Team Ranking: May 2017

April came to an end with two North American events—cs_summit Spring 2017 and DreamHack Open Austin—, but we didn't have to wait too long to have a premium event take place.

The month of May kicked off with IEM Sydney, a tournament that just barely missed out on the "$250k+ LAN event" tag with a $200,000 prize pool. However, the fact that IEM was the only tournament of the month that featured all of the top three teams makes the Australian event the most important LAN of the last 30 days.

The main storyline of IEM Sydney was SK moving from "just" a top side to a #1 spot contender with a win over FaZe in the grand final. We saw G2 make a similar, but smaller step towards the top of the ranking just a day after that and on the other side of the world. By taking down HellRaisers in the grand final of DreamHack Tours, the French side lifted their first title since assembling the current roster.

G2 have moved up four positions since our last monthly update

A drought of top tier events followed, but we saw the ESEA Season 24 Global Challenge and GeForce Cup 2017 take place—both events had effects on the lower part of the top 30 rankings, but neither PENTA nor Space Soldiers managed to move forward a lot based on their tournament wins.

The ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals kicked off at the end of May and was the last event that made the cut in the current ranking, despite finishing on June 4. The $750,000 event was in a way a contrast to IEM Sydney as a big prize pool was not reflected in the quality of the teams in attendance —both Astralis and FaZe missed out on the LAN finals as they were outplaced by the likes of MOUZ and Envy in the online season.

EPL S5 came down to the BO5 finals between G2 and North, two teams who had had very different paths to the final. The Danes had been placed into what was on paper the less stacked group and only had to face Liquid in the playoffs. On the other hand, G2 managed to get out of a group with the likes of SK, fnatic and Immortals, defeated Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's men 2-0 in the playoffs and went on to defeat North in the grand final in the end.

With a second consecutive title, G2 have slowly but surely closed the gap to the top three of Astralis, FaZe and SK.

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 June 5 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 May 1 2017.

Top 30 Team Ranking Powered by EGB.com

Rank	Team	Achievements	Form	LANs	Total points	+/-
1.	Astralis	500	69	285	854	-
2.	FaZe	351	140	300	791	-
3.	SK	419	167	163	749	+1
4.	G2	254	200	161	615	+4
5.	North	273	94	120	487	-
6.	Natus Vincere	196	36	92	324	-
7.	Gambit	152	82	76	310	-
8.	Virtus.pro	264	15	28	307	-5
9.	OpTic	166	70	56	292	+4
10.	fnatic	100	95	61	256	+1
11.	HellRaisers	108	40	94	242	-2
12.	Liquid	83	106	53	242	+6
13.	MOUZ	89	99	52	240	+4
14.	Immortals	96	80	58	234	-4
15.	Cloud9	95	91	33	219	-1
16.	Ninjas in Pyjamas	105	53	28	186	-4
17.	Envy	35	106	28	169	+5
18.	CLG	31	56	63	150	-2
19.	Heroic	57	47	31	135	-4
20.	Renegades	25	52	18	95	+3
21.	Chiefs	20	33	37	90	+57
22.	BIG	14	65	10	89	-1
23.	PENTA	9	65	10	84	+2
24.	Misfits	18	51	8	77	+12
25.	GODSENT	24	45	6	75	-5
26.	Space Soldiers	15	38	15	68	-
27.	Singularity	5	49	2	56	-8
28.	LDLC	6	48	1	55	+2
29.	Tricked	12	29	13	54	-5
30.	Kinguin	19	27	7	53	+1

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

*Hover over each team name for the full lineup.

1. Astralis

Player	Age	Rating
Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz	21	1.12
Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye	19	1.06
Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth	21	1.05
Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen	24	1.03
Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander	21	0.95

The world's No.1 team for the fifth month running is Astralis. The Danes' backlog of excellent results, combined with the fact that both FaZe and SK weren't able to tie big tournament wins together, meant that gla1ve and co. couldn't be dethroned—at least not yet.

Astralis have attended few offline events over the past two months. After skipping some smaller tournaments in April and focusing only on StarSeries S3, where they finished second to FaZe, the Danish team once again attended only one event in May. This time, however, it wasn't just up to them—they surely wanted to be at the $750,000 ESL Pro League Finals, but their online results just weren't good enough. 

Astralis will need more trophies to stay on top

The only event device's team attended in May was IEM Sydney, at the beginning of the month, where they only finished 3rd-4th, losing to FaZe, who would not be able to take down SK later on.

With a quiet month behind the Danes, FaZe, SK and G2 catching up, and Astralis' last tournament victory dating back to IEM Katowice at the beginning of March—they will need to lift a trophy soon if they want to stay on top.

2. FaZe

Player	Age	Rating
Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač	20	1.14
Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard	22	1.12
Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli	25	1.02
Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey	22	0.97
Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen	27	0.87

Another unmoved team is the European mixture FaZe, who have been catching up to Astralis at recent events and could soon overtake the Danes.  

Similarly to Astralis, FaZe only attended two events in the past two months: StarSeries S3, in April, and IEM Sydney, in May. karrigan was successful in defeating his former teammates both times, but losing to SK in the grand final of the Australian event meant that his team couldn't fully close the gap and take over their first No.1 ranking finish.

karrigan has defeated his former teammates at the last two events they played

The ESL Pro League S5 Finals would be another chance to overtake Astralis, but just as the Danes, FaZe were not able to navigate the minefield of online CS to secure a top-six finish and a spot at the LAN.

Their first chance to take over the throne will be at the ECS Season 3 Finals, on June 23-25, the next big tournament that will feature FaZe, Astralis and SK.

3. SK

Player	Age	Rating
Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David	22	1.25
Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga	25	1.19
Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo	26	1.08
João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos	20	1.03
Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo	22	0.92

After a few months of struggling to incorporate felps into the roster, things have finally clicked for the Brazilian side. As our own Milan "Striker" Švejda lined out in his piece on SK's path back to greatness, the youngster had to be put into FalleN's system to make the team reach their old heights again.

The first signs of SK being back on track were seen at cs_summit Spring 2017 in April, but it was their title in Sydney that made everyone believe that the Brazilians were really back. After the win in Australia, FalleN's men traveled to the ESL Pro League S5 Finals with back-to-back tournament wins and were regarded as one of the favorites to win the event.

SK are moving closer and closer to FaZe and Astralis

Similarly to SK shutting down FaZe's chances to rise through the ranks by beating them in Sydney, SK's road to a third title in a row and a potential No.2 spot was blocked by G2, who took them down in the semi-final of the ESL Pro League S5 Finals.

Still, coldzera and co. are looking to improve their total point count soon as their worst tournaments of 2017—IEM Katowice and StarSeries S3—are impacting their ranking less every week, and they will be attending DreamHack Summer, a less stacked event that could give them an additional boost going into ECS S3.

4. G2

Player	Age	Rating
Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub	22	1.17
Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon	25	1.09
Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro	20	1.03
Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire	24	1.03
Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt	22	1.03

Coming in fourth in our Team Rankings for May are G2. The team that came together with a lot of expectations struggled quite a bit during their first months together, with abysmal online results leading to them failing to qualify for some of the first LANs they could have attended.

Late in April, G2 had an underwhelming showing at DreamHack Open Austin, losing 2-1 to Gambit in the semis. Their first tournament of May, DreamHack Open Tours, came shortly afterwards. On home soil, the Frenchmen opened the tournament with a shocking 16-7 loss to Nicolai "⁠HUNDEN⁠" Petersen's Tricked, but shox and co. managed to turn it around and lift their first trophy in the end.

If they keep their May form up, G2 could be threatening the top three soon

Their second LAN of the month was the recent ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals, where G2 had dominant performances in the playoffs, 2-0'ing SK and defeating North in the grand final with a 3-1 scoreline. With kennyS showing up in MVP-worthy form and bodyy playing incredibly, G2 are looking scary. Another high finish at their next offline event, ECS S3, should shrink the gap between the Frenchmen and the top three. 

5. North

Player	Age	Rating
Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke	20	1.17
René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg	27	1.12
Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif	19	1.05
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup	21	0.99
Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen	22	0.92

North were on a slow but steady downward trend for some months, but unlike Virtus.pro, SK and Natus Vincere, they were able to avoid hitting rock bottom. While the notable teams were going out in groups, the Danes were getting eliminated in the first rounds of playoffs—at least until the first tournament of May came around. 

In Sydney, MSL's troops finished 6-7th after losing to Chiefs, which was their worst run since DreamHack Open Winter 2016. A mix of improved play and favorable draws allowed North to secure a good placing in Dallas, though, as they topped the group and eliminated Liquid in the playoffs before finishing second to G2.

North's second place in Dallas helped out their with ranking

The ESL Pro League placing and a lack of strong performances from the teams below them allowed North to stick around in the top five of our rankings. However, an uptick in performance is promptly needed for the Danes, as the likes of Gambit and Natus Vincere are set to pick up some points at DreamHack Open Summer and at the Adrenaline Cyber League before North even have a chance to compete again.

6. Natus Vincere

Player	Age	Rating
Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev	19	1.16
Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács	25	1.07
Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev	20	1.02
Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev	29	0.95
Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin	22	0.88

The CIS side showed some signs of revitalization in April, when they made 3rd-4th at StarSeries S3, but it didn't take them long to get back to unimpressive tournament placings. 

At DreamHack Open Tours, Natus Vincere couldn't make it out of a group with Misfits, Heroic and MOUZ. At the end of the month, seized's side were placed into another favorable group for the ESL Pro League finals, but suffered losses to MOUZ (again), North and OpTic that led to yet another early tournament exit.

More early exits for Na`Vi in May

Natus Vincere will be hoping to stop the rot at the Adrenaline Cyber League event, which will also feature Virtus.pro, HellRaisers and FlipSid3, but there is no reason to be certain that GuardiaN and co. will outperform their opposition in Moscow.

7. Gambit

Player	Age	Rating
Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev	27	1.12
Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov	23	1.10
Rustem "⁠mou⁠" Telepov	25	1.08
Mihail "⁠Dosia⁠" Stolyarov	28	0.97
Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko	29	0.88

In April, the Kazakhstan-based team had their worst result since the inception of this squad— a 12th-14th place finish at the StarSeries S3. Zeus's team were able to swiftly bounce back, though, allowing us to almost look at Kiev event as a one-off thing. At cs_summit, they finished second to SK, and they went on to take the title at a mid-sized DreamHack Austin event at the expense of G2.

Gambit have stabilized their top10 position

With no events in May, Gambit were not able to move forwards in the rankings, but it seems like their consistency will keep them in the top10 for quite some time now. Their first chance to move up will be at DreamHack Summer, where the likes of SK, fnatic and MOUZ will stand in their way.

8. Virtus.pro

Player	Age	Rating
Jarosław "⁠pashaBiceps⁠" Jarząbkowski	29	0.97
Paweł "⁠byali⁠" Bieliński	23	0.97
Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski	23	0.94
Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski	29	0.79
Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas	30	0.77

Without a single offline event played and with abysmal online results, Virtus.pro continue their free-fall in the rankings. Their form has dropped to 15.1, the lowest out of all of the top 30 teams, with an achievement score of 264.2 being the only thing keeping them afloat.

Like Natus Vincere, Virtus.pro are attending the Adrenaline Cyber League, but they will have another big event only two days before that—the $250,000 ELEAGUE Clash for Cash. Facing the Major winners Astralis in a big match could be just what Virtus.pro need to revitalise them before the busy pre-Major season takes off.

Can a rematch of the ELEAGUE Major grand final reignite Virtus.pro?

Should they fail at both events, Virtus.pro could easily find themselves outside of the top 10 for the first time since we started publishing our rankings, in October 2015.

9. OpTic

Player	Age	Rating
Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas	21	1.07
Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic	19	1.05
William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba	23	1.05
Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik	21	1.00
Jason "⁠jasonR⁠" Ruchelski	22	0.84

The North American team have been in turmoil since Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz departed for Liquid, but they just might be finding some footing going into the Major qualification period. After making the semi-final of IEM Sydney with coach James "⁠hazed⁠" Cobb acting as a player, OpTic have settled on jasonR as their fifth for the time being.

After a semi-final run at IEM Sydney, OpTic attended the ESL Pro League S5 Finals, where they were unable to make it out of the groups. All in all, OpTic made a small leap through the rankings, but it had more to do with teams above them losing points than with their own successes. 

10. Fnatic

Player	Age	Rating
Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer	25	1.07
Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist	23	1.03
Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman	26	1.03
Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell	22	1.00
Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson	23	0.95

The first teams in the very narrow 10-15 segment of our rankings is fnatic, who missed a chance to place higher by not getting to the ESL Pro League playoffs after a three-way tie with SK and Envy didn't go their way.

fnatic couldn't be happy with how EPL played out for them

On the bright side, the Swedes have been looking good online, and have already qualified for the ECS S3 LAN Finals, late next month. Before that event rolls around, olofmeister and co. will have a chance to climb the ladder on home soil as they will be competing at DreamHack Summer.

11. HellRaisers

Player	Age	Rating
Patrik "⁠Zero⁠" Žúdel	18	1.08
Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow	27	1.08
Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk	21	1.04
Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk	23	1.03
Bence "⁠DeadFox⁠" Böröcz	22	1.00

Level on points with Liquid are HellRaisers, whose dip in the ranking is mainly connected to some of their strong finishes earlier in the year not affecting their form points anymore. 

At DreamHack Tours, STYKO and co. managed to secure a second-placed finish, but they did not really face highly ranked opposition until they got to the final against G2—which they lost.

12. Liquid

Player	Age	Rating
Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken	17	1.18
Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski	19	1.11
Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella	21	1.01
Josh "⁠jdm64⁠" Marzano	27	0.97
Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz	23	0.96

Following shortly behind fnatic are Liquid, who managed to move up due to making the playoffs of the ESL Pro League finals in the last round of group matches—as they beat North, who already secured the first seed, and Natus Vincere were defeated by the already eliminated OpTic.

Twistzz has been showing more and more for Liquid

That was the only event in May for Liquid, who also took part in the Subaru Invitational, finishing 5th-8th following a 2-0 defeat against Immortals in the quarter-finals.

13. mousesports

Player	Age	Rating
Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný	25	1.12
Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool	17	1.05
Christian "⁠loWel⁠" Garcia Antoran	20	0.98
Denis "⁠denis⁠" Howell	22	0.95
Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong	27	0.88

MOUZ's revitalization continues as ropz proves time and time again just how great of a player he is. Not only is the young Estonian contributing individually, but also it seems like the whole team is finally playing as a unit.

After picking up online wins, MOUZ had a LAN debut at DreamHack Tours, where they made the playoffs by beating Heroic and Natus Vincere before going down 2-1 to the eventual winners G2 in the semi-finals.

At their second LAN, the ESL Pro League Finals, they put on an even better showing as they picked up four wins and an overtime loss in the group stage but could not make it past SK in the round of six.

14. Immortals

Player	Age	Rating
Vito "⁠kNgV-⁠" Giuseppe	22	1.22
Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles	21	1.13
Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass	20	1.07
Lucas "⁠LUCAS1⁠" Teles	21	1.04
Lucas "⁠steel⁠" Lopes	23	1.03

Immortals have been in a weird state since the Major qualifier and the departure of felps. A good showing at IEM Katowice, a bad one a month later at StarSeries S3, a good one at DreamHack Austin… and then another bad one at ESL Pro League, which they attended with their newest recruit, kNgV-.

Can Immortals adapt to kNg and find consistency?

It's hard to say if the Brazilians will continue with the zig-zag trend, but anything less than a top two spot at the upcoming Americas Minor could end up being a hard hit to this team, both motivation and ranking-wise.

15. Cloud9

Player	Age	Rating
Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip	19	1.12
Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta	20	1.10
Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham	23	1.04
Mike "⁠shroud⁠" Grzesiek	23	0.96
Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert	26	0.96

Finishing off the list are Cloud9, who have not done much in their last LAN outings but are helped out a bit by their good performances in the online portion of ECS Season 3, in which they already qualified for the LAN finals.

After winning the Subaru Invitational, Cloud9 cut a frustrating figure at the ESL Pro League Finals, where they had a 1W-4L group stage run. Interestingly, their only win in Dallas was a 16-4 smashing of G2, who ended up winning the event.