Betting-Previews.com brings you a betting coverage of the first round of play at WePlay Academy League Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. Here are our betting previews and tips for four games, scheduled for Monday, July 19.
WePlay Academy League
When: Monday July 19 – Sunday, August 29
Where: Online (Group Stage), WePlay Esports Arena (Playoffs)
At the start of July, a prominent esports tournament organiser, WePlay Esports announced the creation of WePlay Academy League, a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament made for academy teams of the top eight organisations world.
WePlay Academy League will feature solely teams that have at least four players between the ages of 16-20. The tournament will kick off on Monday, July 19, with the online round-robin stage, from which the top three teams will advance into the double-elimination playoffs.
The bottom-placed team will get eliminated from the tournament, while the remaining four enter the Play-In stage, where they’ll compete for the final spot in the playoffs. The bracket stage will take place at the WePlay Esports Arena in Kyiv from August 27-29, with the winners securing the lion’s share of the $100,000 prize pool.
WePlay Academy League will serve as a filler for the CS:GO competitive scene, filling the gap created by the player break that will last from July 19-August 15. After the break, the CS:GO scene will resume with the $750,000 tournament, ESL Pro League 14, slated for August 16 – September 12.
The introduction of the WePlay Academy League comes in the wake of a number of top organisations creating CS:GO academy teams in a bit to grow their own talent and build for future success. Thus, the tournament will serve as both a proving ground for young up-and-coming talent and a way for the young players to experience the life of professional CS:GO players.
VP.Prodigy vs Young Ninjas
Monday, July 19 – 18:00 CEST
VP.Prodigy have only four official matches on their record. They lost twice against 1WIN (both 0-2 in a BO3 type of match) and 12-16 against Young Ninjas. Their only win came against AGF, who they beat 2-1 in a BO3 game.
Young Ninjas have been playing way more matches across the three months than VP.Prodigy, and have managed a respectable 56% win rate. The last two tournaments they played at were the Domination League Season 2 and Pinnacle Cup II, where they placed fifth-eight and ninth-12th respectively.
At the Domination League Season 2, Young Ninjas beat PACT, KOVA, and Ambush but had to face a solid almost-tier 1 team forZe, who proved too much to handle for the young Swedes. Y.Ninjas were also pretty good at the Pinnacle Cup II, where they recorded wins against the likes of TeamOne, Sangal, MIBR, and Copenhagen Flames, but lost twice against Fiend and once against mouz NXT.
VP.Prodigy and Young Ninjas already met about three weeks ago in the Pinnacle Cup II, where Young Ninjas won with 16-12 win on Overpass. Anton “Sapec” Palmgren was on fire that day and was the standout player for the Young Ninjas. He managed a total of 30 frags, 111.2 ADR, and a 1.71 HLTV rating.
There is no denying that the Swedes are the better team here. They have played far more official matches than VP.Prodigy and have beaten teams way stronger than their next opponent. However, at 1.285, I don’t think there is much value in backing them to win a BO1 match in the opening round of a new tournament.
There will be many upsets at this level of play, and the BO1 format doesn’t really help the favourites either. I expect a close match, and the 25.50 line looks at least two rounds too low!
Bet on VP.Prodigy to keep it close and make it entertaining!
Prediction: Over 25.50 Rounds – 1.757 at Pinnacle
BIG Academy vs NAVI Junior
Monday, July 19 – 19:00 CEST
NAVI Junior enter this match in terrible form. They have won only 33% of their matches across the last three months; however, they have done well against the likes of Sinners, Sangal, Budapest Five, Gorillaz, who are all stronger teams. Results like that make it clear that NAVI Junor have some talent on the team, but unfortunately, no tournament results to confirm that claim.
Apart from the fact that this will be BIG Academy’s first match with their new roster, we don’t know a lot about this team. Some players have already played together under the BIG Academy banner, but as far as I know, Alexander “glaVed” Pletz and Nico “Aqua” Kembitzky are entirely new additions to the team.
No H2H matches, tournament opener, BO1 format, unknown quality of players are just some of the many reasons why the odds make zero sense to me here. The value is with BIG Academy!
Prediction: BIG Academy +5.50 Rounds – 2.00 at Bet365, 1.909 at Pinnacle
Prediction: BIG Academy to win – 4.50 at Bet365
Astralis Talent vs FURIA Academy
Monday, July 19 – 20:00 CEST
Astralis Talent have not won a single match for the past three months, but to be fair, they haven’t played that many. The Danes attended Elisa Invitational Summer 2021 Regionals, where they placed 15th-16th, following losses against Lyngby Vikings, Nordavind, and Copenhagen Flames.
They also finished 25th-32nd at Spring Sweet Spring 2 Regionals with losses against MASONIC and hREDS, and added a 19th-24th place finish at the BLAST Rising 2021, where Astralis Talent lost both of their matches against AGO and Tricked.
FURIA Academy won 40% of their outings across the last three months. Even though they were mainly competing against other South American teams, you could argue that the teams FURIA Academy had to face (bravos, DETONA) are much stronger than squads Astralis had to face.
It’s worth noting that this will be FURIA’s first match in Europe, so we can expect a shakier performance from the Brazilian squad.
I don’t understand the betting odds here, and I suspect that they were set entirely based on the brand value of Astrals. The Danes have not won a single match in their last three, and their last official match was played about two months ago!
Ok, sure, they did attend a C-Tier ranked tournament, Dust2.dk Ligaen Season 17: Regular Season, but the quality of teams at the tournament was extremely poor. Yet even there, Astralis lost to a team called Atlando – who don’t even have a Liquipedia page.
I don’t expect much from Astralis Talent at this tournament. FURIA Academy should get the job done!
Prediction: FURIA Academy to win, 2.10 at Bet365, 2.07 at Pinnacle
mouz NXT vs fnatic Rising
Monday, July 19 – 21:00 CEST
Mouz NXT have won 71.4% of their matches across the last three months, which includes impressive wins against the likes of Entropiq and Lyngby Vikings. Mousesports’ academy team also attended Pinnacle Cup II, where they finished 9-12th, as the only tournament they competed in.
There’s a lot of hype surrounding mouz NXT, but I have a hard time deciding whether they’re any good. They might be, but the sample size of their matches is way too small for me to make a verdict.
Fnatic Rising are a completely new roster, which got announced just a couple of hours back, so there is definitely not a lot I can write about them. They have a few exciting names on the roster, but that’s about it.
Mouz NXT are the rightful favourites since they have been together for quite some time now and have plenty of matches under their belt. To be perfectly honest, they might be the best team at the event, considering what we have seen from other teams – but I wouldn’t be too bullish on them yet, as many things can happen at a tournament like this one.
On the other hand, we don’t know what will Fnatic Rising bring to the table. This is an online BO1 match between two young rosters, which is exactly the type of match that can go either way.
Mouz will probably win the match, but Fnatic’s young squad should have the talent to at least keep it close!
Prediction: Fnatic Rising +6.50 Rounds – 1.80 at bet365
We will continue our coverage of WePlay Academy League daily, so don’t forget to check back tomorrow for more Counter-Strike: Global Offensive betting previews and predictions. After the first rounds of play, we will lock our CS:GO betting previews and make them accessible only to our premium and Lite members.
