Ukrainian esports organisation Natus Vincere, known as NAVI, has partnered with financial technology company Visa to create a new youth-focused esports academy project.
Called the NAVI Visa Academy, the project aims to be an entry point into CS2 esports for young players whilst helping them perhaps become a part of NAVI’s academy roster.
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The NAVI Visa Academy has been created to seed players into NAVI Youth, the company’s official academy team. To find players sufficiently skilled to rise through the ranks of NAVI, the company has partnered with Visa to host a three-stage selection project.
The first stage of the process is the selection itself. NAVI coaches and players will select high-potential players from the applications sent. These players will then go through a “three-week online competition” to get the chance to advance to the next stage of the selection process. NAVI did not share details of the online competition but noted that the players must be between 14 and 17 years old, with over 2600 ELO on FACEIT. The players also must have no contractual obligations to other organisations and speak English on at least a B1 level.
The 10 best players from the mentioned online competition will go to Berlin for the NAVI BootCamp, where they will train with the team’s academy coaches. The top five of the best-performing players during the BootCamp phase will join NAVI Youth.
The company’s youth system was lauded as one of the best in the world, with excellent players such as Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov and Valerij ‘b1t’ Vakhovsjkyj both being products of the NAVI academy.
NAVI and Visa also announced that the project’s results will be shared through social media, with exclusive video content featuring the players also created as the academy unfolds. Visa has recently made headlines by partnering with Argentine esports organisation Leviatán through its gamer-focused digital wallet called n1u.
