Two tournaments were played coming back from the player break, the smaller ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 Finals and the main course, DreamHack Masters Stockholm, which saw most of the best teams in the world go head-to-head with North taking the lion's share of the $250,000 prize pool in a Danish derby against Astralis. In China, it was MIBR who expectedly came out on top, raising the ZOTAC trophy after winning seven maps in three matches.

North won the first big event of the season in Stockholm

The return of Counter-Strike sees a tightly stacked group of contenders fighting for the 3rd-6th spots, as all of the teams in that pack are within 25 points ahead of the FACEIT Major in London. Another area of contention are the 13th-21st places in the ranking, where the teams are within 50 points of each other.

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 September 3, 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 August 6, 2018.

Rank	Team	Achievements	Form	LANs	Total points	+/-
1.	Astralis	500	182	300	982	-
2.	Natus Vincere	362	87	260	709	-
3.	Liquid	232	91	159	482	+1
4.	North	156	200	121	477	+7
5.	mousesports	228	107	137	472	-
6.	FaZe	273	51	133	457	-3
7.	MIBR	169	96	93	358	-
8.	NiP	99	112	60	271	+5
9.	NRG	89	64	90	244	-
10.	fnatic	115	40	65	220	-2
11.	BIG	81	0	130	211	-5
12.	TYLOO	71	72	35	178	-2
13.	Heroic	45	56	41	142	+10
14.	G2	53	28	54	136	-2
15.	HellRaisers	44	64	20	128	+2
16.	Renegades	51	50	18	119	-
17.	OpTic	37	53	25	115	-2
18.	ENCE	24	54	32	110	-4
19.	Gambit	56	34	18	108	-1
20.	Virtus.pro	38	34	40	102	-1
21.	Cloud9	57	28	14	99	-1
22.	Ghost	22	46	20	88	+16
23.	Luminosity	10	56	15	81	+5
24.	AGO	20	33	24	77	+7
25.	Imperial	12	41	24	77	-4
26.	Fragsters	13	50	13	76	+6
27.	AVANGAR	10	58	7	75	+7
28.	Kinguin	20	36	18	74	-4
29.	Rogue	10	42	18	70	-
30.	Complexity	7	54	9	70	-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	1.24
Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth	22	1.17
Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen	25	1.16
Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander	23	1.10
Emil "Magisk" Reif	20	1.09

Despite a tough loss against Danish rivals North in the grand final of the first big tournament of the season, DreamHack Masters Stockholm, Astralis still hold on to the first place on the rankings thanks to the solid results the team has been putting up, which you can read all about in Milan “Striker” Svejda’s feature story Astralis: A legend in the making. While a second place may taste like defeat for the Danes, Astralis still showed they are currently the team to fear most in the circuit.

In Stockholm, Astralis showed their first sign of weakness when they lost a three-map series to North in their group stage winners’ match, but seemed to get better and better as the tournament progressed, beating TYLOO in three maps and then MIBR and NiP without giving a map up in both matches on their way to the final, where they were once again surprised by their bête noire in the tournament, North.

Astralis remain in commanding lead after DreamHack Masters Stockholm

While a second loss to North in Stockholm came as a surprise, Astralis are still maxed out in their achievement and Recent LANs columns, and remain well ahead of all opposition on the ranking, which they have now topped for over four months. Going into the FACEIT Major as one of the favorites—despite having to qualify through the Challengers Stage—, Astralis will now have a chance at cementing themselves as one of the most successful teams in CS:GO.

2. Natus Vincere

Player	Age	Rating
Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev	20	1.34
Denis "electronic" Sharipov	20	1.15
Egor "flamie" Vasilyev	21	0.98
Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev	30	0.92
Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko	30	0.90

Natus Vincere, who had been on an absolute tear before the player break with three first places and a semi-final in their last four tournaments, showed signs of weakness at their first event this season, DreamHack Masters Stockholm, where the best they could do was make the playoffs as s1mple and electronic’s 1.34 and 1.15 ratings at the event weren’t enough to propel the CIS side deep into the playoff bracket this time around.

Known for shaky starts, Natus Vincere kicked off their run in Stockholm with a loss to Ghost in the best-of-one opener. Natus Vincere were then able to reverse sweep NRG and Ghost, taking revenge on the latter. Unable to find their best selves, Natus Vincere eventually went out to the champions, North, in a one-sided quarter-final match in which no player from the losing side was able to reach a 0.80 rating.

Natus Vincere remain #2 despite a quarter-final exit in Stockholm

Despite the hiccup that was DreamHack Masters Stockholm for a team that is now expected to not only make playoffs, but to make deep runs and be a title contender, Natus Vincere will have a chance to redeem themselves at the FACEIT Major. With solid numbers in their Recent LANs and Achievement columns, Natus Vincere still hold a significant lead over the pack of teams in third to sixth place on the ranking.

3. Liquid

Player	Age	Rating
Nick "nitr0" Cannella	23	"-"
Keith "NAF" Markovic	20	"-"
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski	21	"-"
Epitacio "TACO" de Melo	23	"-"
Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken	18	"-"

Thanks to a strong finish last season, Liquid have risen a spot in the ranking due to other teams' points decaying. Since they decided to take the first big event of the season off as stated by TACO and Twistzz in an interview during ELEAGUE Premier in order to prepare for the FACEIT Major, strong finishes at events like ELEAGUE Premier, ECS Season 5, and ESL One Belo Horizonte mean Liquid lead the pack of teams that are all within arm’s reach.

With four teams within 25 points of each other, Liquid will have to show up at the FACEIT Major, where they will be playing the Challengers Stage this week, and prove they can once again beat teams like Natus Vincere and MIBR like they did at ELEAGUE Premier in order to keep that top 3 spot in the world ranking.

4. North

Player	Age	Rating
Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså	23	1.19
Philip "aizy" Aistrup	22	1.17
Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye	20	1.14
Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen	23	1.03
Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen	20	1.00

North made a giant leap in the rankings after a great underdog story that saw a team that has been teetering around the line of the top 10 fly into the top 4 thanks to a win at the first big event after the player break, DreamHack Masters Stockholm. The Danish side, who won DreamHack Open Valencia with Oscar "mixwell" Cañellas after dropping Daniel "mertz" Mertz, have now been able to replicate the same result on the big stage with niko in their ranks.

The victory in Sweden, which comes right after the smaller victory in Spain, gives North a maximum amount of points allotted to the Form column. This was one of the main driving forces for the team’s incursion into the top 5, as four big upsets against Natus Vincere, mousesports, and against Astralis in both the group stage and in the final gave North bonus points.

North made a huge leap in the rankings after winning DreamHack Masters

The Danes will now have to show that this is no fluke going into the FACEIT Major’s Challenger Stage, where they will have to face stiff opposition including teams like Astralis and Liquid in order to hold on to one of the much coveted top 5 positions in the world ranking.

5. mousesports

Player	Age	Rating
Robin "ropz" Kool	18	1.18
Miikka "suNny" Kemppi	24	1.17
Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný	27	1.08
Chris "chrisJ" de Jong	28	1.02
Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski	25	0.98

mousesports hold on to the fifth spot on the ranking after a decent start to the season with a semi-final run at DreamHack Masters Stockholm. The European combine has now held the fifth spot in the ranking since early July and have been a top 5 team since April with the exception of a dip to the #6 position after Snax’s first event with the team, ESL One Cologne. Thanks to their run in Stockholm, mousesports were able to maintain a 15-point lead over FaZe, securing the fifth place in the standings.

In Stockholm, mousesports had a semi-final run, their second since the addition of Snax to the team. After beating Gambit, they had a small hiccup, losing to MIBR in two maps, but were able to make it out of the group stage with a two map victory over HellRaisers in the decider match. mousesports then drew FaZe in the quarter-final, a team hungry to win the event and take home the $1 million from the Intel Grand Slam. Despite a steep loss in the first map, mousesports were finally able to win the last two to make it into the top 4 at the tournament before going out to North in the semis.

Having proven themselves a steady top 5 team for several months, mousesports are now fighting with the teams around them to hold on to the top spots in the rankings and will need a good Major run to prove they are still big contenders to the top spots.

6. FaZe

Player	Age	Rating
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač	21	1.36
Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács	27	1.21
Håvard "rain" Nygaard	24	1.08
Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer	26	1.01
Finn "karrigan" Andersen	28	0.92

FaZe lost three positions in the ranking since the last update—dropping out of the top 4 for the first time since GuardiaN and olofmeister joined the team—, hurt by the point decay of tournaments where they placed high earlier in the year and an underwhelming 5-8th place at DreamHack Masters Stockholm where  most of their direct rivals earned more points. FaZe now find themselves on the tail end of a gruesome battle for top 5 spots with Liquid, mousesports, and North. After the blow of not being able to claim the Intel Grand Slam prize in their last attempt, FaZe will have to focus all of their energy on having a strong Major to stay among the elite teams in the rankings.

During their Stockholm run, FaZe showed their prowess in the opening match against Heroic making a comeback after being down 6-14 to win in overtime, and followed it up qualifying for the playoff as the first team out of the group with a two map victory over OpTic without skipping a beat and giving up no more than 10 rounds the whole match. The quarter-finals showed the European combine’s worst side, however, as they were unable to take mousesports out despite winning the first map 16-1, getting reverse swept and knocked out of the tournament.

FaZe are out of the top 4 for the first time in just under a year

FaZe had a fair amount of points eaten away after the break and with a lackluster first event of the season will now have to show their A game in the upcoming tournaments if they want to get back into the top 4 where except Astralis and Natus Vincere’s two positions at the top—which are more or less secure—the rest are up for grabs.

7. MIBR

Player	Age	Rating
Marcelo "coldzera" David	23	1.38
Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo	27	1.26
Tarik "tarik" Celik	22	1.26
Jake "Stewie2K" Yip	20	1.25
Fernando "fer" Alvarenga	26	1.10

The Brazilian-American alliance of MIBR played two tournaments, the ZOTAC Cup in China, where they expectedly won, and DreamHack Masters Stockholm, the first big event ahead of the Major, where they showed signs of improvement after the addition of Janko "YNk" Paunović, but where they went out in 5-8th place after a loss to the #1 team in the world, Astralis. After these two tournaments, MIBR hold on to their 7th place in the ranking.

In China, MIBR swept all of their opposition winning seven maps in a row in two BO3s against Flash and MVP PK, and in the BO5 final against Kinguin to lift the trophy. MIBR then moved on to DreamHack Masters in Stockholm, where the top opposition in the world was waiting. The American team kicked off with a BO1 win against HellRaisers and a dominating victory in two maps against mousesports, but it was Astralis that brought FalleN & co. back down to earth in the quarter-finals with a 2-0 win.

MIBR has been a big question mark ever since the Brazilian players decided to adopt a new language with the inclusion of Stewie2K and later on tarik, and although they have been showing signs of progress they will need a good run at the Major if they want to make an assault on the group of teams that lie ahead in the standings.

8. NiP

Player	Age	Rating
Fredrik "REZ" Sterner	20	1.28
Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg	30	1.26
Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson	25	1.07
Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund	28	1.05
Dennis "dennis" Edman	27	0.89

NiP made a big splash after the off-season, jumping five spots in the ranking from last month’s update, from #13 to #8. They are back in the top 10 for the first time since May, when, still with William "draken" Sundin on the team, they were #9 in the world. Before the break the Ninjas made a great run at the European Minor, winning it an qualifying for the upcoming Major’s Challenger Stage. Now, NiP showed they can still compete after making a 3rd-4th place finish at DreamHack Masters Stockholm, although their path wasn’t as hard as some of the other teams’.

NiP played DreamHack Masters Stockholm on home soil, and they didn’t disappoint. The Swedes won their opener against NRG and followed it up with a three map series win over Ghost to top Group B. In the quarter-finals NiP once again prevailed, this time against Heroic, before moving on to face Astralis which ultimately proved to be too much for NiP who lost the semi-finals in two maps.

NiP are back in the top 10 ahead of the Major

A good showing in Sweden after the break, following the Minor win before the last ranking update, has earned NiP a lot of form points making them one of the teams with the most in the whole ranking. Their first Major since 2016 will be a big proving grounds for the Swedes if they wish to solidify their position in the top 10.

9. NRG

Player	Age	Rating
Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov	18	1.26
Ethan "Ethan" Arnold	18	1.14
Damian "daps" Steele	25	1.02
Jacob "FugLy" Medina	23	0.93
Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte	20	0.91

NRG started their ascent in the rankings in early June, when they were propelled from #21 to #11. By the middle of the month they were in the top 10, and haven’t left it since. Coming in at #9 this month, the same as after the last update, the North American squad is maintaining its streak despite a bad start to the new season with a 13-16th place finish at DreamHack Masters Stockholm.

NRG finished off last season with a bang, winning IEM Shanghai after only giving up a single map, but they were unable to follow it up at DreamHack Masters where they lost two matches in succession and were out of the competition. Two strong challenges in NiP during the opening BO1 and a BO3 against Natus Vincere proved to be too much for NRG, who will have time to go back to the drawing board after failing to qualify for the Major earlier on in the year.

10. fnatic

Player	Age	Rating
William "draken" Sundin	22	1.06
Robin "flusha" Rönnquist	25	1.06
Jesper "JW" Wecksell	23	1.00
Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson	24	0.98
Richard "Xizt" Landström	27	0.73

fnatic hold on to the last spot in the top 10, losing two positions from the last update. The Swedes showed some promise late last season with three 5-6th place finishes in a row at ECS Season 5 Finals, ESL One Cologne, and ELEAGUE Premier, but were knocked out of DreamHack Masters Stockholm after two matches against teams below them on the rankings.

It was OpTic in the opening BO1 that sent fnatic to the group stage lower bracket, where they then lost to Heroic in a three-map affair. Despite having one of the lowest Form columns in this month’s update, fnatic still manage to hold on to a top 10 spot. Going to the Major as Legends, fnatic will need a good result if they want to stay among the world’s best.

11. BIG

Player	Age	Rating
Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz	23	"-"
Johannes "nex" Maget	26	"-"
Owen "smooya" Butterfield	19	"-"
Tizian "tiziaN" Feldbusch	22	"-"
Fatih "gob b" Dayik	31	"-"

Eight weeks of inactivity have put a big dent in the German team’s placement in the ranking. With a 0 in the Form column, BIG is no longer a top 10 team after falling five positions in this mont's update. BIG was able to make an impressive dark horse run at ESL One Cologne last we saw them, beating teams like FaZe, G2, or MIBR, before falling to Natus Vincere in the final.

BIG drop off after eight weeks of inactivity

The German squad will have a chance at trying to making it back in the top 10 when the Major starts. Their first match will be on September 5th when they square off against Renegades in their opening match of the Swiss New Challengers Stage in London.

12. TYLOO

Player	Age	Rating
HaoWen "somebody" Xu	23	1.13
Hui "DD" Wu	24	1.05
Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand	23	1.04
Kevin "xccurate" Susanto	20	1.04
Ke "captainMo" Liu	29	0.85

TYLOO has been around the top 10 for a while, and with the exception of a small one-week incursion during the last ranking update, they have been unable to make it in. TYLOO’s season started off at the ZOTAC Cup Masters finals in China, where they lost a BO3 to Kinguin and were out. The Chinese-Indonesian team then travelled to Sweden to take part in DreamHack Masters, but were unlucky in the draw, pairing up against the two finalists in the group stage.

In Stockholm, TYLOO were able to take one win in the losers match against Grayhound which was sandwiched in between losses to North and Astralis. Now, the Asian side will have to prove they are a contender at the FACEIT Major in London, where they will face off against Gambit in their opener on Wednesday.

13. Heroic

Player	Age	Rating
Patrick "es3tag" Hansen	22	1.04
Daniel "mertz" Mertz	19	1.02
Asger "AcilioN" Larsen	21	0.93
Andreas "MODDII" Fridh	29	0.93
Adam "friberg" Friberg	26	0.91

Heroic make a 10 position leap in the rankings, kicking off the new season with mertz on the big green and a quarter-final at DreamHack Masters with some good showings. The Danish-Swedish side, who had been having some issues finding the right roster constellation, played above what was expected of them in Stockholm to claim a spot in the tightly packed group of teams around the top 15. Having been unable to qualify for the upcoming Major, Heroic will have DreamHack Montreal to look forward to if they want to keep trying to climb in the ranking.

14. G2

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

G2 fall two spots to the #14 place on the ranking in this month’s update. The French squad went through a lot of turmoil last season, with big roster changes sending them all the way down to #26 in the rankings. Since then, G2 have been unable to break back into the top 10.

G2 will need a good finish at the Major to climb back up the ranks

After 5th-6th places at the ECS Season 5 Finals and ESL One Cologne, the French team had the same placing at a much smaller tournament, DreamHack Valencia, after a group stage loss to Luminosity. A high placement at the FACEIT Major, where the French squad are Legends, will be vital for the team if they want to have a shot at making it back into the top 10 soon.

15. HellRaisers

Player	Age	Rating
Issa "ISSAA" Murad	20	1.12
Vladyslav "bondik" Nechyporchuk	21	1.02
Özgür "woxic" Eker	25	0.96
Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow	28	0.89
Bence "DeadFox" Böröcz	23	0.83

The last team to make the top 15 is HellRaisers, who have seen woxic unable to play the final tournament of last season, IEM Shanghai, due to personal issues, and then missed the first days of DreamHack Masters due to visa issues. The Turkish player was then able to make it to Sweden in time for the decider match that pitted HellRaisers against mousesports, but it was eventually chrisJ & co. who made it out of the group stage. HellRaisers will now play the Challengers Stage at the Major, where they will face off against North in the opening match on Wednesday.