Many top teams have youth squads, but organizations have different attitudes towards their formation. For some, it's just a secondary roster of young players under a more experienced coach, whose main goal is to participate in the WePlay Academy League and other lower level tournaments. Others are building programs to support young players in a more focused way, initially creating a system of multiple levels aimed at developing players capable of competing at major events. A successful example of this approach is – NAVI Youth and NAVI Junior, thanks to which Valery «b1t» Vakhovsky and Ilya «m0NESY» Osipov were able to realize their potential.
Finnish ENCE has recently decided to apply such a strategy, having launched its program of support for young players at the beginning of the year. In an interview with HLTV, the organization's co-founder Yuna «natu» Leppenen says that their main goal was to create a development path for young players that they didn't have before. ENCE Academy project manager Emeli Ikonen adds to this that they pay attention not only to the professional but also to the psychological preparation of cyber athletes.
ENCE Academy recently played its first season in WePlay Academy and is now ranked 132nd in the world ranking, but the ENCE project is not limited to these five players. ENCE Academy works with several dozen aspiring cyber athletes, giving them the resources they need to develop. Natu recognizes that for a long time the Finnish CS:GO scene has not been in the best condition, and now the task of the project – is not only to create a pool of players who can possibly make it to the main ENCE roster, but also to contribute to the development of the discipline in the country as a whole.