventually went back to defend A, he confirmed all the free real estate on the lower site and made the call to move back in. Though some of the T side players were caught off guard during their rotation through connector, they eventually converted the round after gunning everyone down in B.
It took until round 4 for VP.Prodigy to get on the board, then a back-and-forth of rounds ensued: eventually, it was BIG Academy who were first forced into on eco in round 10, and their doomed long rush allowed VP.P to even up the scoreline. A long technical timeout followed, but it wasn’t enough to blunt the CIS side’s momentum, who secured their fourth round in a row to take the lead and a fifth after BIG’s younglings almost made a miracle happen with their Deagles. That was as good as it got for them on the CT side, however, as LapeX’s men rallied to secure an 8-7 lead at the end of the half.
Though VP.P secured the first two rounds, they lost the subsequent two, forcing them to eco on round 20. Though they couldn’t get much done with the Glocks, they successfully fought back in the gun round, keeping the scoreline close. It was always going to be a challenging pathway because of BIG Academy’s significant monetary edge, as evidenced by yet another eco by VP.P in round 23 after their previous attempt at a B site take petered out.
Though they got the A site plant with a hero AK-47 on Nikita “BloodyK” Dobrynin, they failed to get a single kill as the retake squad rolled in, setting up a must-win gun round at 10-13. The fabled mega-boost at T spawn netted nothing to VP.P but its reveal got a ton of space for BIG’s academy side, funneling the attackers towards A site. Though failing to check the corner on long cost them two kills, VP.P’s push was successful, keeping the game alive.
The next sloppy play turned out to be devastating, however, as their slow split approach through Toilets and A long was fully covered by BIG. The CT side only had to convert an anti-eco for the match point and made short work of the subsequent force buy to finish the game 16-11. With this, VP.Prodigy sunk to a 1-5 record, firmly rooted to the bottom of the standings.
Mouz NXT almost stumble against Astralis Talent
The international side raced to a quick 4-0 lead against their opponents, with a clear victory in the fourth round securing an economic advantage: five guns with enough money behind them to buy once more against a couple of Deagles. A triple entry made it seem like a done deal but sloppy plays on Banana allowed for two kills from the Danes leading to an open site and an afterplant with two stolen FAMASes. The retake was smooth, however, but there was now enough money on Astralis Talent to fully buy up again.
A quick two-for-one in a chaotic gunfight on mid offered a tantalizing pathway to A for Astralis’ youth squad but their slow approach allowed Hubert “Szejn” Światły to set up for a monstrous double kill with the rest of his team completing the rotation. With this excellent chance wasted, Astralis Talent swapped back to Banana the next round, setting up a 3v3 retake with strong guns but very limited utility. With no smoke to put out the new box molly, they had to rely on raw aim to protect the bomb, and a couple of quick kills finally allowed them to get on the board in round 7.
The first 80 seconds of round 8 ticked by without a kill from either side as Astralis Talent slowly set up for yet another B site take, with a 4v4 retake to follow. This time, the Danes’ lack of utility cost them in the afterplant, with the last two players stuck on Banana behind a smoke as mouz NXT’s players secured the defuse and took away both guns.
The T side players broke the bank to put together AK-47s and limited utility, but with no real estate gained over the first half of the round, they geared up again for the B site execute: Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek’s flowerpot boost was unchecked but he failed to convert, and their subsequent round win forced mouz NXT to eco even though all then players died on the A site. A successful T side anti-eco ticked up the scoreline to 7-4, with four more T rounds to follow, making it seven in a row for Astralis Talent, 8-7 to them overall, and a real tilter for mouz NXT.
Alexander “Altekz” Givskov’s heroics on mid secured the pistol round for the Danes but then it was their opponents’ turn to turn on the magic, converting a Deagle buy to keep things competitive. The back-and-forth continued well into the night as Astralis Talent struck back with a couple of SMGs and a Scout: the force-buys lasted until round 21, with the Danes forced to take a breather. For a moment, it seemed like their gamble-stack on B could work out, but the rifles eventually prevailed in a prolonged gunfight, with two surviving on mouz NXT’s side.
It was the first period of the game since round six that they managed to chain consecutive round wins together, but three was as far as it went as Astralis Talent claimed the crucial retake on A site with a 2v2 victory. The Danes grabbed two quick kills after a mid rush and another two soon thereafter, wrecking the international team’s economy with the scoreline at 12-11. The game remained close, however, as the teams kept trading round in a precarious financial situation.
After mouz NXT took down their opponents’ full buy in round 27, they only had a couple of pistols standing between them and the fifteenth round: instead, a heroic clutch by Victor ‘vigg0’ Bisgaard and Mads ‘vester’ Vestergaard evened things up at 14-14. They bravely went for the mid rush call again but it cost them two lives with nothing to show for it: despite clawing one kill back, their decision to pre-rotate to B just happened to give a free A site to mouz NXT.
With an AK, an M4 and an AWP saved into round 30, they still had a fighting chance: a long battle around Pit set up a 2v1 afterplant for the attackers, with Altekz to clutch for overtime wielding an AWP. After losing his teammate, Dorian “xertioN” Berman decided to rotate to B, but AltekZ read the play and plucked him off the air on the cross to set up overtime, with the international team starting on the T side.
Two quick entries secured a plant on B with the subsequent save from Astralis Talent, with the now-usual trade of rounds to follow in the remainder of the first half of overtime. A comfortable win on their first CT round set mouz NXT up with two match points to work with, and siuhy’s incredible spraydown secured them a hard-fought victory soon thereafter.
The differences in individual performances made clear mouz NXT’s superiority but the analysts highlighted their lackadaisical attitude in the post-match discussion, arguing that this game was way too close for comfort for a squad with this much talent in CS:GO, despite Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás topping the scoreboard.
Fnatic Rising vs NAVI Junior match writeup contributed by Abhisek Bajaj
