The fourth season of the league features an expanded format with 13 teams.

The WePlay Academy League Season 4 is due to kick off at 17:00 tonight, pitting 13 young teams against each other across a month of play to determine the best academy team in the world.

There is an impressive $100,000 prize pool on the line, and the teams will face off in a robust format that features two groups battling it out in a best-of-one double round-robin group stage, a single elimination play-in for the 2nd-6th placed teams in each group, and a double elimination best-of-three playoff bracket.

MOUZ NXT will be favourites to take another WePlay trophy home

The action will be brought to you by two commentary duos, one being Mohan "⁠launders⁠" Govindasamy and Conner "⁠Scrawny⁠" Girvan, the other being Joshua "⁠Dweg⁠" Nathan and Jamie "⁠EternalJay⁠" Martin.

MOUZ NXT will likely come into the season as hot favourites to take home the trophy, having dominated the WePlay Academy League since its inception a year ago, despite losing star names like Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás and Jon "⁠JDC⁠" de Castro to the main roster in that time.

Astralis Talent come into the competition with the highest HLTV ranking, and off the back of recent victories at Nordic events Gamebox Festival 2022 and MistGames Heroes of Tomorrow.

Outside of those two favourites, BIG Academy will be looking to build upon a promising second place finish in the previous WePlay Academy League, and they will seek to do it with the help of the experienced Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne who replaced Karim "⁠Krimbo⁠" Moussa upon the latter's promotion to the main squad.

The groups for the initial stage of the league are below:

Group A
MOUZ NXT
PROSPECTS
OG Academy
fnatic Rising
Spirit Academy
Eternal Fire Academy
Young Gods Group B
BIG Academy
Astralis Talent
NAVI Junior
Young Ninjas
Apeks Rebels
FURIA Academy

Further information can be found on the HLTV event page.

Spirit Academy Vladislav 'Qweall' PivkinMyroslav 'zont1x' PlakhotiaDanil 'donk' KryshkovetsArtem 'ArtFr0st' KharitonovDenis 'notineki' Kalachev Astralis Talent #61 Alexander 'Altekz' GivskovFrederik 'Fessor' SørensenVictor 'vigg0' BisgaardBenjamin 'brzer' JensenMikkel 'MistR' Thomsen MOUZ NXT Kamil 'siuhy' SzkaradekMiłosz 'mhL' KnasiakHubert 'szejn' ŚwiatłyJimi 'Jimpphat' SaloDorian 'xertioN' Berman OG Academy Time is adjusted to your selected timezone Young Ninjas #125 Erik 'ztr' GustafssonAdam 'adamb' ÅngströmMax 'maxster' JanssonKalle 'Ro1f' JohanssonAdrian '7EMPORARY' Mehrara Mohan 'launders' Govindasamy Age: 31 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.76 Maps played: 3 KPR: 0.57 DPR: 0.76 Jamie 'EternalJay' Martin Age: 25 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.00 Maps played: 0 KPR: 0.00 DPR: 0.00 Joshua 'Dweg' Nathan Age: 21 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.00 Maps played: 0 KPR: 0.00 DPR: 0.00 Nils 'k1to' Gruhne Age: 23 Team: BIG Academy Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 1210 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.69 NAVI Junior Rodion 'fear' SmykDaniil 'headtr1ck' ValitovDmytro 'dem0n' MyroshnychenkoAdam 'froz1k' NahornyiAndrii 'npl' Kukharskyi Jon 'JDC' de Castro Age: 22 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 471 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.67 Apeks Rebels Ådne 'sense' FredriksenViktor 'vhw' WadmanTobias 'berzerk' BertelsenPatrik 'Brave' KarlsenSindre 'Tapewaare' Ellefsen FURIA Academy #210 Leonardo 'zmb' ToledoKaue 'kauez' KaschukLucas 'decenty' BacelarBruno 'Bruninho' RodriguesJoão 'koala' Pfeffer fnatic Rising Peppe 'Peppzor' BorakMikkel 'Maze' SparvathIulian 'regali' HarjăuSebastian 'volt' MaloșMatias 'Banjo' Kivistö Conner 'Scrawny' Girvan Age: 27 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.00 Maps played: 0 KPR: 0.00 DPR: 0.00 Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás Age: 20 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 428 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.62 Eternal Fire Academy Enes 'colorzz' YıldıranAli 'Wicadia' Haydar YalçınTolga 'Kenshin' OnalanBerat 'jresy' ÖzcanRoni 'roniii' Sarihan BIG Academy #100 Nils 'k1to' GruhneDavid 'prosus' HesseElias 's1n' SteinNico 'Aqua' KembitzkyMarcel 'hyped' Köhn Karim 'Krimbo' Moussa Age: 19 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 318 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65 PROSPECTS #107 Jesper 'Jimbo' KamsrudEskil 'LaX' BjørnsenOlle 'spooke' GrundströmAdelin 'adeX' NicaErsin 'ERSIN' Chiriac Young Gods John 'lineko' LineckJoão 'snow' ViniciusCarlos 'venomzera' EduardoLeonardo 'n9xtz' SantosBruno 'brn$' de Araújo