Results of the year: NAVI Academy

Here's a recap of the NAVI CS:GO Junior Academy's performance, who already played their last match of the year. 

The first tournament of the year for NAVI Junior was the Vulkan Fight Series. At the tournament, NAVI's youth squad was represented by b1t, m0NESY, Gospodarov, kapacho, and Topa. The first round was held in a Swiss system, the guys finished with three victories and one defeat. In the first match of the playoffs, they defeated Budapest Five on three maps, but in the quarterfinals they lost to Nemiga Gaming. 

Next up were the DreamHack Open January qualifiers. This time fear took b1t’s spot. NAVI Junior was defeated by HONORIS in the fourth round. 

On February 23rd, the NAVI’s youth roster underwent changes. Ivan "kapacho" Koplenko, Alexey "Topa" Topchienko and Kirill "Gospadarov" Gospadarov were benched. The new NAVI Junior five was formed from the Junior and Youth rosters of the club. 

In late February Dmytro "Dem0N" Myroshnychenko joined the NAVI Academy as well as Vladyslav "latt1kk" Vydrin, who was welcomed in March.

The renewed NAVI Junior team included Aunkere, m0NESY, pogor3lov, fear and SynyX. Their first test was the open qualification round of the European Development Championship Season 3. The guys made it to the finals of the qualifiers but couldn’t take the victory. Although the organizers of the tournament invited the Born to Win youth team to continue their fight in the closed qualifiers, NAVI Junior left having been one step away from entering the main stage of the championship. 

On April 11, Valerii "b1t" Vakhowskyi became an official member of NAVI's main roster.

Next, NAVI Junior made it through the LOOT.BET Season 9 closed qualifiers, losing only on one map. The main stage of the competition started with two victories for the squad, but three consecutive losses eliminated them from the tournament. 

Mediocre performances at Elisa Invitational Summer 2021 and REPUBLEAGUE Season 1 were following.

During BLAST Rising 2021, NAVI Junior made it out of the group but lost to the future tournament's runner-up Young Ninjas in the playoffs.

On May 29, the Road to NAVI project was announced, giving young players a chance to join NAVI Academy!

In mid-July, the WePlay Academy League 1 for youth teams began. At the end of the group stage, NAVI Junior was in fifth place with seven victories and defeats each. They started the play-in with a semi-final victory over VP Prodigy 2:0. Unfortunately, in the match for the last LAN-final slot, they lost to Fnatic Rising. It’s also worth mentioning that assistant coach Yhor "crush" Shevchenko joined NAVI Academy. 

In between the seasons of the Academic League NAVI Junior played at the Gjirafa50 Masters League Season 2 tournament. The guys finished the group without major problems but lost again in the deciding match for a LAN-Final spot.

On October 6, the new NAVI Youth squad was revealed: Andrii "nipl" Kukharsky, Dmitriy "fen2k" Gladskikh, Maksim "sh1ne" Vinogradov, Vladislav "xiELO-" Lisov, Mark "UNBR0KEN" Varakuta and Vladyslav "latt1kk" Vydrin.

The second season of WePlay Academy League started in October as well. Egor "flamie" Vasilyev played for NAVI Junior at the championship. The system of the tournament was different from the first season. Instead of one group with 8 participants, the teams were divided into two groups. The winners of each foursome would qualify for the LAN finals, and the other two slots were up for grabs in the Last Chance Group. 

NAVI Junior lost to Young Ninjas on three maps in the first Group match but ultimately claimed their long-awaited first LAN tournament, coming up on top in the Last Chance Group.

At the LAN tournament in Kyiv, the guys dropped into the lower bracket after losing to mouz NXT on three maps in the first match. In the first match of the losers bracket, NAVI defeated BIG Academy. In the grand final match, they defeated Young Ninjas on three maps. Unfortunately, their seeking for revenge remained unredeemed as NAVI Junior lost to mouz NXT again and took 2nd place alongside $20,000!

In December, the NAVI Junior roster was updated once more. All players were put up for transfer, with the exception of Daniil "headtr1ck" Valitov, who joined the renewed NAVI Junior roster. After ten days of test matches, Daniil was joined by nipl, UNBR0KEN, latt1kk and fen2k. 

Summary of the year:

• b1t became a full member of the NAVI main roster;
  - NAVI Junior played in their first LAN tournament, they finished in 2nd place;
  - NAVI Junior earned over $29,000 in prize money.

Year recap