Team Ranking: July 2018

The last month before the player break was headlined by two big events: the $300,000 ESL One Cologne and the $1 million ELEAGUE Premier. The former event was topped by Natus Vincere, who made it three titles in a row after beating hometown favourites BIG in the final, while the latter saw Astralis come out on top without losing a single map - the sort of dominant run we had not seen since FaZe's campaign at last year's ESL One New York.

There were several medium-sized international events throughout the month, the most recent of which, IEM Shanghai, saw NRG secure the title by beating TYLOO in the final to bounce back from their failure to secure a spot at the Major. Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele's side had been one of the losers of the Minors, which were held at the Twickenham Stadium, in London, with Ninjas in Pyjamas, Complexity and HellRaisers among the teams who made it through these regional events.

Astralis closed down the curtain on the season with another title

July was also the month of DreamHack Valencia, where North secured the title with Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas standing in after beating fellow Danish side Fragsters and Luminosity in the playoffs, this way repeating their success from Tours.

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 August 6, 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 July 2, 2018.

Rank	Team	Achievements	Form	LANs	Total points	+/-
1.	Astralis	500	169	300	969	-
2.	Natus Vincere	379	200	217	795	+1
3.	FaZe	292	107	158	557	-1
4.	Liquid	263	71	156	489	-
5.	MOUZ	208	76	111	396	-
6.	BIG	90	110	89	289	+19
7.	MIBR	140	53	67	260	-1
8.	fnatic	130	62	65	257	+1
9.	NRG	95	80	72	247	-2
10.	TYLOO	68	68	54	190	+5
11.	North	66	64	46	176	-3
12.	G2	63	52	44	159	+10
13.	Ninjas in Pyjamas	62	60	21	143	-2
14.	ENCE	26	89	26	141	+15
15.	OpTic	31	80	30	141	+2
16.	Renegades	60	38	33	131	-2
17.	HellRaisers	43	60	21	124	-4
18.	Gambit	62	37	17	116	-6
19.	Virtus.pro	44	42	24	110	-
20.	Cloud9	71	21	18	110	-10
21.	Imperial	13	58	15	87	+5
22.	Space Soldiers	34	29	22	85	-4
23.	Heroic	29	27	25	81	-2
24.	Kinguin	5	69	4	78	+3
25.	Complexity	8	62	7	77	+7
26.	Red Reserve	20	35	13	68	-6
27.	LeftOut	12	35	17	64	-3
28.	Luminosity	11	38	13	62	+23
29.	Rogue	11	36	15	62	+2
30.	Sprout	5	51	6	62	+5

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

1. Astralis

Player	Age	Rating
Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz	22	1.36
Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen	25	1.21
Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander	23	1.20
Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif	20	1.18
Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth	22	0.99

July was one of Astralis's more active months, as the Danes, who have been picky about events and careful enough not to pack their schedule, attended two events: ESL One Cologne and ELEAGUE Premier. The first tournament, the one in Germany, went according to plan until the semi-final against Natus Vincere, in which the CIS side managed to take the victory. Astralis had not dropped a map up until that point, and they showed the same kind of strength in Atlanta.

Cloud9, Liquid, MOUZ and then Liquid again in the final all fell to Astralis without even taking a map. A perfect 8W-0L map run at ELEAGUE gave gla1ve and co. their fourth title of the year and pushed away any thoughts about the Danes being vulnerable after their loss to Natus Vincere in Cologne.

There are no signs of Astralis slowing down

Astralis are therefore established at the top of the rankings as the player break begins, going into their 15th week at the top of the table. And with four Big Events won, one second place and one semi-final finish since DreamHack Masters Marseille, it won't be easy to dethrone them any time soon.

2. Natus Vincere

Player	Age	Rating
Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev	20	1.31
Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov	19	1.26
Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev	21	1.08
Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev	30	0.98
Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko	30	0.96

The only team that beat Astralis on LAN since the Danes' dominant run began in April and still has the same roster is Natus Vincere. The CIS side had to dig in deep to pull off the victory on the stage of the LANXESS Arena, with the often criticized IGL Zeus dropping a 30-bomb in regulation to take down the Astralis on the decider map at ESL One Cologne. Natus Vincere had been on a strong run themselves, winning StarSeries i-League Season 5 and CS:GO Asia Championship in June, but both events lacked FaZe and Astralis, making their Cologne trophy that much more important.

Defeating Liquid has been an issue for Zeus' men

A good run of form, which is reflected in the maximum 200 points in the related category, and having just beat the top dog Astralis in a direct matchup, made Natus Vincere the second favorite at ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier. It was looking like we would see a rematch between the two in the grand final as both squads topped their groups, but it wasn't meant to be, as s1mple and co. couldn't pass the semi-final hurdle of Liquid. The North Americans are proving a tough nut to crack for Natus Vincere, who had lost to them in the semis of ESL Pro League S7 Finals in May as well.

Still, making top four of all nine events they have played since adding electroNic in November of last year, and winning four of those, account for a solid second place in our team ranking going into the break.

3. FaZe

Player	Age	Rating
Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač	21	1.26
Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer	26	1.16
Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard	23	1.11
Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács	27	1.06
Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen	28	0.92

The international squad has been doing a great job staying in the top four throughout the year, despite the difficulties they had with olofmeister's three-month-long absence. Winning two events along the way — IEM Sydney with Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström and ESL One Belo Horizonte with Jorgen "⁠cromen⁠" Robertsen — was nothing short of incredible, but things turned sour before the player break, as July featured two disappointing events. First, at ESL One Cologne, where FaZe could've claimed the million dollar Intel Grand Slam with a victory, the team fell to BIG in the semis, and then after olofmeister's return — and with the Swede playing well —, FaZe couldn't pick up a single BO3 win at ELEAGUE Premier, finishing 7-8th following losses to MOUZ and fnatic.

FaZe could not capitalise on NiKo's exceptional form in July

Due to instability in the ranks below them, FaZe are still safe in the top four, but the player break will eat away some points earned earlier in the year. A good result at DreamHack Masters Stockholm and at the Major will be needed for karrigan's team to keep their place in the elite bracket going forward.

4. Liquid

Player	Age	Rating
Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic	20	1.17
Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken	18	1.15
Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski	21	1.07
Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella	22	1.03
Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo	23	0.85

nitr0's team was hard to quantify as July started, with their showings in the month before being up-and-down. It turned out that attending too many events had taken a toll on them, as they had an awful start to July, going out at ESL One Cologne in last place with a 0-3 map record against BIG and North.

That caused a lot of people to write them off going into ELEAGUE Premier, but the North Americans looked much better on home soil. The defining series of their tournament was the one against Natus Vincere, in which every player contributed to the 2-0 victory, but unfortunately for them, claiming the title was too much to ask for. Third time wasn't the charm for Liquid, who were once again soundly beaten by Astralis in a final.

Liquid bounced back from a poor Cologne performance at ELEAGUE

The Danes are proving to be the kryptonite for Liquid, but in a way, there is no shame in losing to the best team in the world, and in a grand final. The bigger issue for the squad is their lack of tournament-to-tournament consistency. Had they been able to place better at tournaments where there had been no Astralis in attendance, such as ESL One Belo Horizonte or StarSeries i-League S5 — or at least made it out of the groups at ESL One Cologne —, Liquid would've been in a even better place ranking-wise.

5. MOUZ

Player	Age	Rating
Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný	27	1.07
Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi	23	1.05
Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool	18	1.02
Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong	28	0.99
Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski	25	0.96

July saw the German organization add Snax to their roster, replacing Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk after having the Slovakian for about a year. MOUZ didn't manage to recover some of the points they lost by doing a player change at the start of July as they had a poor showing at ESL One Cologne. At the $250,000 tournament, they were eliminated by G2 and ENCE in the group stage, only beating the struggling Gambit in a BO1.

mousesports improved as the month went on

With some more time to iron out the kinks, MOUZ looked better at ELEAGUE Premier, where their main trio of oskar, suNny and ropz was able to step up to the task once again. To start off the event, MOUZ managed a LAN win over FaZe for the first time since the PGL Krakow 2017 Major, something chrisJ admitted was one of the things they wanted to accomplish with the player change, and placed 3rd-4th in the end after losing to the eventual winners, Astralis. The result in Atlanta helped MOUZ to keep a top-five spot, but, similarly to FaZe, they will need more good results after the break to stay there.

6. BIG

Player	Age	Rating
Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz	23	1.18
Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget	26	1.10
Tizian "⁠tiziaN⁠" Feldbusch	22	1.01
Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield	18	1.01
Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik	31	0.91

The German squad, spiced up with a dash of British flavor, was the surprise of July, as they made one of the biggest jumps within the top 30 after their second-place ESL One Cologne finish. BIG had been ranked 25th in the world at the end of June and now sit in sixth place, with MIBR's roster changes and point decay seeing gob b's squad overtake them last week without even playing.

tabsen and co. played great Counter-Strike in Cologne

BIG's Cologne run was probably the most surprising underdog story we've had in CS:GO yet. The Germans' invite had been somewhat controversial, but they proved a lot of people wrong at the event. BIG didn't get a lot of attention early on, as they upset Liquid in a BO1 and got blown out by fnatic the next day, but the hype started building up as victories over Renegades and MIBR on the last day of the group stage got them a place in the LANXESS Arena for the playoffs. In front of their crowd, BIG 2-0'd G2 and then defeated FaZe 2-1, with the last map of the series being a complete blowout.

A massive jump in the rankings will surely be followed by more LAN opportunities, which will give us a good idea if BIG can consistently play at the level they showed last month in Germany, and be a real threat to the top teams.

7. MIBR

Player	Age	Rating
Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga	26	1.16
Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David	23	1.12
Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo	27	1.05
Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik	22	0.97
Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip	20	0.96

Two group stage exits and another roster change see MIBR dive further in the rankings. FalleN's team had a small upswing in June, after winning Moche XL and placing 3-4th at ESL One Belo Horizonte, but nothing good happened for them in July. Last year's ESL One Cologne champions didn't show up this time around, with BIG putting an end in the group stage to their hopes of defending the title. After the event, the squad made a roster move, changing Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass for tarik.

ELEAGUE Premier was coldzera's first sub-1.00 rated LAN event

The player change cost them some additional points, and finishing 5-6th at ELEAGUE Premier, where they beat Cloud9 and lost twice to Liquid, didn't help their case much either. Trying to turn the ship around, MIBR appointed Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović as coach, with whom they will attend the first event after the player break: ZOTAC Cup Masters Grand Finals. As the tournament won't be attended by the elite teams, MIBR will have a chance to make up some ground early with a good performance in Hong Kong, leading up to DreamHack Stockholm and the Major. 

8. fnatic

Player	Age	Rating
Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell	23	1.07
Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson	24	1.07
Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist	24	0.98
William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin	22	0.92
Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström	27	0.88

fnatic move up one place into eighth after capitalising on North's and NRG's woes despite having indifferent runs at ESL One Cologne and ELEAGUE Premier - their first two events since swapping Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim for draken.

At the German tournament, fnatic made it out of a tricky group following wins over North and BIG, but a defeat to FaZe in the winners' match put them on Na`Vi's path - too big a task for Xizt's men. Many expected the Swedes to have their machine well oiled by the time ELEAGUE Premier had started, but they fell short against Zeus' men and MOUZ, and had to settle for a group stage finish.

fnatic still look a bit shaky with the new roster

DreamHack Masters Stockholm will be fnatic's first post-break event, and they will need to work very hard in the weeks to come if they wish to re-enter the top five zone - from which they are now almost 150 points away.

9. NRG

Player	Age	Rating
Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov	18	1.31
Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold	18	1.27
Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte	20	1.20
Jacob "⁠FugLy⁠" Medina	23	1.12
Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele	25	0.96

The North American team move down two places after losing almost 50 points over the course of the month, which began with a shocking fourth-place finish at the Americas Minor after losing to Complexity and eUnited - two sides who were far below them in the ranking.

NRG were able to take revenge on Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz's side in an online qualifier to assure themselves of a spot at StarSeries Season 6, and they ended the month on a high after topping IEM Shanghai (which is not classified as a big event).

CeRq led the way as NRG won IEM Shanghai

The convincing run in Shanghai, where NRG lost only one map en route to the title, has taken some of the pressure off daps's side, who will return to action at DreamHack Masters Stockholm, later this month. While they still enjoy a 60-point lead over tenth-place TYLOO, the Chinese side have two more events coming up than they do - the ZOTAC Cup Masters and the Major itself -, making a good run in the Swedish capital all the more important for the North Americans.

10. TYLOO

Player	Age	Rating
Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand	22	1.23
Kevin "⁠xccurate⁠" Susanto	20	1.19
HaoWen "⁠somebody⁠" Xu	23	1.14
Hui "⁠DD⁠" Wu	23	1.12
Ke "⁠captainMo⁠" Liu	29	1.01

TYLOO enter the top 10 for the first time in their history, a huge achievement in itself, even taking into consideration that Renegades, their biggest rival in the Asian region, have been on a downwards spiral of late.

With captainMo back on the roster after a period on the sidelines through injury, TYLOO won the Chinese qualifier for DreamHack Masters Stockholm after beating MAX, EHOME, VG.Flash and CyberZen along the way. The Asia Minor was business as usual for TYLOO, who finished second to Renegades, and they followed that up with another final appearance at IEM Shangai, although it must be pointed out that they defeated two teams from their own region en route to the playoffs and that they were no match for NRG in the final.

TyLoo are all smiles as they finally break into the top 10

It will be extremely hard for TYLOO to improve on their current placing, but they will still be eyeing NRG's scalp, especially after the North Americans' slip-up at the Minor. After missing the ELEAGUE Major due to visa issues, the Chinese side will be in action at next month's showpiece event - their first of this stature - and they will head into the new tournament season more confident than ever.

11. North

Player	Age	Rating
Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså	23	1.24
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup	22	1.09
Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye	20	1.03
Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen	23	0.88

The Danes drop out of the top 10 following a month that saw them make a surprise roster change as Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz was cut from the line-up, leaving them on the lookout for a new AWPer during the tournament break.

As North searched for an AWPer "who can kill a lot and play smart", in the words of MSL, the team attended DreamHack Open Valencia with then free agent mixwell as a stand-in. Even with no practice and a new communication system in place, the Danish side breezed through the tournament to pick up their second title of 2018 after DreamHack Open Tours.

July brought North their second title of 2018

Recent reports have credited North with an interest in Heroic's Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen, which would leave the team without a dedicated AWPer. It will be very interesting to see how the team will adapt to this new system, with DreamHack Masters Stockholm being their next event on the calendar, followed by the Major.

12. G2

Player	Age	Rating
Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub	23	1.15
Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon	26	1.13
Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro	21	1.02
Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans	28	0.97
Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux	29	0.90

July was a rollercoaster of a month for G2, who surprised many by making it out of the groups at ESL One Cologne by beating two top five teams, including the eventual champions, Natus Vincere. But all the good work that they put in would be undone at DreamHack Open Valencia, where Ex6TenZ's men went out after two losses to Luminosity, with the 2-0 victory over a struggling Virtus.pro offering little solace.

G2's poor run on Spanish soil once again raises questions about the true potential of the squad. With no LAN action for them before the Major, G2 could well find themselves out of the top 15 once again by the time the London competition rolls around.

13. Ninjas in Pyjamas

Player	Age	Rating
Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner	20	1.11
Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson	25	1.06
Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman	27	1.03
Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund	28	1.00
Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg	30	0.98

Two years later, the Ninjas are back at a Major. After a frustrating campaign at ESL One Cologne, with only 11 rounds collected over three maps, many looked at Ninjas in Pyjamas's decision to hand over the in-game leader reins to Lekr0 as the sort of desperate move that many teams have made when they have run out of options.

But Ninjas in Pyjamas proved that they had a plan all along as they not only finished in the top two - ending a two-year absence from the Majors - but they also won the Minor's grand prize of $30,000 after defeating OpTic in the final.

The Ninjas will return to a Major

After the break, the Swedish team will return to action at DreamHack Masters Stockholm. The Ninjas have historically fared well at home at DreamHack Masters events - winning the title in Malmö in 2016 and reaching the semi-finals in the same city a year later -, and this will be the greatest test yet to Lekr0's leadership. Only time will tell how far the Ninjas can go, but they have done enough to enjoy themselves during the break.

14. ENCE

Player	Age	Rating
Jere "⁠sergej⁠" Salo	16	1.19
Jani "⁠Aerial⁠" Jussila	25	1.17
Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli	26	1.15
Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen	21	1.02
Sami "⁠xseveN⁠" Laasanen	23	1.01

ENCE have been a team on the up for several months now, and they enter the top 15 for the first time since the line-up's creation after acquitting themselves well at ESL One Cologne, where they were denied a spot in the playoffs by eventual champions Natus Vincere after taking down Ninjas in Pyjamas and MOUZ in convincing fashion.

Perhaps carried away by their results in Germany, ENCE could not show the same level of form at the Minor and wasted two chances to secure a spot at the Major as they lost to OpTic in the upper bracket final and then to Ninjas in Pyjamas in the consolidation final.

ENCE enter the top 15 after impressing in Cologne

ENCE's struggles in London and in Helsinki, where they almost let the Finnish Championship final against HAVU slip away, have shown that allu's side still have a lot of work to do to become more than a team who can pull off the occasional upset. But with no LAN action on the horizon, the Finns risk sliding out of the top 20 in the not-so-distant future.

15. OpTic

Player	Age	Rating
Jakob "⁠JUGi⁠" Hansen	21	1.13
René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg	28	1.07
Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke	21	1.06
Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade	23	1.03
Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer	28	0.94

OpTic close out the top 15, moving up two spots from last month's 17th place thanks to a solid run at the Europe Minor, where they beat Ninjas in Pyjamas and ENCE in three-map series, securing a spot at the Major, before losing out to the Swedes in the final.

Yet it was not all positive for OpTic, who could not make it past the semi-finals in the StarSeries Season 6 qualifier, in which they competed with niko as a stand-in. That defeat possibly cost them a spot at one of October's premier tournaments, unless they manage to secure an invite to the event.

Snappi's troops have a very busy month coming up as they will attend the ZOTAC Cup Masters and DreamHack Open Stockholm - two events where they will try to strengthen their credentials before the team's first Major appearance.