Should North America have an Academy League?
It's no secret that North America has been struggling with a talent problem in the past few years. With our top-tier talent such as Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken leaving for greener pastures in Europe and a seeming lack of home-grown talent, it's no surprise that some of the biggest organizations like Liquid and Evil Geniuses have inched away from their NA roots with recent signings.
Clearly, the only solution is for NA as a region to get better. The only way that happens is if existing second-tier players break through their skill ceilings and develop into outstanding players who can hold it with the best in the world. At this point, you're probably saying to yourself: "okay smarty-pants, well how are you gonna do that?" I don't have all the answers, but thankfully, brilliant CS:GO analysts and talent have theorized ways to uplift the scene together.
Aleksandar "kassad" Trifunović, most recently coach of EXTREMUM, Cloud9, and 100 Thieves, thinks that North America should host its own academy league à la WePlay Academy League. The WePlay Academy League has proved fruitful for many European organizations who have cultivated upcoming talent through the program. Two of MOUZ's current lineup come from their academy team, and both BIG and FURIA have dipped into their academy pool for main squad positions as well. Players like Ádám "torzsi" Torzsás went from relative obscurity to the junior team and then to the main team where he has been tearing it up on a the biggest stages in the world.
Is a North American academy league even possible? Maybe, but you'd need to convince organizations to invest in the idea. So far, EG is the only North American organization to have bought into the academy roster idea, but they have bought into it hard with the acquisitions of the Party Astronauts and Carpe Diem lineups. Neither of the other two main NA organizations, Liquid or Complexity, have shown any interest. Cloud9 has abandoned North America altogether. If you include South American teams, FURIA and 00 Nation already have academy teams, and GODSENT did until they left the sport entirely. Getting to eight will be a hard press, but perhaps possible.
Jason "moses" O'Toole, former Liquid coach, also weighed in on the matter, offering an alternate, or even additional method to strengthen North American homegrown talent. ESL Pro League Seasons 2, 5, and 7 were held in the good ol' USA, but since then, not a single EPL has taken place in the Western hemisphere. Those five weeks when the best in the world were practicing in NA offered an unprecedented amount of practice for homegrown players to grow and learn from.
We saw it during IEM Dallas just a few months ago when ECL-level players were praising the practice they got from EU players in that short time span. ECL teams had the opportunity to scrimmage against teams right on the bleeding edge of the meta. To offer that chance for over a month every single year would be a tremendous boost to our second-tier teams and would help them bridge the gap to tier one gameplay.
In short, there are many ways to improve North American Counter-Strike, but given the success of the WePlay Academy League in developing EU talent, it makes sense to bring a version of it across the Atlantic. Both kassad and moses seem to think so, along with bringing other ideas to the table.
