Team Ranking: October 2017
We have updated our Global Team Ranking—powered by EGB.com—for October 2017.
There certainly was no shortage of action in October, a month headlined by the ELEAGUE Premier Finals and by EPICENTER, which featured a combined $1.5 million prize pool. Besides those two big events, some smaller competitions took place since our last monthly updated, from DreamHack Open Denver and SL i-League Invitational Shanghai to the four Minors, which determined the final teams making it to the main qualifier for ELEAGUE Major Boston.
FaZe leapfrog SK at the top of the table after winning the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs, in Atlanta. The European mixture then surprisingly crashed and burned in the group stage of EPICENTER, an event where SK reigned supreme with Ricardo "boltz" Prass as a stand-in. The Brazilian giants ended October in the No1. spot, but point decay sees them move down to second - with only nine points separating the two.
G2 and North move down one and two places, respectively, following disappointing showings on LAN, while Astralis are back in the top four after finishing runners-up in the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs. Reaching two finals in a row sees Virtus.pro move up five places to sixth, while Major champions Gambit are in freefall and could soon find themselves outside the top 10.
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 November 6, 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 October 2, 2017.
Top 30 Team Ranking Powered by EGB.com
| Rank | Team | Achievements | Form | LANs | Total points | +/- |
| 1. |  FaZe |
377 | 200 | 299 | 876 | +3 |
| 2. |  SK |
500 | 129 | 238 | 867 | -1 |
| 3. |  G2 |
351 | 91 | 300 | 742 | -1 |
| 4. |  Astralis |
370 | 143 | 220 | 733 | +1 |
| 5. | North |
268 | 73 | 225 | 566 | -2 |
| 6. |  Virtus.pro |
258 | 107 | 142 | 507 | +5 |
| 7. |  Cloud9 |
202 | 144 | 134 | 483 | +1 |
| 8. | Liquid |
167 | 146 | 114 | 427 | -1 |
| 9. |  Ninjas in Pyjamas |
104 | 94 | 118 | 316 | - |
| 10. |  Gambit |
173 | 39 | 89 | 301 | -4 |
| 11. | fnatic |
90 | 108 | 78 | 276 | +2 |
| 12. | MOUZ |
99 | 93 | 77 | 269 | - |
| 13. | Envy |
89 | 98 | 48 | 235 | +2 |
| 14. | Heroic |
84 | 68 | 59 | 211 | -2 |
| 15. |  Natus Vincere |
86 | 61 | 72 | 199 | -5 |
| 16. | 100 Thieves |
93 | 24 | 74 | 191 | New |
| 17. |  Renegades |
56 | 91 | 37 | 184 | +3 |
| 18. |  BIG |
71 | 52 | 33 | 156 | -4 |
| 19. |  Space Soldiers |
22 | 111 | 21 | 154 | - |
| 20. | CLG |
38 | 55 | 24 | 117 | -2 |
| 21. | LDLC |
10 | 85 | 12 | 107 | +3 |
| 22. | Misfits |
20 | 66 | 20 | 106 | +1 |
| 23. | HellRaisers |
9 | 70 | 22 | 101 | -6 |
| 24. | OpTic |
4 | 85 | 9 | 98 | +5 |
| 25. | AGO |
4 | 81 | 5 | 90 | +21 |
| 26. | Luminosity |
8 | 64 | 11 | 83 | -4 |
| 27. |  Vega Squadron |
17 | 42 | 13 | 12 | -1 |
| 28. | FlipSid3 |
19 | 30 | 11 | 60 | -7 |
| 29. | NRG |
3 | 49 | 3 | 55 | -1 |
| 30. | Kinguin |
10 | 32 | 11 | 53 | -3 |
Here's an explanation of the top 15 teams' history during October:
1. FaZe
| Player | Age | Rating |
 Nikola "NiKo" Kovač |
20 | 1.26 |
 Håvard "rain" Nygaard |
23 | 1.23 |
 Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács |
26 | 1.21 |
| Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer |
25 | 1.15 |
| Finn "karrigan" Andersen |
27 | 0.99 |
After a shaky start, the new FaZe lineup moves up to first in the ranking as a result of a sensational campaign in the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs. The European team had already given a sensational account of themselves at ESL One New York, winning the title without dropping a single map, and in Atlanta they showed the same level of quality as they beat Envy, North and Astralis to get their hands on the highly-coveted $500,000 prize.
After such dominant displays from FaZe, it looked like the EPICENTER title was theirs to lose. karrigan's men beat TYLOO convincingly in the wildcard stage, but then they fell at the hands of SK and Virtus.pro - the two teams who would go on to contest the final.
There is not much to be drawn from FaZe's early exit in Moscow. After all, they lost to two best teams of the tournament, and both matches went to all three maps, with the decider encounter against Virtus.pro going down to the wire. Those results will certainly keep FaZe's players in check and, in the future, remind them that they cannot take anything for granted.
With only a mere nine points separating FaZe and SK, anything can happen in November. Both teams will attend IEM Oakland and BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, but the Brazilians will also have the WESG qualifiers to worry about - an event in which FaZe will take no part. You can certainly expect some keenly-contested matches between the duo in the coming weeks as they look to bring down the curtain on 2017 as the No.1 side in the world.
2. SK
| Player | Age | Rating |
| Marcelo "coldzera" David |
23 | 1.21 |
| Fernando "fer" Alvarenga |
26 | 1.19 |
| Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo |
26 | 1.17 |
| Epitacio "TACO" de Melo |
22 | 0.99 |
| João "felps" Vasconcellos |
20 | 0.99 |
The Brazilian team move down one place when compared to last month's ranking due to a point decay, which shows that some of their recent successes are becoming less and less relevant as weeks go by.
SK missed out on a spot in the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs, meaning that their only offline appearance of the month came at EPICENTER. In Moscow, the team fielded Immortals member boltz as a stand-in for felps, who stepped down from the team due to personal issues and a growing discontent at his role within the team.
SK got their campaign off to a flying start as they dismantled Virtus.pro on two quick maps before edging past FaZe. In the knockout stages, the Brazilians moved past Astralis, exacting revenge for the PGL Major Krakow defeat, and grabbed another victory over Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas's team, this time after five maps.
It was the sort of campaign that we had not seen from SK in a while, and it has given fans a look of how scary the roster can be. It should be a matter of time before the German organisation formally announces boltz, who will play for the team at this week's Brazilian WESG qualifiers and at IEM Oakland and BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen - two events where they will be looking to dethrone FaZe.
3. G2
| Player | Age | Rating |
| Kenny "kennyS" Schrub |
22 | 1.14 |
| Dan "apEX" Madesclaire |
24 | 1.11 |
| Richard "shox" Papillon |
25 | 1.08 |
| Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt |
23 | 1.08 |
| Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro |
20 | 1.04 |
Back in September, G2 looked like the biggest threat to SK's No.1 spot as they won DreamHack Masters Malmö and FaZe were still struggling for form, but the last few weeks have shown that the Frenchmen are not quite ready to take that leap just yet.
In Atlanta, G2 continued to show their enigmatic nature, one that sees them blow hot and cold. Having been pitted against Cloud9 in the quarter-finals, G2 were highly favoured to reach the last-four stage, but they fell 0-2 after a series in which they looked well off the pace.
The Frenchmen made up for that at EPICENTER, where they beat both Astralis and North in convincing fashion before suffering a three-map loss to Virtus.pro in the semi-finals.
The next couple of months should provide G2 with plenty of chances to cement their status as a top-three team. They are already confirmed for IEM Oakland and for BLAST Pro Series, and, if all goes well, they should be able to qualify for the offline finals of ESL Pro League and ECS. Breaking into the top two in the world is a tall order for G2 at the moment as both SK and FaZe seem to be one step ahead; they and Astralis are now involved in what looks to be a two-horse race for the final spot on the podium.
4. Astralis
| Player | Age | Rating |
| Nicolai "device" Reedtz |
22 | 1.16 |
| Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen |
24 | 1.13 |
| Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth |
22 | 1.08 |
| Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander |
22 | 1.02 |
| Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye |
19 | 0.98 |
Astralis have moved up to fourth place after a solid run in October, which began with the Danes reaching the final of ELEAGUE Premier after defeating fnatic and Cloud9. They were then given a reality check by FaZe in the final as the European mixture wrapped things up on two maps - the second of which a 16-7 demolition job.
At EPICENTER, Astralis were soundly beaten by G2 in their opening match (0-2), but they made up for that by defeating Liquid and fellow Danish side North without dropping a single map. Those would be their only victories in the tournament, however, as they had to settle for fourth place after losing to SK and G2.
Astralis' recent results have allowed the players to regain some confidence following early exits in Malmö and New York. They are eyeing G2's scalp now as it may take them some more time before they can actually measure up to front two, FaZe and SK.
5. North
| Player | Age | Rating |
| Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke |
20 | 1.14 |
| Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså |
22 | 1.08 |
| Philip "aizy" Aistrup |
21 | 1.07 |
| René "cajunb" Borg |
27 | 1.06 |
| Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen |
22 | 1.02 |
September saw North reach the podium thanks to their compatriots, Astralis, dropping off. In October, the Danes couldn't put up remarkable enough results to keep the third place in the ranking, as Astralis retook the spot above their countrymen and FaZe's accomplishments rocketed them to the top.
North's first tournament of October, ELEAGUE Premier playoffs, helped the Danish squad keep a portion of their points after they made semi-finals following a win over their country's number three team, Heroic, before conceding a series to the eventual champions, FaZe.
However, their second foray into international waters last month came to an abrupt end, as MSL's troops finished 5th-6th at EPICENTER after a tough battle in Group B, where North grabbed a win against Liquid but then exited the tournament with losses to G2 and Astralis.
Other than that, the Danes had mixed results in ESL Pro League, gathering only 11 out of 24 points available in the eight matches they played last month.
6. Virtus.pro
| Player | Age | Rating |
| Paweł "byali" Bieliński |
23 | 1.06 |
| Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski |
29 | 1.05 |
| Filip "NEO" Kubski |
30 | 1.01 |
| Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski |
24 | 0.99 |
| Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas |
31 | 0.94 |
Virtus.pro have put a stop to their downfall in rankings that had been going on since August and during which they failed to show up at numerous big tournaments in a row.
The Poles started October on online turf — a poor setup for VP historically — with an abundance of online matches in the first three weeks. Being able to survive most of their matches in MDL and splitting maps with G2 as well as Envy in ECS were the biggest takeaways, with the other being a successful run at WESG Poland, in part thanks to a disqualification of VenatoreS.
The largest chunk of their newly gained points come from EPICENTER, of course. Virtus.pro took the scene by surprise, eliminating Gambit, FaZe, and G2 on their way to what became one of the most exciting grand finals in recent memory at the very least.
TaZ's squad then travelled directly to Shanghai for the SL i-League Invitational, where they were the favorites after the successful run in St. Petersburg. However, Virtus.pro ended up falling to Renegades in the grand final.
7. Cloud9
| Player | Age | Rating |
| Jake "Stewie2K" Yip |
19 | 1.17 |
| Tarik "tarik" Celik |
21 | 1.16 |
| William "RUSH" Wierzba |
23 | 1.15 |
| Timothy "autimatic" Ta |
21 | 1.11 |
| Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham |
24 | 1.06 |
The American squad moves up one spot above Liquid, much because of their semi-final run at ELEAGUE Premier, where they took down G2 in the quarter-finals, and of their title-winning campaign at DreamHack Open Denver.
Like the aforementioned Poles, Cloud9 played a considerable amount of online matches throughout October due to ECS Season 4 starting at the beginning of the month. So far, tarik & co. are sitting at first place in ECS with an impressive 12 wins out of 14 matches, including two against SK, and they are sixth in ESL Pro League after gathering 17 points in 10 matches during the last month.
8. Liquid
| Player | Age | Rating |
 Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken |
17 | 1.15 |
| Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski |
20 | 1.08 |
| Nick "nitr0" Cannella |
22 | 1.03 |
| Josh "jdm64" Marzano |
27 | 1.03 |
| Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz |
23 | 1.00 |
Having lost the #7 spot to local rivals Cloud9, Liquid will start the month having gone down one placing in the rankings. Liquid went out in 13-16 place in ELEAGUE Premier, and 7th-8th in EPICENTER, last places in both.
On a positive note, they won the Americas Minor, this way securing a spot at the offline Major Qualifier. In the online realm, Liquid had a solid month in ESL Pro League and hold tight to the third place in the table. In ECS they also had a good month despite two maps dropped to OpTic, and also hold the third place..
| Player | Age | Rating |
| William "draken" Sundin |
22 | 1.12 |
| Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg |
29 | 1.10 |
| Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund |
27 | 1.10 |
| Fredrik "REZ" Sterner |
19 | 1.05 |
| Richard "Xizt" Landström |
26 | 1.00 |
Ninjas in Pyjamas remain in the #9 position, the same as they had in last month’s ranking update, although the team has not been acquitting itself too well. The Swedes lost the online qualifier final to FaZe and didn’t make it to EPICENTER, failed to make it to the Minor, and went out in groups at ELEAGUE Premier.
Ninjas in Pyjamas’s best placing this month was winning Hellcase Cup 6, an online tournament. As far as ESL Pro League, Ninjas in Pyjamas are holding on tight to their fifth place, hoping to maintain it in the final stretch of the tournament, while ECS could be sliding out of their reach, as they’re currently in a three-way tie for the last spot of the playoffs, but have played more matches than either of their opponents.
10. Gambit
| Player | Age | Rating |
| Abay "HObbit" Khassenov |
23 | 1.12 |
| Rustem "mou" Telepov |
26 | 1.11 |
| Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev |
27 | 1.10 |
| Bektiyar "fitch" Bahytov |
25 | 1.05 |
| Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov |
29 | 1.01 |
Gambit are slowly falling down the rankings, and have lost four positions if compared to the leaderboards one month ago. The Kazakh-Russian team made it out of the EMEA qualifier for ROG Masters in second place behind MOUZ, and finished in last place, 7th-8th, at EPICENTER following losses to FaZe and Virtus.pro. Online, Gambit are struggling with Virtus.pro in the middle of the board in ESEA MDL.
Later this month, the team will travel to the United States to compete at IEM Oakland. With teams like FaZe, G2 and Liquid in their group, the Major champions will need to be at their very best if they hope to reach the playoffs and move up a few places in the ranking.
11. fnatic
| Player | Age | Rating |
| Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson |
24 | 1.15 |
| Jesper "JW" Wecksell |
22 | 1.13 |
| Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson |
23 | 1.09 |
| Robin "flusha" Rönnquist |
24 | 1.06 |
| Maikil "Golden" Selim |
23 | 0.92 |
fnatic move up a couple spots this month, getting closer to the top 10 after a playoff appearance in Atlanta during the ELEAGUE Premier Finals, where they faced the eventual finalists Astralis. The Swedes were also able to qualify for WESG Barcelona after coming in second in the Sweden qualifier, and still sit atop the ESL Pro League and ECS standings.
12. MOUZ
| Player | Age | Rating |
 Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný |
26 | 1.18 |
 Robin "ropz" Kool |
17 | 1.11 |
 Miikka "suNny" Kemppi |
23 | 1.07 |
 Chris "chrisJ" de Jong |
27 | 1.01 |
| Martin "STYKO" Styk |
21 | 0.99 |
MOUZ hold on to their #12 spot with a mixed bag. The European team was unable to make the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs, won the EMEA ROG Masters EMEA Qualifier over Gambit, made the semifinals at DreamHack Denver, where they went out in the semis to Cloud9, and had a 7-5 run in the ESL Pro League, in which they continue in the race for a playoff spot.
13. Envy
| Player | Age | Rating |
| Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer |
25 | 1.12 |
 Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom |
23 | 1.11 |
| Cédric "RpK" Guipouy |
28 | 1.10 |
| Alexandre "xms" Forté |
20 | 1.02 |
| Christophe "SIXER" Xia |
26 | 0.95 |
Envy went up a couple steps from last ranking with a victory in WESG France at the beginning of the month, a playoff appearance in Atlanta at ELEAGUE Premier, and a second place to Space Soldiers in the Minor, which granted the team passage to the offline Major Qualifier, which will take place next year.
Online, Envy had a positive record in ESL Pro League this month, 4-2, but are still far from a playoff spot.
14. Heroic
| Player | Age | Rating |
| Jakob "JUGi" Hansen |
20 | 1.19 |
| Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen |
19 | 1.06 |
| Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer |
27 | 1.04 |
| Andreas "MODDII" Fridh |
28 | 1.03 |
| Patrick "es3tag" Hansen |
21 | 0.98 |
Heroic pop back into the top 15 after several months outside of it. This month, the Danes got a big boost from making it to the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs, although they went out in quarters. They also gave a good account of themselves at the StarLadder i-League Invitational Shanghai, where they came in fourth place after losing to Virtus.pro in the semi-finals and to HellRaisers in the third-place decider.
It was not all positive news for Heroic's fans, however, as the team could not make it out of the Danish WESG qualifier, in which they lost in the semi-finals to Fragsters, and failed to qualify for the Europe Minor. In online competitions, Heroic have been heavily underperforming against better opposition in ESL Pro League and ECS.
15. Natus Vincere
| Player | Age | Rating |
| Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev |
20 | 1.29 |
| Egor "flamie" Vasilyev |
20 | 1.14 |
| Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev |
29 | 1.00 |
| Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko |
30 | 0.91 |
Rounding out the top 15 list in this month’s ranking will be Ukrainian team Natus Vincere. Far from being the powerhouse many people hoped for when Zeus joined the team after the Krakow Major, this season is showing that s1mple & co. are struggling with a five-spot dip since the last ranking. Natus Vincere failed to make it out of groups at ELEAGUE Premier and couldn’t qualify for EPICENTER or IEM Oakland.
A losing streak online also puts them at the bottom of ESL Pro League. This ranking update is still pertaining to the old lineup; now Natus Vincere will have to hope they can recover lost ground with the addition of Denis "electroNic" Sharipov to the team.
Oscar 'mixwell' Cañellas
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov
Mathieu 'Maniac' Quiquerez
Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund
Hansel 'BnTeT' Ferdinand
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski
Bence 'DeadFox' Böröcz
Issa 'ISSAA' Murad
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov
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