Academy Standouts highlights the players who performed best in the most recent week of NA Academy play. I’ll discuss a few of the most noteworthy standouts, then list some other players whose performances caught my eye below.
Last week brought us the first round of Proving Grounds, with each team playing their first best-of-3 match of the tournament and either advancing to the second round of the upper bracket or dropping to the lower bracket where they will face elimination in their next match.
jojopyun, Mid, Evil Geniuses Academy
The best NA prospect competing in Proving Grounds (Kenvi is off bootcamping with the 100 Thieves main team) was in fine form against Golden Guardians Academy. He posted a 13/1/8 scoreline on Sylas in game 2, to go with 4/2/4 and 4/2/9 games on LeBlanc in games 1 and 3.
jojo’s combination of fearlessness and mechanics were on display, and he did well in creating lane priority and using it to help out Tomio and apply pressure on the map.
jojopyun Stats
| Â | KDA | KP | GXD10 | DPM | CSPM |
| Proving Grounds | 8.4 | 85.7% | +63 | 636 | 7.8 |
V1per probably could have signed with an Academy team for the Spring split, but he ended up playing in the amateur circuit with Anew Esports, before they were disbanded via competitive ruling, forcing V1per and his teammates to play the rest of the split with no organizational backing.
Contractz dominated FlyQuest Academy with a pair of Nidalee games where he exerted relentless pressure all around the map, especially working around Tony Top’s Camille and Jax picks to set up the side-laning win condition. His Nidalee javelins around the Baron pit in game 1 changed the story of the series, and his play overall was the main factor behind EGA’s upset over FLYA and their advancement in the upper bracket.