Team Ranking: September 2017

While just one event affected last month’s rankings, September saw the season get back underway with top tier tournaments like ESG Mykonos and ESL One New York, as well as some smaller tournaments like DreamHack Masters Montreal. Also, the ELEAGUE Premier groups have been played out, changing a small amount of points in the Form column.

SK and G2 maintain their first and second spots, respectively, with the former placing third in Mykonos and reaching the semi-finals in New York, while the latter made it to the ELEAGUE playoffs. Meanwhile, North and Astralis, the Danish top teams, remain in the top 5, with Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen's men going up to 3rd place, and Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander's side falling to 5th. As far as big drops, Immortals fell out of the top 30 following the loss of 3/5 of their roster as Henrique "HEN1" Teles, Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles, and Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe all stepped down.

FaZe lifted the trophy at ESL One New York and are back in the top 5

North America also made a big splash this month thanks to Liquid, who dive into the top 10. Despite not winning either ESG Tour Mykonos or ESL One New York, they made it to the final in both tournaments, narrowly losing out to mousesports in Greece. Cloud9 also squeezed into the top 10 with 3rd-4th place finishes at ESL One New York and DreamHack Montreal.

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 October 2, 2017, which goes more in-depth into the waypoints 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 September 5, 2017.

Rank	Team	Achievements	Form	LANs	Total points	+/-
1.	SK	500	105	300	905	-
2.	G2	312	149	247	708	-
3.	North	257	200	240	697	+1
4.	FaZe	253	161	201	615	+4
5.	Astralis	309	100	182	593	-2
6.	Gambit	227	56	293	578	-1
7.	Liquid	208	174	183	565	+5
8.	Cloud9	163	106	145	414	+3
9.	NiP	130	102	171	403	-2
10.	Natus Vincere	146	71	137	356	-1
11.	Virtus.pro	158	36	109	303	-1
12.	mousesports	101	85	102	288	+5
13.	fnatic	68	106	73	247	+1
14.	BIG	76	51	107	234	+1
15.	Envy	58	94	52	204	-2
16.	Heroic	48	111	45	204	-
17.	HellRaisers	31	72	29	132	+3
18.	CLG	43	52	30	125	+4
19.	Space Soldiers	19	77	25	121	+2
20.	Renegades	28	52	37	117	-1
21.	FlipSid3	28	42	43	113	-3
22.	Luminosity	9	48	19	76	+28
23.	Misfits	15	45	13	73	+4
24.	LDLC	2	68	0	70	-1
25.	PENTA	15	21	34	70	-2
26.	Vega Squadron	16	30	23	69	-
27.	Kinguin	14	34	16	64	-2
28.	NRG	3	55	4	62	+16
29.	OpTic	0	55	0	55	-
30.	GODSENT	9	39	6	54	-

Here's an explanation of the top 16 teams' history during September.

1. SK

Player	Age	Rating
Marcelo "coldzera" David	22	1.21
Fernando "fer" Alvarenga	25	1.20
Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo	26	1.13
João "felps" Vasconcellos	20	1.02
Epitacio "TACO" de Melo	22	0.96

The Brazilian team has received some criticism after being knocked out of their ELEAGUE Premier group by Heroic, but a third place in Mykonos and a semifinal run at ESL One New York keep SK on top of the list as no other high-ranked team has been able to score better.

One of the biggest problems with SK has been their inability to win best-of-three matches. Since the break, FalleN & co. have played eight of them, and were able to win only two of those, against Cloud9 and Virtus.pro, the former in Malmö—which doesn’t count for this month’s ranking—and the latter at ESG Mykonos.

SK are forced to show up big after falling out of ELEAGUE in groups

Despite the criticism and certain inconsistency—although accompanied by decent results—, SK have actually managed to increase the distance to the second team, as the return from the Summer break has brought a lot of unexpected results from the teams at the top of the table and nobody has been able to assert their dominance, giving SK room to breathe.

Having been eliminated from ELEAGUE Premier means SK are living on borrowed time and will take a hit once the tournament wraps up and points are awarded to the Achievements and Recent LANs columns, so a good showing at Epicenter will be absolutely paramount to SK’s future ranking aspirations.

2. G2

Player	Age	Rating
Kenny "kennyS" Schrub	22	1.15
Dan "apEX" Madesclaire	24	1.10
Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt	23	1.04
Richard "shox" Papillon	25	1.01
Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro	20	1.00

Since their first victory of the season in Malmö, G2 hasn’t been particularly active, playing only online Pro League matches and the group stage at the ELEAGUE Arena in Atlanta, where they managed to qualify for the playoffs after beating Natus Vincere 2-0 in the decider.

While they played some Pro League matches during this month, G2 were barely active, as they played online two maps against NiP, both of which they lost. With ELEAGUE matches only counting towards the form column of the ranking and barely any other activity, G2 lost some points, putting them farther from the first place and only a few points ahead of North.

With spots at both the ELEAGUE and EPICENTER, G2 will need to return to winning ways if they want to hold on to their second place in our ranking, as a slow September put them closer to third than to first.

3. North

Player	Age	Rating
Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke	20	1.18
Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså	22	1.14
René "cajunb" Borg	27	1.10
Philip "aizy" Aistrup	21	1.05
Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen	22	1.02

North took the last of the podium spots from their countrymen, Astralis, and are within striking distance of G2—just five points separate the two teams. To get there, North won DreamHack Montreal in the now infamous final in which Immortals forfeited the first map and lost the second without putting up much of a fight.

North make their way to the podium and sit right behind G2

North also made it to the ELEAGUE Premier Finals after taking their group with wins against fnatic and Immortals, and  won three out of their four ESL Pro League matches this month, with the team currently holding the second place in the standings in the competition.

Not all the glitters is gold, though, as North didn’t play any at either of the big tournaments this month, failed to make it into the ECS league against lesser opposition—including losses to Space Soldiers and Heroic, and were knocked out of the IEM Oakland qualifier by Envy. If North want to keep their podium position, they’re going to have to show up in Atlanta and St. Petersburg, later this month.

4. FaZe

Player	Age	Rating
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač	20	1.31
Håvard "rain" Nygaard	23	1.23
Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács	26	1.19
Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer	25	1.11
Finn "karrigan" Andersen	27	0.94

After changing two players in the off-season FaZe dropped five positions in the ranking, from third to eighth. Now, FaZe are making their comeback to the top of the board, jumping back into the top five.

Their first test of the month was ELEAGUE Premier Group A, which they won after two matches against Natus Vincere and Renegades. To follow that up, and the most important achievement of the month for the European team, was an incredibly dominant performance at ESL One New York, where karrigan & co. took seven straight maps giving up no more than six rounds on all but one map.

The new signings are paying dividends as FaZe break back into top 5

As far as online play goes, FaZe traded maps with NiP in ESL Pro League, and won two best-of-threes in the EPICENTER qualifier. FaZe will now have a chance to keep climbing the ranking at the ELEAGUE Premier Finals and are in the run for a spot at the on-site wildcard qualifier for EPICENTER.

5. Astralis

Player	Age	Rating
Nicolai "device" Reedtz	22	1.17
Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen	24	1.15
Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander	22	1.07
Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth	22	1.05
Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye	19	1.01

Closing out the top 5 this month is Astralis. The Danish powerhouse has been losing steam as they drop two positions - and, to make matters worse, they gave up their third place to  local rivals North. Ahead of their travel to New York, and after their quarterfinal exit in Malmö last month, Astralis won all of the four ESL Pro League matches they played. 

While in the U.S., the Danes beat Liquid in a best-of-one, but were then rolled over by a red-hot FaZe. The decider, against Liquid, a team that has been showing steady progress, was lost in three maps, and Astralis were out in the group stages.

Having received a hard blow at ESL One New York, Astralis refocused and traveled back to the United States to play the Group D of ELEAGUE Premier, and qualified for the finals without a hitch after beating both Liquid and Heroic. Astralis will now have two big LANs in the form of the ELEAGUE Premier Finals and EPICENTER to get back on track before the final stretch of the season.

6. Gambit

Player	Age	Rating
Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev	27	1.12
Rustem "mou" Telepov	25	1.10
Abay "Hobbit" Khasenov	23	1.07
Bektiyar "fitch" Bahytov	25	1.05
Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov	29	0.98

After the Major, Gambit were launched into fourth place in the rankings, dropping down to fifth after losing Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko. Now, they have lost their status as a top 5 team, falling one more position, to number 6. 

AdreN & co. have been sliding since their Major victory

After Malmö, Gambit went to Greece to play at the first stop of the ESG Tour. The tournament in Greece was nothing for the Kazakh-Russian team to throw fireworks over, however, as they were eliminated in their group’s decider match for a 5-6 place finish.

Failing to make it out of the ECS Development league, in which they placed behind the two qualified teams, also didn’t help Gambit’s options. Now, Gambit will have EPICENTER, where they will try to stop the bleeding as Liquid, whose stock has been rising, lurks behind.

7. Liquid

Player	Age	Rating
Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken	17	1.16
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski	20	1.13
Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz	23	1.14
Josh "jdm64" Marzano	27	1.03
Nick "nitr0" Cannella	22	1.01

Liquid move up five spots from August's 12th place following a successful month in which they twice came within touching distance of claiming international silverware.

The North American team got the new tournament season off to a great start with a runner-up finish at ESG Tour Mykonos, where they twice beat BIG in the group stage before moving past the No.1 team in the world, SK, in convincing fashion and after just two maps. The grand final, against mousesports, was a keenly-contested affair, but, in the end, the North Americans were outplayed on Nuke, the final map.

Liquid were one of the big winners of September

Fast forward one week. Liquid put up another great showing at ESL One New York, frustrating both Virtus.pro and Astralis in the group stage and then beating SK yet again, this time on three maps. The title decider ended up being a nightmare for stanislaw's men, who were simply no match for FaZe.

But it was not all positive for Liquid as they had to deal with the frustration of missing out on a spot in the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs following close defeats to Astralis and SK in the group stage. Still, that does not erase all the good things done by the North Americans, who can be considered one of the winners of the month.

8. Cloud9

Player	Age	Rating
Tarik "tarik" Celik	21	1.19
Jake "Stewie2K" Yip	19	1.15
William "RUSH" Wierzba	23	1.15
Timothy "autimatic" Ta	21	1.13
Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham	24	1.04

Just like their fellow North American rivals, Cloud9 also move up in the rankings after an impressive month. tarik's men were looking to bounce back from their early exit at DreamHack Masters Malmo with some good results in Montreal, but a 2-0 defeat to eventual champions North meant that they had to settle for a third-fourth place - hardly an impressive feat.

Things are looking up for the new C9 roster

But Cloud9 made up for that by reaching the semi-finals of ESL One New York after defeating Natus Vincere on two occasions, one of them a two-map series. There is no denying that the manner in which they lost to SK and FaZe in the tournament was disappointing, but the team still had to be happy with the level of Counter-Strike that they showed against Na`Vi.

The North American team ended the month on a high note as they qualified for the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs with comprehensive victories over NiP (16-6) and Envy (16-2). The future is looking bright for Cloud9, and it should not be a surprise if they break into the top six in the coming weeks.

9. NiP

Player	Age	Rating
William "draken" Sundin	21	1.16
Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg	29	1.14
Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund	27	1.13
Fredrik "REZ" Sterner	19	1.02
Richard "Xizt" Landström	26	0.98

The Ninjas entered September with the wind in their sails following a semi-final run at DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017, but their only offline appearance of the month ended in frustration as they were knocked out of ELEAGUE Premier in the groups by a shaky Envy side.

Apart from that, NiP only played online, mostly in the ESL Pro League, picking up wins against G2, FaZe and HellRaisers. They are currently in sixth place in the league, on a 6-6 record, and a spot at the season finals is perfectly within their reach.

September was a quiet month for the Ninjas

But with no more ELEAGUE Premier action for them, qualifying for EPICENTER will be absolutely crucial for them. Otherwise, they risk seeing their ranking plummet, just when everything seemed to be looking up for them.

10. Natus Vincere

Player	Age	Rating
Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev	20	1.30
Egor "flamie" Vasilyev	20	1.08
Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev	29	0.96
Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko	29	0.91
Denis "seized" Kostin	23	0.90

September was quite the frustrating month for Natus Vincere. After a quarter-final finish at DreamHack Masters Malmö, many believed that, with time, Zeus would be able to elevate the team to the level that is expected of them.

But that has not been the case. After being drawn into a very tough ELEAGUE Premier group, the Ukrainians went out in third place following defeats to a reinvigorated FaZe side and to a G2 team fueled by a world-class performance from kennyS.

Na`Vi had no reasons to smile in September

Natus Vincere were dealt another heavy blow the week after as they failed in their quest to defend their 2016 ESL One New York title, having been eliminated in the group stage at the hands of Cloud9, who boasted a perfect 3-0 record against the Ukrainians.

It is hard to pinpoint what exactly is going wrong with Na`Vi, but the fact is that they are clearly underperforming, both online and offline. They will need to qualify for EPICENTER, or October will be a very quiet month for them. If that is the case, they will most likely sit outside the top 10, come the end of the month.

11. Virtus.pro

Player	Age	Rating
Paweł "byali" Bieliński	23	1.05
Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski	29	1.03
Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski	24	0.95
Filip "NEO" Kubski	30	0.94
Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas	31	0.91

September was supposed to be a turning point for Virtus.pro - but it wasn't. Things looked promising at first for them as they defeated Envy and Liquid to finish at the top of their ESG Tour Mykonos group before being defeated by mousesports in the semi-finals. Finishing in fourth place at an international event was a good achievement for a team that had spent most of the previous six months underperforming, but things quickly went downhill.

Virtus.pro failed to win a single game at their next two events, ESL One New York and ELEAGUE Premier, winning just 55 of the 157 rounds that they played. After the ESL event, Snax vented his frustration and did not hesitate to point the finger at his teammates - which suggests that things are nearly at a breaking point for them.

The Polish team earned some consolation after defeating Space Soldiers in the ECS Promotion stage - this way keeping their spot in a big European league, something that was extremely important after being relegated from the ESL Pro League. At this point in time, no-one knows what to expect from Virtus.pro, but the team's fans still hope for better days - and EPICENTER is just around the corner.

12. mousesports

Player	Age	Rating
Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný	26	1.18
Miikka "suNny" Kemppi	23	1.13
Robin "ropz" Kool	17	1.05
Chris "chrisJ" de Jong	27	1.01
Martin "STYKO" Styk	21	0.99

mousesports were one of the winners of September thanks to a title-winning campaign at ESG Tour Mykonos, which earned them their biggest payout ever. At the Greek event, the European mixture proved its critics wrong as it beat a number of top sides, including Major champions Gambit and in-form Liquid, to win their first international title since Acer Predator Masters Season 2.

mousesports won their first title with the new team

oskar's men were then handed a reality check as they finished at the bottom of their group in ELEAGUE Premier following a single-map defeat to an Immortals side with Raphael "cogu" Camargo as stand-in, and a best-of-three loss to fnatic, who would go on to claim a playoff berth.

September showed us that mousesports' ceiling is very high, but they do not seem to be consistent enough to upset some of the bigger teams on a regular basis just yet, so it may take them some time to break into the top 10.

13. fnatic 

Player	Age	Rating
Jesper "JW" Wecksell	22	1.11
Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson	23	1.10
Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson	24	1.08
Robin "flusha" Rönnquist	24	1.05
Maikil "Golden" Selim	23	0.96

fnatic bounce back from last month's freefall mostly due to qualifying for the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs, their only offline appearance of the month. The Swedish team got their Atlanta campaign off on the wrong foot, losing out to North, but then defeated mousesports and Immortals to progress to the quarter-finals. That is probably just as far as they will go unless they can pull off a major upset against Astralis.

Despite failing to qualify for EPICENTER, fnatic still have reasons to feel optimistic - they are, after all, at the top of the Pro League standings, with an 11-3 record. But they will need to make some deep tournament finishes at offline events if they ever hope to regain a stop in the top 10.

14. BIG

Player	Age	Rating
Johannes "nex" Maget	25	1.20
Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz	22	1.17
Kevin "keev" Bartholomäus	25	1.05
Fatih "gob b" Dayik	30	0.93
Nikola "LEGIJA" Ninić	26	0.90

BIG finished the month in 14th place, and were one of the teams that didn’t shine very bright in Mykonos, where they got a 5-6 place. Online, BIG failed to qualify for EPICENTER and IEM Oakland, but are 5th in ESL Pro League, having won most of their matches this month. gob b & co. will also have the sunny Catalan coast to look forward to, as they won the WESG Germany qualifier and will have the EU & CIS qualifier to play on LAN.

15. Envy

Player	Age	Rating
Cédric "RpK" Guipouy	28	1.16
Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom	23	1.13
Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer	25	1.12
Alexandre "xms" Forté	20	1.05
Christophe "SIXER" Xia	26	1.00

The French-Belgian team lost two positions this month, which they started by going out in groups at ESG Tour Mykonos after two matches. Envy then went to New York, where they once again finished in the bottom places. Online, Envy have had mixed results, struggling in the harder Pro League matches but winning qualifiers for events, like the one for IEM Oakland. Right now, what will give them the biggest push, though, will be playing the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs.

16. Heroic

Player	Age	Rating
Jakob "JUGi" Hansen	20	1.22
Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen	19	1.14
Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer	27	1.07
Andreas "MODDII" Fridh	28	1.03
Patrick "es3tag" Hansen	21	1.01

The third Danish team in the top 20 remains in the same position as last month with a mixed bag of results. Heroic went out last in Mykonos, lost four best-of-ones in Pro League, but managed to qualify for ECS Season 4. Their biggest achievement will be playing the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs after upsetting SK in the Group D decider match, which will no doubt give Heroic a boost. How high will now depend on how deep they can make it.