Team Ranking: June 2018

June saw Astralis grab their third title in the last three months at one of the two big events of the month, ECS Season 5 Finals, where the Danes confirmed their dominance with an undefeated run, beating FaZe and Liquid in the playoffs.

At June's other large-scale tournament, ESL One Belo Horizonte, two teams who fielded stand-ins, FaZe with Jorgen "⁠cromen⁠" Robertsen and MOUZ with Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert, ended up facing off in the grand final, with Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's men prevailing in a close series to clinch their third Intel Grand Slam title.

Astralis remain firmly in the lead

Various medium-sized tournaments took place over the course of the month, such as the CS:GO Asia Championships, where Natus Vincere emerged victorious, and DreamHack Open Summer, won by Imperial. MIBR, at the time still as part of SK, also added another small title to their resumé at Moche XL Esports, while Kinguin topped the ZOTAC Cup Masters Europe Regional Finals.

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.

And here is the current top 30 ranking as of July 2, which delves into how the points are distributed between the three categories. You can also check our ranking page, where you can find the current weekly ranking as well as its history.

Please note that the +/- gain on this table differs from our weekly rankings page because it is related to the ranking update of June 4, 2018.

Rank	Team	Achievements	Form	LANs	Total points	+/-
1.	Astralis	500	200	300	1000	-
2.	FaZe	409	133	163	704	-
3.	Natus Vincere	320	187	169	676	-
4.	Liquid	269	162	112	543	+1
5.	MOUZ	234	99	97	429	-1
6.	MIBR	235	120	63	417	+1
7.	NRG	108	130	66	304	+4
8.	North	98	116	46	260	+2
9.	fnatic	131	35	63	228	-3
10.	Cloud9	147	37	40	224	-2
11.	NIP	90	57	42	189	-2
12.	Gambit	85	51	41	176	+1
13.	HellRaisers	59	86	30	174	+2
14.	Renegades	78	57	32	167	-2
15.	TYLOO	68	56	37	162	-1
16.	AGO	42	86	20	148	-
17.	OpTic	36	80	27	143	+5
18.	Space Soldiers	55	62	18	136	-
19.	Virtus.pro	59	40	23	123	+1
20.	Red Reserve	30	69	16	115	-3
21.	Heroic	45	46	22	113	-2
22.	G2	53	35	21	108	+3
23.	AVANGAR	19	66	12	97	-2
24.	LeftOut	33	40	23	96	-1
25.	BIG	20	57	11	88	+3
26.	Imperial	32	40	15	88	+10
27.	Kinguin	8	69	5	82	+16
28.	Windigo	10	62	5	76	+3
29.	ENCE	3	58	5	66	+28
30.	Spirit	11	47	5	63	+2

Here's an explanation of the top 15 teams' history since our last monthly update:

1. Astralis

Player	Age	Rating
Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz	22	1.30
Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander	23	1.16
Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif	20	1.16
Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth	22	1.10
Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen	25	0.98

This monthly ranking sees the Danish powerhouse extend their stay at the No. 1 position, now making it 10 weeks in total, during which Astralis made the grand final four out of four times and hoisted three trophies.

In June, gla1ve & co. only played four matches, at the ECS Season 5 Finals, where they topped their group with two wins on Inferno, coming back from a 3-12 deficit against Cloud9 and defeating Liquid with ease.

The Danish powerhouse has kept the No. 1 spot for 10 weeks in a row

Astralis then beat FaZe in the semi-final and claimed their third trophy this year after securing the grand-final rematch versus Liquid, completing an undefeated run throughout the London event.

2. FaZe

Player	Age	Rating
Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač	21	1.34
Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács	26	1.26
Jorgen "⁠cromen⁠" Robertsen	23	1.11
Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard	23	1.08
Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen	28	0.95

FaZe were one of only a few teams from the top-ten that attended more than one event during the month, as they attended both big tournaments, ECS Season 5 Finals and ESL One Belo Horizonte.

In London, the European mixture played with cromen for the first time and placed second in their group, as they lost to NRG in the match for first place before beating G2 in the deciding series. That pitted FaZe against Astralis in the semis, which marked the end of karrigan's team's run at the $660,000 event.

Thanks to the win in Belo Horizonte, FaZe stay in second place

In their second attempt with cromen in Brazil, where the Danes were absent, FaZe quickly disposed of Ghost and Space Soldiers in the groups before beating Liquid 2-1 in the semi-final. In the grand final, the No. 2 squad inthe world beat a Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný-less MOUZ after coming back from a 1-2 deficit in the series, winning Mirage and Dust2 to clinch their third Intel Grand Slam trophy.

The European squad remain nearly 300 points behind Astralis, but they will get a chance to take their revenge and close the gap soon, as both teams will be in attendance at ESL One Cologne (July 3-8) as well as at ELEAGUE Premier (July 21-29).

3. Natus Vincere

Player	Age	Rating
Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev	20	1.24
Denis "⁠electronic⁠" Sharipov	19	1.18
Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev	30	1.11
Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev	21	1.10
Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko	30	0.95

June was a relatively quiet month for Natus Vincere, who didn't attend either of the big tournaments but instead traveled to Shanghai, China, for the CS:GO Asia Championships, which overlapped with ESL One Belo Horizonte.

s1mple & co. beat Envy and NIP in the groups to finish first and secure a berth to the semi-finals, where they had a rematch against the French squad and came out victors yet again before squaring off against Virtus.pro in the final. In the title decider, the Poles opened the series with a dominant performance on Dust2, but Natus Vincere came back with two convincing wins on Nuke and Train to claim the series and their second title in a row.

Na`Vi are within touching distance of FaZe

Lagging behind FaZe by fewer than 30 points, Natus Vincere are within touching distance of second place in the ranking, where they briefly resided at the end of April and in the middle of June. With ESL One Cologne around the corner, the event could see the two trade places should Na`Vi outdo FaZe in Germany.

4. Liquid

Player	Age	Rating
Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic	20	1.19
Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski	20	1.15
Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken	18	1.06
Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella	22	0.99
Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo	23	0.95

Liquid have jumped ahead of MOUZ in the ranking following a busy month, during which they played at both big tournaments and returned home with a grand final appearance and a semi-final finish.

London saw the North American side lose three maps to Astralis, one in the groups and two in the grand final, but apart from that they didn't drop any more maps at the event, beating fnatic and NRG convincingly. 

Liquid overtake mousesports

In Belo Horizonte, nitr0's team looked stumped against top-tier opposition, as they only beat BIG twice in fairly close matches while conceding series to MOUZ and FaZe in one-sided fashion, which saw them go out in the semis.

5. MOUZ

Player	Age	Rating
Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong	28	1.29
Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi	23	1.20
Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool	18	1.16
Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski	24	1.04
Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný	27	0.00

MOUZ round out the top five with one offline appearance in June, at ESL One Belo Horizonte, where they traveled with n0thing instead of oskar, who skipped the tournament for personal reasons.

Perhaps due to the lack of pressure, the European team managed to go all the way to the grand final, beating Não Tem Como, Liquid, and SK without losing a map, but, despite an inspired performance from chrisJ, they couldn't overcome FaZe in the grand final.

mousesports have lost a considerable amount of points due to their roster change

Keep in mind that not only have MOUZ only gained 80% of the points from the Brazilian event — as they played with a stand-in —, they have also lost 20% of points gained from tournaments they had played with Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk, who has recently made way for Snax on the active roster.

6. MIBR

Player	Age	Rating
Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David	23	1.20
Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga	26	1.17
Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass	21	1.17
Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo	27	1.14
Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip	20	1.09

The former SK roster have advanced one spot closer to the top five after clinching their second small title at Moche XL Esports, where they beat Winstrike and HellRaisers, and placing third-fourth at ESL One Belo Horizonte.

Back home, FalleN's team advanced from the group stage despite opening the tournament with an 0-2 loss to Space Soldiers, as the Brazilians then beat Ghost and took revenge on the Turks in the deciding match. They were stopped by MOUZ in the semi-final, losing the series 0-2.

7. NRG

Player	Age	Rating
Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov	18	1.26
Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold	18	1.19
Jacob "⁠FugLy⁠" Medina	23	1.11
Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte	20	1.07
Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele	24	0.92

daps's men continue their upwards trajectory by climbing another four spots in the ranking, as they're now sitting in seventh place following a semi-final finish at the ECS Season 5 Finals, their only tournament of June.

In London, the North American roster with a Bulgarian twist flew past G2 and FaZe in the groups to clinch first place, but they couldn't keep things competitive in the semi-finals against Liquid, whom they had beaten in the quarter-finals at StarSeries.

NRG climb to seventh place

NRG will not be in attendance at either of the large-scale events of July, however, as they have the Americas Minor coming up in under a week and they haven't been invited to ELEAGUE Premier. That could cost them their peak spot, as the teams above them and some below will play at least one of ESL One Cologne and ELEAGUE Premier.

8. North

Player	Age	Rating
Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye	20	1.16
Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså	23	1.15
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup	22	1.05
Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz	19	1.03
Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen	23	1.01

After entering the top 10 in the ranking for the first time since revamping their line-up, North continue to climb upward in the ranking, following a semi-final run at DreamHack Open Summer.

In Jönköping, the Danes got off to a bumpy start, losing to Imperial in their opening match, but then they picked themselves up and held off two top 20 sides, Red Reserve and AGO, although in both cases the series went to all three maps. In the end, North crashed out of the tournament at the hands of OpTic, who would go on to lose to Imperial in the final.

North have a big test coming up in the form of ESL One Cologne. With fnatic and Cloud9 hot on their heels and both of them having one more event in July - ELEAGUE Premier -, the Danes will need to impress in Germany to avoid a drop in the ranking, after moving up six places in the last two months.

9. fnatic

Player	Age	Rating
Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson	24	1.06
Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell	23	1.03
Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström	27	0.96
Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist	24	0.84
William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin	22	0.00

The last few months have been rough for fnatic, who are now ninth in the world - their worst ranking since February. It is the result of a series of disappointing LAN results and two roster changes, the second of which saw draken take Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim’s spot in the starting line-up.

After a quiet month with no LAN appearances, fnatic returned to action at the ECS Season 5 Finals, with Xizt at the helm of the team. With little practice ahead of the event in London, the Swedes crashed out of the tournament in the groups, with a close win against a struggling Cloud9 side offering little solace.

Xizt's men are preparing for their first event with draken

The new fnatic line-up will be in action this month at ESL One Cologne and ELEAGUE Premier. The German event may come a bit too soon for the team, but in Atlanta they will be expected to be a full-strength side, after making key changes that included bringing in a new in-game leader and moving back to a system with a primary AWPer.

10. Cloud9

Player	Age	Rating
Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta	21	1.13
William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba	24	1.09
Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham	24	1.06
Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik	22	1.02

The current Major champions move down two places to tenth after another frustrating month that included an early exit at the ECS Season 5 Finals following defeats to Astralis and fnatic.

Perhaps more worrying, however, is the fact that Cloud9 still have not figured out who their new fifth player will be, after benching Pujan "⁠FNS⁠" Mehta just two months into their time together. STYKO, who is on MOUZ’ transfer list, will be acting as a stand-in in Cologne, but his future with the team beyond that is uncertain.

tarik's side almost out of the top 10

There are more questions than answers for Cloud9, who may drop out of the top 10 in the ranking for the first time since September 2017. STYKO’s addition looks promising, but it remains to be seen whether he will instantly click with the team. The truth is that the next Major is just two months away and Cloud9 are still not any closer to adjusting to life without Stewie2K than they were when he left for SK, in March.

11. NIP

Player	Age	Rating
Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson	25	1.18
Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg	30	1.18
Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman	27	1.12
Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner	20	1.11
Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund	28	1.06

The Ninjas slip out of the top 10 after a disappointing LAN outing and a roster change in June. With no ECS Finals action for them, NIP travelled to China hoping for an easy ride with their newest member, Lekr0, but what they found was a nightmare as they were sent packing in the first round of the playoffs by TYLOO.

It was not all bad news for NIP's fans, however, as they saw the team earn a spot at the Europe Minor via the tricky online qualifying stage. This will surely be the more important of the two events the Swedes will attend - the other one being ESL One Cologne -, as the team will be desperate to return to a Major after missing the last three editions.

12. Gambit

Player	Age	Rating
Rustem "⁠mou⁠" Telepov	26	1.18
Abay "⁠Hobbit⁠" Khasenov	24	1.09
Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov	22	1.05
Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev	28	1.02
Mihail "⁠Dosia⁠" Stolyarov	30	0.96

Gambit were far from impressive at the two events that they attended in June, DreamHack Open Summer and the ZOTAC Cup Masters Europe Finals, but they still move up one place from last month's 13th merely because they lost fewer points than Renegades.

At the Swedish event, the Kazakhstani team beat the Australians and Complexity but were no match for the two finalists, OpTic and Imperial, settling for a 3rd-4th place finish. In Milan, Dosia's troops were simply well off the pace as they could not even make it out of the groups, losing to Imperial once more and then to Windigo. They closed the month out on a high, however, booking a spot at ESL One New York after overcoming a one-map disadvantage against North in the final.

Gambit are now 12th in the ranking

Gambit have just one event coming up, ESL One Cologne - their first with mir as a permanent member. Many will be curious to see how the PGL Major Krakow champions will fare at the event, after losing coach Andrey "⁠Andi⁠" Prokhorov and pulling out of ESEA MDL, supposedly to focus on their next offline commitments. 

13. HellRaisers

Player	Age	Rating
Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker	19	1.32
Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk	25	1.14
Issa "⁠ISSAA⁠" Murad	21	1.14
Bence "⁠DeadFox⁠" Böröcz	23	1.02
Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow	28	0.98

HellRaisers move up two places when compared to last month's ranking update despite not featuring at either large-scale event that was held in June. In fact, their only LAN appearance came at Moche XL Esports, where they lost the title to the now MIBR squad after barely surviving a semi-final clash against Giants.

HellRaisers finished second in Lisbon

But June was far from being a quiet month for HellRaisers, who took part in a series of online qualifiers. After beginning the month with a successful qualification campaign for the CIS Minor, ANGE1's men also booked a spot at DreamHack Masters Stockholm after beating Spirit and AGO, while they were taken down by Gambit in the ESL One New York qualifiers. 

14. Renegades

Player	Age	Rating
Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage	22	1.12
Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward	25	1.01
Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad	24	1.01
Noah "⁠Nifty⁠" Francis	20	0.93
Karlo "⁠USTILO⁠" Pivac	24	0.92

After three consecutive monthly updates in 12th place, Renegades are dropping down the ranking following a frustrating month in which they sole LAN appearance, at DreamHack Open Summer, ended in disappointment as they went out after just two matches. The Australians then returned to North America to try to qualify for ESL One New York, but defeats to NRG and Complexity cost them a spot at the $250,000 event.

ESL One Cologne could be another rough event for Renegades, especially considering that Nifty's side have their eyes set on the Asia Minor - an absolutely must-win event for them.

15. TYLOO

Player	Age	Rating
Kevin "⁠xccurate⁠" Susanto	20	1.11
Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand	22	1.07
Hui "⁠DD⁠" Wu	23	1.03
HaoWen "⁠somebody⁠" Xu	22	0.98
Yue "⁠AE⁠" Yu	19	0.77

TYLOO close out the top 15 after a quiet month in which they only featured at the CS:GO Asia Championships, where they raised eyebrows by beating NIP before eventually coming up short against Virtus.pro in the semi-finals.

After surprisingly losing to BOOT-d[S] in the Asian qualifier for ESL One Cologne, TYLOO will miss out on July's premier event, meaning that they will find it very hard to avoid another drop in next month's update. On the bright side, the Chinese squad will have more time to prepare for the Asia Minor, where they will be eyeing yet another top-two finish.