On March 16, a NAVI youth player was invited to play in the FACEIT Pro League. The qualifying trials, where players were selected to participate in it, took place last weekend. Ilya «m0NESY» Osipov failed to rise to a position that would entitle him to a league pass. However, the young player received an individual invitation.
Ilya Osipov is now 14 years old. According to FACEIT manager Milos Nedeljkovic, he is the youngest player ever to be invited to bypass the normal selection procedure. Nedeljkovic commented on the decision, saying that one of the goals of the league is precisely to give budding talent a chance to prove themselves.
Ilya Osipov became a member of the NAVI Junior in early 2020. During that time, he only participated in one official game, and in that game the team was defeated. In the FPL qualifiers, Ilya was initially in the lead, but ended up only sixth. Another young player from NAVI Junior – Eugene «Aunkere» Karjat won. He managed to beat his second place competitor by more than twenty points. Nevertheless, the organizers of FACEIT Pro offered Ilya Osipov to take part in the league as well.