Team Ranking: April 2017

Following up on March's ranking post, it's time for our monthly ranking update. At the start of April, FaZe won the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals, the most important tournament of the month, which helped them to move up in the ranking.

Astralis, the current No. 1 team in the world, placed second in Kiev, the only competition they played in April. Natus Vincere and HellRaisers made up the rest of the top four.

Besides StarSeries, cs_summit and Copenhagen Games were two other important tournaments. At the former, SK secured first place after beating Gambit 3-1, while Singularity won the latter with a victory over dreamchasers (2-0) in the final – which helped them make their way to 19th place in the ranking.

DreamHack Austin 2017 was the last tournament of the month. Gambit were crowned champions over Immortals, with G2 and Heroic placing 3rd-4th.

Although the ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals will start on May 31, IEM Sydney and DH Open Tours will be the two main competitions during the current month. In the Australian tournament, only two teams – ViCi and Chiefs – are not ranked in our top 30. As for DreamHack Open's French stop, only Misfits are below the top 30 teams, but this comes as an opportunity for them to prove their value.

Here's a summary of our ranking for new readers:

Our team ranking is based on teams' achievements over the past year (with severe decay in points throughout each month), recent form over the last 2 months, and performance at offline events in the last 3 months.

Each team is required to have a three-man core in order to retain their points and online results are included but have minimal effect (only affecting 'Form') at the top of the table and mainly serve to put new teams on the map.

Here is the current top 30 table as of May 1st, 2017, which goes more in-depth into the way points are distributed – or you can check our special page where you will be able to find the latest, weekly version of our ranking. You can see the lineup for each team by hovering over their name in the table.

Please note that the +/- gain on this table differs from our weekly rankings page, and it is related to the ranking update of April 3rd, 2017.

Top 30 Team Ranking Powered by EGB.com

Rank	Team	Achievements	Form	LANs	Total points	+/-
1.	Astralis	500	147	300	947	-
2.	FaZe	300	200	228	728	+2
3.	Virtus.pro	307	40	193	540	-1
4.	SK	288	117	121	526	-1
5.	North	204	130	107	441	-
6.	Natus Vincere	200	109	113	422	-
7.	Gambit	164	99	94	357	+2
8.	G2	104	197	53	354	+8
9.	HellRaisers	81	175	48	304	+6
10.	Immortals	110	104	72	286	-3
11.	fnatic	98	128	59	285	-
12.	NiP	125	94	29	248	-
13.	OpTic	136	73	38	247	-
14.	Cloud9	107	87	29	223	-4
15.	Heroic	79	59	70	208	-7
16.	CLG	32	97	48	177	+8
17.	mousesports	44	84	9	137	-3
18.	Liquid	32	66	12	110	+2
19.	Singularity	6	65	6	77	+103
20.	GODSENT	23	48	5	76	+2
21.	BIG	10	47	11	68	-2
22.	Envy	2	62	2	66	-1
23.	Renegades	9	55	1	65	+4
24.	Tricked	3	53	4	60	+7
25.	PENTA	0	60	0	60	+13
26.	Space Soldiers	8	50	0	58	-8
27.	Kinguin	21	37	0	58	-10
28.	FlipSid3	19	21	16	56	-5
29.	Luminosity	1	53	2	56	-1
30.	LDLC	7	46	2	55	+6

*Hover over each team name for the full lineup.

Here's an explanation on the top 15 teams' history during April.

1. Astralis

Player	Age	Rating
Nicolai "device" Reedtz	21	1.13
Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth	21	1.07
Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye	19	1.05
Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen	24	1.04
Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander	21	0.90

April was a slow month for the Danes in terms of LAN competitions. They only competed in Kiev at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals, where they placed second after losing to FaZe 1-2 in the final. Despite failing to beat the European mixture in the title match, they remain the No. 1 team in our ranking.

As for online matches, they were held to 1-1 draws in five of the eight best-of-two clashes they played, also recording two victories, against HellRaisers and GODSENT, and one defeat, against G2. 

During May, besides the ESL Pro League Season 5 Europe Finals, Astralis will be at IEM Sydney 2017, where they will face, among others, FaZe, SK and North.

2. FaZe

Player	Age	Rating
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač	20	1.19
Håvard "rain" Nygaard	22	1.09
Aleksi "allu" Jalli	24	1.04
Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey	22	0.99
Finn "karrigan" Andersen	27	0.94

With their latest results, karrigan's team continues to move up  in our ranking. At the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals, FaZe lost two maps in the Swiss stage: 10-16 against HellRaisers and 13-16 versus North. In the playoff stage, they were able to win best-of-threes against G2, HellRaisers and Astralis to secure first place.

After their Kiev run, FaZe returned to their online commitments, winning all but one of the five best-of-two matches they played. At IEM Sydney, they will be looking to pick up more points in our ranking as they target Astralis' No1. spot.

3. Virtus.pro

Player	Age	Rating
Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski	29	1.03
Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski	23	1.03
Paweł "byali" Bieliński	23	0.98
Filip "NEO" Kubski	29	0.90
Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas	30	0.85

April was a rough month for the Polish team. The main factor was their poor performance at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals, where they placed 12-14th. It was the only LAN tournament Virtus.pro played during the past month and they won just one match there, against MVP Project, having been soundly beaten by SK (2-16), NiP (5-16) and fnatic (2-16).

Another factor behind Virtus.pro's poor month was their online record. Besides drawing with both NiP and Astralis, the team lost to LDLC and Heroic. 

Despite Virtus.pro's current poor run of form, their first place from DreamHack Masters Las Vegas and second place from ELEAGUE Major back in January are still relevant enough to keep them above SK in our ranking.

4. SK

Player	Age	Rating
Marcelo "coldzera" David	22	1.31
Fernando "fer" Alvarenga	25	1.21
João "felps" Vasconcellos	20	1.09
Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo	25	1.01
Epitacio "TACO" de Melo	22	0.96

After felps joined the squad, the Brazilian team had some problems at LAN events – placing 11-12th at IEM Katowice and 9-11th at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals last month – but they still managed to come out on top at cs_summit 2017 after winning all of their matches, including a best-of-five series against Gambit (3-1) in the final.

In terms of online play, they recorded draws against OpTic, Liquid and Cloud9 while posting wins against Ghost and NRG.

In May, SK are confirmed for two events, IEM Sydney and the ESL Pro League finals. With several top teams in attendance in both competitions, the Brazilians will have the chance to cement their raking placement and even move up a few places. 

5. North

Player	Age	Rating
Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke	20	1.16
René "cajunb" Borg	27	1.13
Emil "Magisk" Reif	19	1.07
Philip "aizy" Aistrup	20	0.97
Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen	22	0.93

The last time the Danes were at a LAN event was at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3, where they lost out to HellRaisers in the quarter-finals after beating Immortals, Astralis and FaZe in the Swiss stage. After that, they lost one online match against FaZe and recorded wins against Kinguin, LDLC and NiP.

Although they couldn't reach a higher placement when compared to March's update, North have been improving of late, and they have two events coming up: IEM Sydney and the ESL Pro League Season 5 finals.

6. Natus Vincere

Player	Age	Rating
Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev	19	1.17
Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács	25	1.07
Egor "flamie" Vasilyev	20	1.02
Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev	29	0.96
Denis "seized" Kostin	22	0.89

At the beginning of April, Natus Vincere placed 3rd-4th at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals after losing to Astralis in the semi-finals. During the rest of the month, the team had one win, one draw and two defeats in their online league matches.

At the moment, Natus Vincere are placed 6th in the ESL Pro League Season European division, which means they are likely to compete in the offline finals. Before it, though, s1mple's squad will play at DreamHack Open Tours, from May 6-8.

7. Gambit

Player	Age	Rating
Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev	27	1.12
Abay "Hobbit" Khasenov	22	1.09
Rustem "mou" Telepov	25	1.06
Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov	28	0.97
Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko	29	0.90

Zeus's team had a slow start to the month, finishing 12th-14th at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 and losing to BIG in the ESEA Premier Season 24 Europe quarter-finals.

After that, they went on to Gambit place second at cs_summit 2017 and win DreamHack Austin against Immortals. They will be looking to build on that at DreamHack Tours, which kicks off in just three days.

8. G2

Player	Age	Rating
Kenny "kennyS" Schrub	21	1.15
Richard "shox" Papillon	24	1.11
Dan "apEX" Madesclaire	24	1.06
Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro	20	0.97
Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt	22	0.97

For the Frenchmen, April began with a 5th-8th place at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals. After that, G2 had a great online run, winning four matches and drawing three. They are currently placed third in ESL Pro League, which means they have one foot at the season finals, in Dallas. 

Last weekend, kennyS and co. placed 3rd-4th at DreamHack Austin 2017 after losing in the semi-finals to Gambit, the team that eventually won the tournament. Their next test will be DreamHack Tours, which will start in just a few days.

9. HellRaisers

Player	Age	Rating
Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow	27	1.08
Patrik "Zero" Žúdel	18	1.06
Martin "STYKO" Styk	21	1.05
Vladyslav "bondik" Nechyporchuk	23	1.00
Bence "DeadFox" Böröcz	22	0.99

After their great performances in Kiev, where they placed 3rd-4th, HellRaisers failed to get through the group stage at DreamHack Austin after losing to Heroic.

In between those tournaments, ANGE1's squad lost online league matches against Astralis, fnatic and mousesports. Later this week, the team will travel to France to compete at DreamHack Tours, for which they qualified at the start of April.

10. Immortals

Player	Age	Rating
Henrique "HEN1" Teles	21	1.11
Lincoln "fnx" Lau	27	1.10
Ricardo "boltz" Prass	20	1.06
Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles	21	1.02
Lucas "steel" Lopes	23	1.00

The Brazilian team didn't succeed in Kiev at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals, placing 9th-11th, but they made up for that with a runners-up finish at DreamHack Austin, where they beat North American duo Liquid and Cloud9, and Danish team Heroic. In their online league matches, fnx and his teammates picked up three wins and two draws. 

As of now, Immortals are confirmed to play at the Esports Arena Showdown Championship, in a few days' time.

 11. fnatic

Player	Age	Rating
Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer	25	1.07
Dennis "dennis" Edman	26	1.01
Jesper "JW" Wecksell	22	1.00
Robin "flusha" Rönnquist	23	0.99
Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson	23	0.91

dennis and co. have had ups and downs since renewing their team. Last month, they reached the quarter-finals at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 event before losing out to Natus Vincere. After returning from Kiev, the Swedes won just one out of four best-of-twos, with the remaining three matches ending in 1-1 stalemates. 

fnatic do not have an event lined up for May, but since they are placed seventh in the ESL Pro League, they still have a chance to qualify for the season finals, in Dallas. 

12. NiP

Player	Age	Rating
William "draken" Sundin	21	1.13
Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund	26	0.97
Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg	28	0.96
Richard "Xizt" Landström	26	0.91
Adam "friberg" Friberg	25	0.89

Right after adding draken to the roster, NiP placed 9th-11th at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 finals following losses to G2, HellRaisers and fnatic. At cs_summit, they took 5th-6th as a 2-0 win over GODSENT was sandwiched out by defeats against Liquid and Cloud9.

Online, things did not go NiP's way either, with the team recording three defeats (against G2, FaZe and North) and four draws. 

NiP's chances of qualifying for the ESL Pro League Season 5 finals do not look too bright as they currently sit ninth in the table, nine points behind sixth-placed Natus Vincere.

13. OpTic

Player	Age	Rating
Oscar "mixwell" Cañellas	21	1.10
William "RUSH" Wierzba	22	1.06
Keith "NAF" Markovic	19	0.99
Tarik "tarik" Celik	21	0.97
Jason "jasonR" Ruchelski	22	0.85

At the start of April, the North American team placed second in the iBUYPOWER Invitational Spring 2017 after losing to Cloud9 0-2 in the final. They would get their revenge against Timothy "autimatic" Ta's men at cs_summit, picking up a 2-1 win in the Lower Bracket final before losing out to Gambit in the consolidation final, finishing the event in third place.

In their online leagues, OpTic got off on the wrong foot, with three draws and two defeats before cs_summit, but they ended the month on a high, beating Ghost and Winterfox. Later this week, OpTic will attend IEM Sydney with James "hazed" Cobb as a stand-in, and they could also attend the ESL Pro League finals as they are currently just three points adrift of a top-six spot.

14. Cloud9

Player	Age	Rating
Timothy "autimatic" Ta	20	1.14
Jake "Stewie2K" Yip	19	1.14
Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham	23	1.07
Mike "shroud" Grzesiek	22	0.96
Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert	26	0.92

Cloud9 began the month with a bang, defeating Selfless, Luminosity and OpTic to win the iBUYPOWER Invitational. Days later, they travelled to Los Angeles, where a 1-2 defeat against OpTic - after beating them in the first round - meant that they had to settle for fourth place.

Last weekend, they were in attendance at DreamHack Austin, where they were sent out in the groups following defeats to Immortals and G2.

In the remaining online tournaments, Cloud9 picked up one win, against The Foundation, and had three straight draws against the Brazilians of SK, Immortals and Luminosity.

Cloud9 are all but confirmed for the ESL Pro League finals as they currently sit second in the North American division, with 48 points.

15. Heroic

Player	Age	Rating
Jakob "JUGi" Hansen	20	1.07
Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen	18	1.06
Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså	21	1.06
Andreas "MODDII" Fridh	27	0.94
Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer	26	0.86

The Danish team ended April with a semi-final run at DreamHack Austin after beating Luminosity and HellRaisers, and losing to Immortals, but they still drop to 15th in our ranking following some mixed online results. 

Besides failing to qualify for the SL i-League Season 3 Finals after losing to GODSENT in the first round of the playoffs, Heroic won just one of the three ESL Pro League matches they played over the course of the month. With DreamHack Tours looming on the horizon, Heroic will have another chance to break into the top 10 in the ranking.