Team Ranking: July 2017

July brought us two premier tournaments, ESL One Cologne 2017, which featured 16 very competitive teams, and the PGL Krakow Major, the second and last Major of 2017. Along with that, two DreamHack Open events with a less stacked field took place.

Throughout the month, we saw quite a few upsets and exciting developments, with lower-ranked teams such as BIG, Immortals and Gambit surpassing expectations, while a team such as FaZe wasn't able to continue their form from earlier in the year.

Zeus lifted his first CS:GO Major trophy in July

G2, mousesports and Cloud9 had all impressed at the Major qualifier, but it was only the North American side that managed to carry that on to ESL One Cologne, where they came second. SK continued their strong form in Germany, however, picking up a third title in their European campaign.

At the Major that was full of suprises, Astralis managed to continue their streak of top 4 finishes, but the big story was Gambit's title run and Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko winning his first CS:GO Major. Taking all of that into account, we present you our updated team ranking for July 2017.

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 July 31st 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 July 3rd 2017.

Rank	Team	Achievements	Form	LANs	Total points	+/-
1.	SK	500	200	300	1000	-
2.	Astralis	366	91	152	609	+1
3.	FaZe	295	68	163	526	-1
4.	Gambit	236	82	206	524	+10
5.	G2	208	97	132	437	-1
6.	Immortals	199	104	106	409	+2
7.	Cloud9	195	107	105	407	-1
8.	North	177	48	95	320	-3
9.	Virtus.pro	191	51	68	310	+2
10.	fnatic	125	67	66	258	-3
11.	Liquid	101	60	84	245	-2
12.	NiP	81	85	67	233	+8
13.	BIG	77	93	61	231	+5
14.	OpTic	108	50	59	217	-1
15.	mousesports	82	73	52	207	-3
16.	Natus Vincere	90	52	49	191	-6
17.	Envy	61	61	46	168	-1
18.	HellRaisers	72	33	37	142	-3
19.	Heroic	63	42	30	135	+7
20.	FlipSid3	29	63	24	116	+2
21.	PENTA	31	55	25	111	-2
22.	CLG	37	44	25	106	-5
23.	Renegades	29	30	24	83	-
24.	Vega Squadron	16	44	15	75	-3
25.	Space Soldiers	13	44	17	74	+3
26.	Red Reserve	15	34	20	69	+5
27.	Chiefs	11	17	37	65	+2
28.	Misfits	19	21	22	62	-4
29.	Dignitas	8	35	12	55	-4
30.	GODSENT	17	23	10	50	-3

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

*Hover over each team name for the full lineup.

1. SK Gaming

Player	Age	Rating
Marcelo "coldzera" David	22	1.21
Fernando "fer" Alvarenga	25	1.16
Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo	26	1.10
João "felps" Vasconcellos	20	1.04
Epitacio "TACO" de Melo	22	0.95

The Brazilian side was the only team in the top 15 that didn't move up or down since last month's ranking post. SK's wins at DreamHack Summer 2017 and the ECS S3 Finals had earned the Brazilian side the top spot in our June list, and they followed that up with another big win in July as FalleN and co. lifted the ESL One Cologne trophy after finishing above the likes of FaZe, G2 and North.

With a backlog of great showings, SK went into the PGL Major Krakow as the overwhelming favorites. In the group stage, the Brazilians showed some weaknesses, but coldzera was able to step up and shut down the likes of PENTA and Astralis by picking up 35 kills per map. After losing out to BIG 16-14, SK secured a playoff spot by taking down their countrymen Immortals.

SK retain the first place in the ranking

The playoff bracket draw was ruthless, however, matching SK against the second-highest ranked team still in the tournament—Astralis. This time, the Danes were triumphant thanks to a masterclass performance by Nicolai "device" Reedtz, who consistently took down FalleN, putting his team into advantageous situations.

Despite exiting the Major as 5-8th, SK are still out of reach for rivals Astralis and FaZe as both teams were unable to gain much ground in the tournament in Poland.

2. Astralis

Player	Age	Rating
Nicolai "device" Reedtz	21	1.15
Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen	24	1.06
Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye	19	1.05
Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth	21	1.00 1.05
Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander	22	0.94

gla1ve's team has been a bit less active in recent months than their direct rivals SK and FaZe, which, combined with a few losses to the same teams at events such as IEM Sydney and ECS Season 3, made the Danes drop to the third place in the rankings last month.

Astralis have managed to climb a single ranking spot and are now placed second, thanks to having the best Major placing out of the top three—a 3rd-4th finish. The Danish side went 3-1 in the group stage, losing to SK and having tight games against Immortals and fnatic.

gla1ve continues his run of top 4 finishes

After a pretty comfortable 2-0 victory over SK in the quarter-finals, Astralis seemingly had a open road to another Major title as only Virtus.pro, Immortals and Gambit were left in the race. However, the CIS side led by Zeus pulled off a massive upset, eliminating Astralis in the semis.

Astralis' overall solid placing at the Major combined with FaZe's blunder in Krakow allowed dupreeh and co. to leapfrog the team of their former in-game leader Finn "karrigan" Andersen in the rankings, putting them in second place as the player break kicks off.

3. FaZe

Player	Age	Rating
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač	20	1.16
Håvard "rain" Nygaard	22	1.06
Aleksi "allu" Jalli	25	1.03
Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey	23	0.93
Finn "karrigan" Andersen	27	0.84

With the end of June, FaZe's run of four straight grand final finishes came to an end as well. The positive streak that started at IEM Katowice 2017 finished at ESL One Cologne, where the European mixture was defeated by SK in the semi-finals. 

Considering they still lost to the eventual winners and had a good placing overall, it didn't seem that there was much to take from FaZe's Cologne outing. However, the FaZe that showed up in Krakow was not the one we had been used to watching in the past couple of months.

FaZe were in disbelief after ther 0-3 Major run

Three straight defeats—to BIG, mousesports and FlipSid3—spelled elimination for NiKo and co., making this the fifth consecutive Major group stage exit for the Bosnian.

Looking at the stats sheet, the lackluster showings of karrigan, allu and most importantly kioShiMa seemingly pulled the team down, but even in such cases, one would expect a team of FaZe's calibre to deal with the opponents they were drawn against in the Swiss system in Poland.

The bottom place finish at Major has resulted in FaZe dropping one place in the ranking, but with only two points separating them and Gambit and a player break which will see their older results fade out of relevancy, FaZe's ranking will probably continue going down.

4. Gambit

Player	Age	Rating
Rustem "mou" Telepov	25	1.13
Abay "Hobbit" Khasenov	23	1.06
Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev	27	1.04
Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko	29	0.97
Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov	29	0.96

Gambit jumped 10 spots in the ranking this month, making them the team with the biggest ranking increase out of the top 30 sides. This is no surprise, however, as the CIS-based team managed to pull off the biggest Major upset in CS:GO's history, defying the odds to take the PGL Major Krakow title.

Coming into July, Gambit's ranking was pretty low, mostly due to bad online results and LAN inactivity, with ESL's decision to not invite them to ESL One Cologne not helping their case. The team did have a lot more time to prepare thanks to that, but, according to other teams and to Gambit's own players, the practice they had was far from great.

Dosia wasn't Gambit's best player, but he was certainly the crowd favorite in Krakow

That didn't show in the tournament, though as the trio from Kazakhstan—mou, Hobbit and AdreN—all stepped up at different times and were the driving force behind Gambit's Major run. mou was instrumental on Overpass against Astralis, Hobbit's clutches defined the last map against Immortals, and AdreN had his most dominant showings in the group stage against G2 and Virtus.pro.

With a Major trophy in their cabinet, Gambit skyrocketed though the rankings and currently sit in their highest placing yet.

5. G2

Player	Age	Rating
Kenny "kennyS" Schrub	22	1.14
Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt	23	1.03
Richard "shox" Papillon	25	1.03
Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro	20	1.01
Dan "apEX" Madesclaire	24	0.91

The Frenchmen had a busy July, attending three events: the PGL Major Krakow Main Qualifier, ESL One Cologne and the Major itself. The Major Qualifier was a good way to bounce back from a lackluster ECS showing at the end of June, where G2 had been outclassed by FaZe and SK. shox and co. went through the qualifier without dropping a map, securing a 3-0 run in Bucharest and a place at the Major in Krakow.

After that, the team traveled to Cologne, where they went 3-1 in the group stage, losing only to NiP on Cache. However, the strong form wasn't carried over to the playoffs, in which G2 lost to Natus Vincere 2-0, failing to close out a 11-4 lead on Overpass and falling short on their own map pick, Nuke.

shox's side can't be happy with what they achieved in July

Coming into the Major, G2 were still a team that was expected to go far. Opening up with a revenge win against Natus Vincere was a great start, but things soon took a turn for worse as the French side was outclassed by both Astralis and Gambit.

G2's tournament life came down to a match against fnatic, but a lackluster CT side gave too much space for the Swedes to close out the game and send shox's men packing.

The up-and-down July resulted in G2 dropping one spot in the ranking, with the possibility of things taking a turn for worse if the likes of Immortals and Cloud9—who are just a few points behind—pick up good results anytime soon.

6. Immortals

Player	Age	Rating
Henrique "HEN1" Teles	22	1.10
Ricardo "boltz" Prass	20	1.02
Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe	22	1.02
Lucas "steel" Lopes	23	1.01
Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles	22	1.00

Immortals had a rough ride through July, starting with the PGL Major Krakow Main Qualifier. The Brazilian side was on the brink of elimination in their match against GODSENT, as the Swedish side enjoyed a big lead halfway through the second half, before an inspired performance from HEN1 helped Immortals to come back into the game and close it out with a 16-14 scoreline.

To clinch a Major spot, Immortals went through another tight match, defeating HellRaisers on Overpass, a map that they slowly started introducing with the addition of kNgV-.

The fiery Brazilians surpassed expectations in Krakow

After securing their first Major presence, Immortals traveled to Cologne, but they didn't leave their mark in the tournament as they picked up only one win, against Virtus.pro. When the Major came around, Immortals once again had a tough group stage, playing all five games. steel and co. were defeated by two of the favorites, SK and Astralis, but continued through to the playoffs with wins over Vega Squadron, Natus Vincere and FlipSid3.

At the Tauron Arena, Immortals took down BIG in a tight three-map series and handled Virtus.pro pretty comfortably to make it to the grand final against Gambit. Opening a Major final with a 16-4 smashing and watching your opponent's best player have a dreadful game  was a dream start for Immortals, but Gambit bounced back on Train and Inferno, forcing them to "settle" for second place.

This result earned Immortals a sixth place in the rankings, but their future is still uncertain. They may have placed above Astralis, FaZe and SK at this event, but it remains to be seen if they can achieve results like this on a consistent basis.

7. Cloud9

Player	Age	Rating
Timothy "autimatic" Ta	20	1.09
Jake "Stewie2K" Yip	19	1.05
Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham	24	1.04
Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert	26	0.98
Mike "shroud" Grzesiek	23	0.95

Just like both G2 and Immortals, Cloud9 attended the Major Qualifier, ESL One Cologne and the Major in July, making them one of the more active teams this month. The North American side had a good showing at the qualifier, losing only one map to the aforementioned G2 and beating BIG, GODSENT and FlipSid3.

At ESL One Cologne, Cloud9 managed to make the playoffs once again, building on their success at the ECS Season 3 Finals in June. The path was not easy, however, as defeats to NiP and Natus Vincere in the first two games meant that they had to do a reverse sweep against TYLOO, Immortals and mousesports to reach the knockout stages.

shroud secured key rounds for Cloud9 in Cologne

In series play, Cloud9 got revenge on both NiP and Natus Vincere, making their first grand final appearance since the ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals, last year. In Cologne, they would meet the same opponent they had met in Brazil, SK, but this time around it was FalleN and co. to take the victory and the title.

Cloud9 carried their good form into the first match at the Major, defeating North 16-12, but couldn't make it through to the playoffs as Virtus.pro took them down in the deciding group stage match.

Despite a deep run at ESL One Cologne and solid wins throughout the Major Qualifier and at the Major itself, Cloud9 still fall one place in the rankings due to great results from Immortals and Gambit.

8. North

Player	Age	Rating
Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke	20	1.12
René "cajunb" Borg	27	1.03
Emil "Magisk" Reif	19	1.00
Philip "aizy" Aistrup	21	0.94
Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen	22	0.86

After an inactive month of June, North returned to action in July, kicking it off with ESL One Cologne. At the event in Germany, the Danish side was caught off guard by a rejuvenated OpTic in the opener, but they managed to keep their head above water by taking down TYLOO and Heroic. In the end, when facing the elite teams at the event, FaZe and SK, MSL's side simply wasn't good enough, which meant that their journey in Cologne would end before the playoffs.

PGL Major Krakow started in similar fashion as they opened up the tournament with a loss to a North American side—this time around it was Cloud9 who defeated them, 16-12 on Mirage. Thanks to good showings from k0nfig and cajunb, North bounced back and went 3-1 in the group stage, taking down mousesports, PENTA and Virtus.pro in BO1s.

k0nfig has been in top form, but North are on a downward trend

In the quarter-finals, North took on the Poles once again, repeating the ELEAGUE Major quarter final match as well. This time around, the result ended up being a convincing win for Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas and co., leaving the Danes with a 5-8th finish.

Due to a combination of inactivity and a lack of particularly impressive results, North have lost three places in the ranking since last month and are now in danger of dropping out of the top 8 for the first time since October of last year.

9. Virtus.pro

Player	Age	Rating
Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski	24	0.99
Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski	29	0.99
Paweł "byali" Bieliński	23	0.99
Filip "NEO" Kubski	30	0.83
Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas	31	0.82

The "Polish Powerhouse" has been anything but that for the Majority of 2017, as NEO and the boys have had very little to show for their efforts since their DreamHack Masters Las Vegas win.

Heading into July, Virtus.pro took the win at a smaller event, Adrenaline Cyber League, where they faced Natus Vincere and HellRaisers. Virtus.pro wasn't able to emulate that at the start of July at ESL One Cologne, though, and after facing Immortals, SK and Heroic, the Poles were eliminated from the tournament, making it their third group stage exit at a big, $250,000+ event in 2017.

Virtus.pro were in dire need of a result at the Major

PGL Major Krakow was their last chance for redemption before the player break, and the Poles were determined to take that chance. After starting off strongly against Vega Squadron and fnatic, the Polish Plow was slowed down by Gambit and North, leaving them to fight for survival in the decider match against Cloud9.

Virtus.pro followed up the victory over the North Americans with a strong showing in front of their home crowd against North, but their playoff run was cut short by Immortals and an on-point LUCAS1. Still, this is a step in the right direction for the Poles, who have moved back into the top 10 thanks to their Major showing.

10. fnatic

Player	Age	Rating
Jesper "JW" Wecksell	22	1.07
Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer	25	1.03
Dennis "dennis" Edman	26	0.99
Robin "flusha" Rönnquist	23	0.97
Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson	23	0.95

The mediocre results that fnatic had in June, a second-placed finish at DreamHack Summer and a 7th-8th placed finish at the ECS Season 3 Finals, more or less continued on in July. The Swedes tried to swap up the in-game leadership duties, hoping for different results, but alternatively using KRIMZ and dennis for brief stints didn't change much in the end.

At ESL One Cologne, the Swedes picked up wins over the two lowest ranked European sides—Heroic and Space Soldiers—but losses to SK, FaZe and, most importantly, mousesports eliminated them from the tournament.

What is the next move for olofmeister and fnatic?

An even tougher Swiss group stage draw followed at the Major, as after the opening win against FlipSid3, olofmeister and co. played  Virtus.pro, Astralis, Natus Vincere and G2. fnatic picked up wins against the latter two teams and secured the playoffs and Legend status, but then they were taken down by the eventual champions Gambit in a close two-map quarter-final series.

These results mean that fnatic will continue to float on the edge of the top 10, with the achievements this roster had in 2015 and 2016 looking far out of reach in the current landscape.

11. Liquid

Player	Age	Rating
Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken	17	1.17
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski	20	1.11
Josh "jdm64" Marzano	27	1.01
Nick "nitr0" Cannella	21	1.01
Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz	23	0.96

Liquid's failure to make it through the Major Qualifier at the start of the month hurt them a lot, as the team was not able to build on a decent showing at ECS Season 3 finals, in June. The qualifier in Bucharest came down to an overtime match against FlipSid3, which ultimately left  stanislaw's team with only ESL One Cologne to play for in July.

In Germany, Liquid 3-0'd the groups by taking down Natus Vincere, Immortals and OpTic, but showed little to nothing when they moved to the main stage and faced FaZe in the quarter-final.

Another heartbreak for Liquid followed when they came back to North America and played the DreamHack Masters Malmö qualifier as they fell to Renegades in the final match, missing out on a spot at the first big event after the player break.

12. NiP

Player	Age	Rating
Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg	29	1.20
William "draken" Sundin	21	1.11
Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund	27	1.02
Fredrik "REZ" Sterner	19	1.01
Richard "Xizt" Landström	26	0.92

Despite not making the Major, NiP have made up some ground thanks to a dominant group stage showing in Cologne and a win at DreamHack Open Valencia.

ESL One Cologne was the first event where the Swedish side played with REZ, but the spotlight was stolen by f0rest, who was impeccable throughout the tournament. His team's 3-0 group stage run impressed many, but Cloud9 were able to take them down in the quarter-finals and stop them from going any deeper into the playoffs.

GeT_RiGhT seemed like he was back on track in Cologne

In Valencia, NiP dropped only one map in their comfortable run to the title, defeating CLG, Envy and Red Reserve along the way. Now ranked 12th, NiP will have a chance to make further strides at DreamHack Masters Malmö, where they picked up the title last year.

13. BIG

Player	Age	Rating
Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz	22	1.22
Johannes "nex" Maget	25	1.12
Kevin "keev" Bartholomäus	25	1.02
Fatih "gob b" Dayik	30	0.94
Nikola "LEGIJA" Ninić	26	0.94

BIG brought over their good form from June, when they won the European Minor, into July and the PGL Major Krakow Main Qualifier. The German squad was once again successful in Bucharest, picking up three consecutive wins after falling to Cloud9 in the first match.

Despite their success at the Minor, BIG were still considered massive underdogs at the Major in Krakow. However, good teamplay, an in-form tabseN and a pinch of the crouch-jump bug were the ingredients behind gob b's recipe for success. FaZe, Cloud9 and SK all fell to the Germans on Inferno, earning LEGIJA and co. legend status and a place in the quarter-finals.

Despite not making it past Immortals, BIG made a big splash and went up five spots, with the top 10 now looking within reach, point-wise. It will be interesting to see if BIG can continue turning heads after the player break, or if maybe this is the maximum that this roster can achieve.

14. OpTic

Player	Age	Rating
Keith "NAF" Markovic	19	1.15
William "RUSH" Wierzba	23	1.06
Oscar "mixwell" Cañellas	21	1.06
Tarik "tarik" Celik	21	1.01
James "hazed" Cobb	28	0.81

OpTic's struggles continued this month, as the team that was ranked top 5 at the end of last year was dismantled at the Major Qualifier by no other than PENTA, Vega Squadron and Renegades.

Not making the Major, and the manner in which it happened, had everyone write OpTic off at ESL One Cologne. However, a no-pressure environment combined with tarik calling the shots saw the North American side take down Space Soldiers, North and FaZe on their way to the playoffs.

tarik's leadership helped OpTic get a decent result at ESL One Cologne

It seemed like the run would come to a quick end when SK were drawn as OpTic's opponents in the quarter-finals, but RUSH and co. put up a good fight against the Brazilians, beating them on Mirage before falling on the other two maps.

OpTic have slightly gone down in the rankings as teams around them made big strides forward, but at least they have shown some promise under the new leadership, which could make them a competitive team in the second half of the year.

15. mousesports

Player	Age	Rating
Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný	26	1.13
Robin "ropz" Kool	17	1.03
Christian "loWel" Garcia Antoran	20	0.93
Denis "denis" Howell	22	0.90
Chris "chrisJ" de Jong	27	0.87

mousesports' two events in July, ESL One Cologne and PGL Major Krakow, both ended with group stage exits, making the European mixture lose some place in the ranking.

In Germany, mousesports were off to a great start, picking up wins against FaZe and fnatic, but they could not take any of their three remaining chances, with the overtime loss to Cloud9 surely something oskar remembers as he went 40-25 in his team's 22-20 defeat. More close defeats and a lot of clutch rounds going their opponents' way is something we saw again in Krakow, where mousesports finished the group stage with a 1-3 record.

With the 3rd-4th finish at DreamHack Open Tours and the 5th-6th place at the ESL Pro League Finals set to have even less impact after the break, mousesports must pick up some results soon if they wish to keep their top 15 spot and the likes of Natus Vincere, HellRaisers and Envy at bay.