Spirit Academy defeat MOUZ NXT as WePlay Academy League playoffs get underway

The WePlay Academy League Season 6 playoff stage has begun, with four academy squads left fighting for the lion’s share of the $100,000 prize pool in a best-of-three double-elimination.

Spirit Academy and NAVI Junior topped their groups in the group stage and are the highest seed on either side of the bracket. They are joined by Young Ninjas and MOUZ NXT, two teams that made it through the Play-In stage after placing second in their groups.

Last season’s finalists, Spirit Academy, picked up a 2-1 opening win over MOUZ NXT in the first day of play. This victory secures the Ukrainian-Russian’s place in the upper bracket final, where they await the winner of NAVI Junior and Young Ninjas.

MOUZ NXT, the historic dominant force in the academy circuit that dropped a title defense for the first time in the league’s fifth season, now find themselves in the lower bracket after their initial defeat and will need a perfect run from here on if they are to secure the organization a fifth title.

The series between Spirit Academy and MOUZ NXT started on Inferno, where the CIS squad put together a dominant 11-4 defensive half despite playing with their coach Dmitry “⁠S0tF1k⁠” Forostyanko. Their offense was equally dominant, and they ended up closing out the map with a very convincing 16-7 scoreline. Danil “⁠donk⁠” Kryshkovets was the star of the show in his team’s victory, the 15-year-old ended up with 112 ADR and a 1.83 rating.

Next up was Nuke, where Spirit Academy found themselves down 2-14 after a lackluster offensive half and a lost pistol on the CT side. The squad rallied together and won 13 out of the next 14 rounds to force out overtime, but eventually lost the map 20-22.

Mykhailo “⁠OWNER⁠” Lymar returned to the Spirit Academy lineup for the final map, Vertigo, which proved to be another close affair. The Ukrainian side struggled on the defensive side, trailing by three at the break, but a good T half got them back into the game. The Ukrainian-Russian squad eventually locked their place in the upper bracket final by a thin margin as they secured a 16-14 victory in the very last round of regulation.

The second semi-final between Young Ninjas and NAVI Junior was set to be played after the match between Spirit Academy and MOUZ NXT, but blackouts in Ukraine, where WePlay is based, caused the second series of the day to be moved to Saturday at 12:00 , right before the tournament’s lower bracket and upper bracket finals.