WePlay Academy League Season 2 All Set For LAN Finals in Ukraine

The WePlay Academy League (WAL) Season 2, featuring a total prize pool of $100,000 USD, is all set for its LAN Finals stage, scheduled to take place from 12^th to 14^th Nov 2021. Four CS:GO teams have fought through the initial online stages of the tournament to make it through to the finals, whereas, the remaining four were eliminated following intense qualifier matches.

NAVI Junior, Young Ninjas, mouz NXT, and BIG Academy are the four CS:GO Academy teams that will be competing in the LAN Finals stage, taking place at the WePlay Esports Arena in Kyiv, Ukraine. Here is how their journey has been in the tournament so far.

All four CS:GO teams finalized for the LAN Finals of WePlay Academy League Season 2

The WePlay Academy League Season 2 started on 28^th September where eight CS:GO Academy teams were directly invited. Among the invited teams were the defending champions, mouz NXT, who were a step above the remaining teams in the inaugural season of the tournament.

All the participating teams were divided into two groups of four teams each, with the first team from both the groups directly qualifying for the LAN Finals, the 2^nd-3^rd placed teams qualifying for the play-in stage, and the last placed team facing elimination.

Young Ninjas and mouz NXT were the two teams that placed first in their respective groups to qualify directly. NAVI Junior, BIG Academy, Fnatic Rising, and VP.Prodigy went through to the play-in stage, while Astralis Talent and FURIA Academy were eliminated.

NAVI Junior went undefeated through the play-in stage to qualify for the LAN Finals, but BIG Academy after dropping down to the lower bracket had to grind it out against Fnatic Rising to eventually make it into the finals.

The first two stages combined offered a total prize pool of $12,000 USD, to be shared between the CS:GO teams that failed to make it to the playoffs.

• 5^th Place - $6,000 USD - Fnatic Rising

• 6^th Place - $3,000 USD - VP.Prodigy

• 7^th-8^th Place - $1,500 - Astralis Talent, FURIA Academy

The final four teams will now go up against each other in a LAN studio environment, taking place at the WePlay Esports Arena in Kyiv, Ukraine.

They will be competing in a double-elimination bracket with matches to play out in a best-of-three series. The grand finals, however, will be a five game affair where the team coming from the upper bracket will have a one map advantage.

A total prize pool of $88,000 USD will be split between these four CS:GO teams depending on their positioning.

• 1^st - $45,000 USD

• 2^nd - $20,000 USD

• 3^rd - $15,000 USD

• 4^th - $8,000 USD

It will be interesting to see if mouz NXT will able to defend its title or not, as they have already managed to qualify for the LAN Finals. Winning consecutive academy tournaments will surely be a massive boost for both the players and the program.