Fnatic Rising Are the Champions of WePlay Academy League Season 5

The WePlay Academy League Season 5 (WAL) concluded with Fnatic Rising walking away as the champion. This is the first time that a CS:GO Academy team other than MOUZ NXT has lifted the WAL trophy.

Fnatic Rising won the biggest international CS:GO tournament for Academy teams, despite undergoing a roster revamp before and during the course of the tournament.

This new lineup of youngsters comprised of a mix of European players coming together to show great teamwork and cohesion as they fought hard to top the group stage and dominate the playoffs.

Fnatic Rising is the champion of WePlay Academy League Season 5

The European roster of Fnatic Rising beat some of the strongest CS:GO Academy teams to lift the WAL Season 5 trophy, while also walking away with $45,000 USD (INR 35,82,149) in prize money from a total pool of $100,000 USD (INR 79,60,330).

During the group stage, Fnatic Rising lost just four out of the 12 matches that it played, securing a win rate of 66.66%. This helped the team secure the top spot on the leaderboard with 24 points to its name and a round difference of +40.

After having directly qualified for the playoffs, Fnatic Rising kept building on its momentum and dropped just one map against Astralis Talent on its path to winning the tournament.

The grand final faceoff against Spirit Academy was probably Fnatic Rising's easiest match during the playoffs, handing the team a '16-14' and '16-1' defeat on Mirage and Inferno respectively.

With this, the dominant MOUZ NXT streak also came to end, having won all the four previous seasons of the WAL tournament till date. Stepping in with a revamped roster, MOUZ NXT failed to even make it past the group stage this time and bowed out of the tournament with a mere 9^th-10^th finish.