Results of the year: NAVI Junior

NAVI keeps developing the youth esports scene. Every year we find talents who can progress to a whole new level of play in our club. In 2022, despite russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, nothing has changed: our juniors performed on the international stage, demonstrating their potential to the whole world.

The season for NAVI Junior began with WePlay Academy League Season 3. The roster was relatively new and hadn't had enough time to practice. After finishing 3rd in the group, the juniors made it to the second round of the Play-In, where they failed to defeat a more well-played Astralis Talent (1 : 2) and finished 7th-8th in the tournament.

The next season of the Academic League took place only in May and NAVI Junior already played in a fully Ukrainian roster. Rodion «fear» Smyk joined the team for one tournament, as well as Dmytro «Dem0n» Myroshnychenko and Adam «froz1k» Nagornyi. At that time the very young team was not ready to compete with the strongest clubs: the guys took the 5th place in Group B with the 2-8 statistics. In the first round of the Play-In the juniors defeated Spirit Academy (2 : 1), but lost to OG Academy (0 : 2) in the next match and finished the competition in 9th-10th place.

During WePlay Academy League Season 5 we watched a completely different team. Despite the fact that this season started two weeks later, the guys showed great preparation and took 2nd place in the group, leaving behind Astralis Talent, Spirit Academy and four-time champions MOUZ NXT. Due to the changes in the tournament's format, our team didn't make it to the playoffs, but to the second round of the Play-In, where they lost in the best of 3 match against Astralis Talent (1 : 2), even though they defeated this team twice in the previous stage. Nevertheless, the result of the tournament can be considered as a success, and the progress of the team was evident at a glance: 5-6th place and $ 4000 in prize money.

In between competitions in the Academic League, the juniors played in a charity tournament from ASUS ROG. In the final match our youth team defeated GUESS (2 : 0) and earned 30 000 UAH. Apart from the prize pool, the guys won a unique trophy ROG #STANDWITHUKRAINE CUP. Moreover, 50 000 UAH from the prize pool were transferred to the United24 in support for Ukraine in its confrontation with the aggressor.

At the final competitions of the year in the Academic League, NAVI Junior performed as one of the favorites. September brought new strength to the team in the face of Yuri «rendY» Galishin and Ruslan «yab0ku-» Kekot. The guys handled the pressure and advanced straight into the playoffs, finishing 1st in the group stage. After losing to Young Ninjas, the future winners of the WePlay Academy League Season 6, our juniors kept fighting at the lower bracket and in a dramatic match eliminated MOUZ NXT (14 : 16 Overpass, 16 : 14 Mirage, 16 : 14). In the last match NAVI Junior faced Young Ninjas again, but couldn't get the revenge (0 : 2). The competition was the most successful in the history of our team in this league after the change of the format — the 3rd place and $ 15 000 in prize money.



ROG Winter Cup 2022 was supposed to be the final tournament of the year for NAVI Junior, but due to constant blackouts the final of the tournament was postponed.

The progress of the youth squad is evident in the results, which are improving every tournament. We hope that next year the guys will win the long-awaited WePlay Academy League!

CS:GO NAVI Junior:

Ruslan «yab0ku-» Kekot
Yuri «rendY» Galishyn
Mark «UNBR0KEN» Varakuta
Dmytro «Dem0N» Myroshnychenko
Adam «froz1k» Nahornyi

Igor «crush» Shevchenko (coach)
Olha Novak (manager)