WePlay Academy League Season 1 Finals set to start

Four academy teams will face off at the three-day LAN event in Kyiv.

The WePlay Academy League Season 1 Finals will kick off on Friday, August 27 at 15:00 , as the group stage winners MOUZ NXT will go up against BIG Academy, a team that was put together right before the online portion of the event but nonetheless managed to qualify for the finals finishing in third place.

The second opening series at 18:00 will feature the Swedes from Young Ninjas, who will be playing with Tim "⁠Mann3n⁠" Isak instead of Linus "⁠nilo⁠" Bergman, going up against the play-in winners, fnatic Rising, and AWPer Iulian "⁠regali⁠" Harjău, the highest rated player from the group stage to attend the LAN.

The finals will be taking place at the WePlay Esports Arena in Kyiv, Ukraine and will mark the final stage of the WePlay Academy League, which was initially played out in July and early August with the four aforementioned teams making it through to the offline event over NAVI Junior, whose Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov was in a league of his own, as well as VP.Prodigy, FURIA Academy and Astralis Talent.

The LAN finals will feature a double-elimination bracket and it will be played out with two matches per day throughout the three days, with all series being best-of-three except the grand final, which will be a best-of-five series with a map advantage for the team coming from the upper bracket.

The WePlay Academy League Season 1 Finals schedule is:

Friday, August 27

15:00 - MOUZ NXT vs. BIG Academy
18:00 - Young Ninjas vs. fnatic Rising

Saturday, August 28

15:00 - Lower bracket round 1
18:00 - Upper bracket final

Sunday, August 29

15:00 - Consolidation final
18:00 - Grand final

Bringing the English broadcast to life will be a similar desk as in the online portion of the tournament, with James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks hosting while Alex "⁠Mauisnake⁠" Ellenberg and Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche break down the action.

Hugo Byron and Harry Russell, who commented the round robin group stage, will not be live from Kyiv, as they are currently working the ongoing ESL Pro League, but none other than Anders "⁠Anders⁠" Blume and Auguste "⁠Semmler⁠" Massonnat have been tasked with casting the LAN finals.

The English language broadcast lineup is:

James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks - Host

Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche - Analyst
Alex "⁠Mauisnake⁠" Ellenberg - Analsyt

Anders "⁠Anders⁠" Blume - Commentator
Auguste "⁠Semmler⁠" Massonnat - Commentator

HLTV will have a two-man crew bringing live updates from the ground at the WePlay Esports Arena, including photographs of the action as it happens and interviews with some of the protagonists at the event.