OG puts its CS:GO Academy program on hold

European organization OG Esports decides to let go of its last three CS:GO Academy players, who are now part of free agency. However, the organization has also indicated that they will only keep the coach and that he is now part of the primary team.

The reasons why OG decided to end their academy team have not yet been announced, but this is likely not a final goodbye, and they will be back on the scene soon.

With this, OG becomes the second organization at the highest competitive level of CS:GO to decide to put its Academy on hold. Recall that Fnatic decided to put its academy team, Fnatic Rising, on hold a few days ago.

OG Esports Announcement

Last Friday, January 13, OG announced that its academy program would be on hiatus and that Blagoi “oxygeN” Dimitrov, Alexandru “s0und” Ștefan, and Arbnor “Dementor” Pacolli would become free agents.

On the other hand, Christian “crisby” Schmitt, former academy coach, will now be the primary team analyst. For now, only Max “Marix” Kugener is still listed as a player on the team. However, if another organization wants to acquire his services, OG will give the player away, i.e., they will not ask for any transfer fee.

OG said on its official website:

“Over the past nine months, we have trained six players with the support of our technical staff and in particular Christian “crisbyyy” Schmitt, and have taken part in three seasons of WePlay Academy League during which we progressed admirably over.”

“As 2023 promises to be a busy year, we have made the decision to focus on our main roster. Young talent development is important to us, and it would be wrong to not dedicate the proper attention and time to it. 2023 will be the year of reflection concerning our next development projects with the will to propose an even more successful project in the future.”

About OG Academy

Less than a year ago, OG announced the creation of its Academy. Its first recruit was Crisby, who coached a lineup of talented youngsters, bringing with him every bit of knowledge from his extensive experience in the professional CS:GO scene.

During the team’s two seasons in the WePlay Academy League, they finished in 7th-8th place in both. After these “disappointing” performances, the team decided to make their first changes.

Kaloyan “shaiK” Borisov was replaced by Bulgarian Slaven “AwaykeN” Lyubenov in the autumn of 2022. The team started to show positive results immediately. Well, they finished in 5th-6th place in season 6 of the WePlay Academy League.

Then, in early January, AwaykeN decided to part ways with the academy team after three months in the organization.

The head of esports at OG Esports, Mike Schwartz, said:

“When I joined OG, one of the core initiatives was to focus on the growth of talent within the organization. WePlay provided us, like they have with so many others, a great opportunity to showcase the stars of tomorrow and we are extremely grateful. We’ve learned a great deal over the past nine months, and I’m confident that we will return in the future with a more robust and impactful academy project not just for CS:GO, but other teams as well.”

Finally, in the note on their official blog, they point out:

“Our deepest thanks also go to WePlay and their employees who, despite an extremely difficult situation, have managed to maintain the continuity of this wonderful product that is the WePlay Academy League. It has been an honor to be a part of it in 2022 and we hope to return in the future.”

This makes us think they do not realize they can restart the Academy team quickly.

Header: OG Esports