Team Vitality has announced the establishment of its Counter-Strike academy, Vitality Academy. The Vitality becomes the latest Counter-Strike organization to establish an academy, after several orgs have had success with their academy rosters.
Vitality Academy looks to retain Vitality’s advantage in the scene
The announcement of the academy roster brings Vitality in line with other high-profile organizations, such as NAVI, MOUZ, or Team Spirit, in fielding academy rosters.
Notable academy graduates currently active in Tier 1 include Drin ‘makazze’ Shaqiri (NAVI Jr), Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov (NAVI Jr), Dorian ‘xertioN’ Berman (MOUZ), Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets (Spirit Academy), and Maksim ‘kyousuke’ Lukin, amongst many others.
The above examples have displayed that academies can be valuable to organizations both for direct promotions to the main team (makazze, donk, xertioN), and as a revenue driver when academy players are sold (kyousuke, m0nesy).
Therefore, academies can both generate revenue directly, through sales, and indirectly by saving money that would have otherwise been spent on transfers.
That aspect is especially relevant in 2026, with high player prices generally leading to roster stagnation in Tier 1.
While Vitality will be in no rush to make roster changes, the academy sets up a potential space for players to develop with Vitality’s systems and protocols ingrained into young players.
Vitality seemingly has the formula for success in Counter-Strike 2, with the main roster enjoying a period of unprecedented dominance.
The task for the academy will be to retain that advantage through embedding strong principles in its youngsters. That seems possible, with the academy and the main roster set to practice together and share feedback sessions.
The academy also enjoys a link to the main team through their coach, Pablo ‘VdaK1NG’ Escobar, who previously acted as an analyst for the main roster.
The Team Vitality Academy roster is:
Ulysse ‘katkame’ Thiebault (France, 16)
Luca-Adrian ‘lucaZ’ Gavrilut (Romania, 17)
Aleks ‘Reqqen’ Frolov (Estonia, 16)
Kirill ‘Dafra1D’ Polieiko (Ukraine, 19)
Patrick ‘patrenzo’ Hauer (Slovakia, 17)
Pablo ‘VdaK1NG’ Escobar (Coach)
Fabien ‘Neo’ Devide, President of Team Vitality, reflected on the benefit of the academy roster to the org, stating:
“Creating a Counter-Strike academy means investing in the future of our ecosystem. For esports to continue growing and structuring itself, it must rely on strong development pathways capable of identifying, supporting, and nurturing tomorrow’s talents.
“At Team Vitality, we want to perform today, but also build the champions of tomorrow and help elevate the entire scene to the next level.”
Vitality’s history with academy rosters
The org now fields academy rosters in Counter-Strike and League of Legends, where the Vitality academy competes in the LFL as Vitality.Bee.
Several of Vitality’s LoL academy players have gone on to compete in Tier 1, including current Vitality players Kadir ‘Fleshy’ Kemiksiz and Kaan ‘Naak Nako’ Okan.
The organization also briefly fielded a Valorant academy roster branded VIT.Revolution, but the roster disbanded after the conclusion of VCL France Stage 2 in May of last year.
Despite the brief existence of the roster, Vitality did successfully graduate one of its players to the main roster, with Ștefan ‘Sayonara’ Mîtcu taking his place in the org’s main Valorant roster.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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