Team Ranking: September 2018

The first full post-break month was without a doubt marked by the FACEIT Major. After three weeks of gruelling competition, with plenty of upsets along the way, Astralis came out victorious at a packed SSE Arena, in London, by beating Natus Vincere 2-0 in the final, further cementing their place at the top of the pile.

Astralis refused to rest on their laurels, however, and travelled to Istanbul to compete at the second BLAST Pro Series event hosted by RFRSH Entertainment. With only a few rest days in between the two tournaments, the Danes opted against practising for the Turkish event, and they still managed to win it in convincing fashion. Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's side went 5-0 in the round-robin stage and then beat MIBR in the final in a close three-map series.

Astralis stay at the top after another fruitful month

Meanwhile, New York hosted another ESL One event, which was full of upsets as favourite duo FaZe and Natus Vincere did not even make it past the group stage, leaving Liquid and MOUZ to contest the title. The North American team looked to have the match under control despite losing the first map of the best-of-five series, but the European side turned it around with great performances on Dust2 and Mirage to win a much-needed title after bowing out of the Major in the New Legends stage without a single victory.

There were also several medium-sized international LANs taking place all over the world, including DreamHack Open Montreal, where Kinguin reigned supreme after beating ENCE in the final, and the Games Clash Masters, where Heroic won the title over Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas's side.

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 1, 2018, which goes more in-depth into how the points 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 4, 2018.

Rank	Team	Achievements	Form	LANs	Total points	+/-
1.	Astralis	500	200	300	1000	-
2.	Natus Vincere	317	73	229	619	-
3.	Liquid	253	112	156	521	-
4.	MOUZ	206	99	128	433	+1
5.	MIBR	195	99	122	416	+2
6.	FaZe	195	51	82	328	-
7.	BIG	89	59	128	276	+4
8.	Ninjas in Pyjamas	107	85	67	259	-
9.	North	67	89	80	236	-5
10.	NRG	84	51	48	183	-1
11.	HellRaisers	67	66	46	179	+4
12.	Complexity	49	64	42	155	+18
13.	G2	50	35	48	133	+1
14.	TYLOO	59	39	30	128	-2
15.	Gambit	51	43	31	125	+4
16.	Heroic	36	50	33	119	-3
17.	Kinguin	26	60	25	111	+11
18.	fnatic	39	22	46	107	-8
19.	Vega Squadron	16	52	24	92	+192
20.	ENCE	22	33	34	89	-2
21.	Cloud9	39	25	16	80	-
22.	Space Soldiers	32	23	25	80	+9
23.	AGO	19	39	11	69	+1
24.	OpTic	25	28	15	68	-7
25.	AVANGAR	11	45	11	67	+2
26.	Ghost	12	27	19	58	-4
27.	Virtus.pro	24	20	13	57	-7
28.	MVP PK	11	25	20	56	+4
29.	Imperial	12	30	12	54	-4
30.	Renegades	19	20	14	53	-14

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

1. Astralis

Player	Age	Rating
Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz	23	1.34
Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen	25	1.29
Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth	23	1.20
Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif	20	1.17
Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander	23	1.13

It is now six consecutive monthly updates with Astralis at the top, and the Danes show no signs of slowing down. After finishing runners-up to North at DreamHack Masters Stockholm, Astralis quickly returned to action as they they did not have the priviledge of skipping the New Challengers Stage of the FACEIT Major.

That did not seem to bother Astralis that much, though, as they went through the first two stages of the event practically unscathed, dropping just one map to Ninjas in Pyjamas and one to Liquid. The best was yet to come, however, as the Danes put on quite a show in the playoffs, taking down FaZe, Liquid and Natus Vincere without losing a single map, with device being named the Most Valuable Player of the event.

Astralis won two events in September

After returning from London, Astralis made the conscious decision to not practice before BLAST Pro Serie Istanbul, and they hardly looked rusty in the Turkish city, at least until the grand final. A perfect 5-0 run in the round-robin stage set them up against MIBR in the final, and though the match ended up being much closer than many had thought, the Danes still prevailed in the end, winning their sixth Big Event of the year.

Astralis ended September with a perfect 1000 points in the ranking - a testament to their incredible recent run. Having decided to skip the upcoming StarSeries, they will turn their attention to EPICENTER and BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, but, with almost 400 points separating them from second place, it looks like they will not lose their grip on the top spot any time soon.

2. Natus Vincere

Player	Age	Rating
Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev	21	1.32
Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov	20	1.21
Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev	21	1.10
Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev	30	1.04
Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko	30	0.97

September was a true rollercoaster of a month for Natus Vincere, who travelled to London hoping to bounce back from a disappointing run at DreamHack Masters Marseille that culminated with a quarter-final loss to North after they had already struggled against Ghost and NRG in the groups.

At the Major we saw the Na`Vi of old as the Ukrainian side went through the New Legends Stage with a 3-1 record before breezing past BIG and MIBR in the playoffs. A grand final series against Astralis ended up being too much for Natus Vincere to handle, but fans of the team - and in-game leader Zeus - could rest well in knowing that Na`Vi were not broken all of a sudden.

The Na`Vi team of the Major were nowhere to be seen in New York

ESL One New York thus looked like the perfect kind of tournament for Na`Vi to get back to winning ways - a good prize pool, no Astralis on sight and two big-name rivals in a bit of a crisis. But they crashed out of the tournament in embarrassing fashion as they placed third of Group A following a 2-0 defeat to Gambit, who would be slaughtered by Liquid in the playoffs.

It is hard to know whether Na`Vi were struggling with burnout after the Major or if this was simply a case of the issues that had plagued them in Stockholm resurfacing. The Ukrainians have lost nearly 100 points since the last monthly update and now have Liquid breathing down their necks - with both teams set to attend the same events in the next two months, EPICENTER and IEM Chicago.

3. Liquid

Player	Age	Rating
Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken	18	1.31
Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic	20	1.17
Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski	21	1.16
Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella	23	1.14
Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo	23	1.01

Liquid retain their third place in the ranking after what turned out to be an incredibly frustrating month for the North American side.

After skipping DreamHack Masters Stockholm to focus on the FACEIT Major, Liquid looked capable of having a memorable campaign and perhaps even going one better than they had at ESL Cologne 2016. The perfect 3-0 runs in the first two stages of the event only heightened expectations about what Liquid could do, prompting HLTV.org's Milan "Striker" Svejda to analyse the team's chances of winning the title in London.

Liquid are now less than 100 points behind Na`Vi

The North American side passed the HellRaisers test in the quarter-finals - albeit not without losing a map -, but then they were handed a reality check by Astralis as they were downed 0-2  in a series in which they picked up just 15 rounds total.

Back home, Liquid turned to ESL One New York in the hopes of finally getting their hands on a Big Event trophy, but they were once again left frustrated, this time after losing to MOUZ in a keenly-contested match in which at one point they were three rounds away from victory and with a one-map lead in their hands.

It is now time for Liquid to lick their wounds and work on their mistakes, with their next event being just three weeks away. They can at least find some comfort in the fact that they are now much closer to Natus Vincere than they were a month ago and that they can easily leapfrog the Ukrainians after EPICENTER and IEM Chicago.

4. MOUZ

Player	Age	Rating
Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi	24	1.15
Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný	27	1.08
Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong	28	1.08
Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool	18	0.99
Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski	25	0.98

What a weird month September was for MOUZ. The European team had their eyes set on a playoff appearance at the FACEIT Major, but instead, they bowed out of the tournament in the New Legends Stage following uninspired performances against Ninjas in Pyjamas, MIBR and FaZe.

With questions starting to be asked about the long-term future of the roster - especially after oskar admitted that the team were experiencing communication issues -, MOUZ fans did not really know what to expect from ESL One New York, where they could face two Major semi-finalists as well as FaZe.

ESL One New York was the perfect redemption tale for mouz

But things went better than anyone could have imagine as MOUZ topped their group before disposing of NRG and Liquid, showing great mental fortitude against the latter as they overcame a 4-13 deficit on Dust2 when they were down 1-2 in the series.

chrisJ's side will have a great chance to build on what they achieved in New York later this week as they will be competing at StarSeries. A good run in Kiev will be absolutely crucial for them to make up for the fact that they will most likely not compete at EPICENTER, where most of the teams around them in the ranking will be in action.

5. MIBR

Player	Age	Rating
Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David	23	1.18
Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga	26	1.06
Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo	27	1.03
Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik	22	1.03
Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip	20	0.99

MIBR re-enter the top five in the monthly ranking following deep runs at the Major and at BLAST Pro Series Istanbul, continuing the upward trend they have been on since signing tarik and appointing Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović as coach.

The Brazilians began their Major campaign on the wrong foot, with a surprising loss to TYLOO, but dug deep and pulled through in the final round of the Swiss stage with a close win over Ninjas in Pyjamas. They proceeded to dispatch Complexity - the surprise package of the tournament - before losing to Natus Vincere in a one-sided affair.

MIBR are back in the top five

BLAST Pro Series Istanbul went according to expectations as MIBR made it out of the round-robin stage, in which Astralis were the only team sitting above them in the ranking. Critics of the Brazilian team certainly expected the final to be a demolition job - especially after FalleN's side lost their own map pick 16-3, but the ex-SK side battled back and took the series  to a third map, which would go down to the wire.

A Big Event title continues to elude them, but MIBR will be happy with the progress that they have made so far. At the moment, they are only confirmed for BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, and they if they manage to secure an invite to EPICENTER, as many expect them to, they will have an invaluable opportunity to pick up points in the ranking and possibly even move up at the expense of MOUZ.

6. FaZe

Player	Age	Rating
Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač	21	1.20
Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer	26	1.15
Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács	27	1.07
Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard	24	1.04
Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen	28	0.88

FaZe retain their sixth place from last month's ranking update, but they are undeniable worse off than they were this time last month as dark clouds seem to have descended on the team following frustrating campaigns at the Major and at ESL One New York.

Defeats to BIG and Natus Vincere suddenly put FaZe against the ropes in London, but they still pulled through, after switching the in-game leadership duties from karrigan to NiKo. However, a 3-2 record and a poor Buchholz score saw them thrown into the lion's cage against Astralis and meant the end of the road for them at this tournament. New York was FaZe's shot at redemption, but they gave a frustrating account of themselves and lost to G2 and NRG, confirming that the problems on the team run deep.

FaZe went out early in New York

It is unclear what will happen with FaZe, but NiKo appears to have pulled the rug out from under karrigan after claiming that the Dane will not be calling the shots anymore. With the prospect of roster changes hanging above FaZe, things may get worse before they get better for the European side, who may soon find themselves out of the top 10.

7. BIG

Player	Age	Rating
Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield	19	1.24
Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz	23	1.17
Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik	31	1.06
Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget	26	1.06
Tizian "⁠tiziaN⁠" Feldbusch	22	0.97

BIG move up four places into seventh following a quarter-final appearance at the FACEIT Major, confirming that their runner-up finish at ESL One Cologne was not a coincidence. Things looked shaky at on point for the German side, who were on the verge of elimination in the New Challengers Stage, but they made it through in the end and proceeded to make their mark in the next stage, sending out a strong message as they thrashed FaZe 16-5.

Sadly for the British fans inside the arena, BIG were no match for Na`Vi in the quarter-finals and had to settle for a top-eight finish - matching their run from PGL Major Krakow. As they prepare for StarSeries - their only event of the month - gob b's side will be targetting FaZe's scalp, knowing that a good run in Kiev could see them surge up the ranking.

8. Ninjas in Pyjamas

Player	Age	Rating
Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg	30	1.13
Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund	28	1.05
Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson	25	1.04
Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner	20	1.04
Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman	27	1.01

The Ninjas solidified their top ten spot in September with some decent play under the leadership of Lekr0. Ninjas in Pyjamas is employing a simple approach to CS and has almost all of their players performing well individually, with their only issues being the lack of a real AWPer and dennis being a bit underwhelming, compared to what we were used to see from him.

Despite that, Ninjas in Pyjamas looked like the best team who didn't make it to the playoffs of the FACEIT London Major, as the Swiss system draw saw them eliminated after losses to MIBR, Natus Vincere and Liquid—three teams that finished top four at the event. And it is not like their wins were easy ones: GeT_RiGhT and co. took down MOUZ and Vega Squadron, as well as Astralis in the New Challengers Stage.

NiP lacked just a little bit to make strides in September

A similar story repeated at their most recent event, BLAST Pro Series Istanbul, where they finished third, with four unconverted match points against MIBR costing them a spot in the grand final of the event. If those two events had gone just slightly better for Ninjas in Pyjamas, they would've most likely overtaken some teams in the rankings, but now they will have to wait for the next opportunity to prove themselves. The quality of play is there, but better placings are needed.

9. North

Player	Age	Rating
Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye	20	1.16
Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller	23	1.09
Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade	23	1.02
Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså	23	1.01
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup	22	0.99

The last month was a rocky one for North, as just after they had won their first Big Event, DreamHack Masters Stockholm, they ended up being eliminated in the New Challengers Stage of the Major at the hands of HellRaisers, Spirit and Vega Squadron. Such a big fall-off in such a short period of time shook the team to the core and two roster changes ensued: the team's IGL and DH Masters MVP Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen was removed, alongside Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen, who was a temporary solution anyway.

It is rebuilding time for North, who picked up two new players

A new North is to be built with gade, who came back from his loan spell in OpTic, and cadiaN, who makes his return to top-level Danish CS after years of exile. While the former has gained some valuable international experience and looks like an interesting prospect, the latter, who will be AWPing and IGLing for the team just like he did for Rogue, is the man on whom the success of the team will hinge. Both the roster changes and the poor Major performance hit North's rankings badly, so they will need to have a good showing early on, at StarSeries i-League S6, if they want to make up some of the lost ground.

10. NRG

Player	Age	Rating
Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte	20	1.19
Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov	18	1.13
Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold	18	1.03
Jacob "⁠FugLy⁠" Medina	23	1.00
Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele	25	0.78

NRG's ranking this month was impacted significantly by one of their results in July—when they didn't make it through the Americas Minor. As they didn't play at the Major, daps and co. were inactive for a good portion of the month while others were playing and having success. NRG finally got a shot to show what they got at ESL One New York, where they managed to get out of a tough group by eliminating FaZe and G2 before their run was stopped in the semis by MOUZ.

NRG round out the top 10

This team has been looking good at certain times and fairly underwhelming at others, so it is hard to gauge what their trajectory will be like moving forward. The trio of Brehze, Ethan and CeRq is a formidable one and their map pool doesn't have any glaring issues, but they are still lacking something to perform well on a consistent basis and challenge for a spot amongst the elite.

11. HellRaisers

Player	Age	Rating
Issa "⁠ISSAA⁠" Murad	21	1.19
Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker	20	1.12
Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk	25	1.01
Bence "⁠DeadFox⁠" Böröcz	23	0.91
Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow	29	0.88

It wasn't easy, every win was hard-fought, numerous overtimes were played, but HellRaisers made it through the New Challengers Stage, the New Legends Stage, and into the playoffs of the FACEIT London Major. The feat was in large part down to their two Major rookies, ISSAA and woxic, who carried the team through the first two stages. Even though the AWPer usually gets more praise, this time around it was ISSAA who was carrying the banner and putting up the big numbers when it mattered the most, such as the BO3 against fnatic.

The rest of the team also delivered in key moments, and although they were the team to put up the best performance while losing a playoff match (2-1 to Liquid), HellRaisers still need more to compete with the top teams on a regular basis: either a higher level from the more experienced trio of bondik, ANGE1 and DeadFox, or more consistency from ISSAA and woxic, especially on the big stages and against big opponents.

12. Complexity

Player	Age	Rating
Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz	24	1.13
Shahzeb "⁠ShahZaM⁠" Khan	24	1.10
Bradley "⁠ANDROID⁠" Fodor	24	1.02
Jaccob "⁠yay⁠" Whiteaker	20	1.01
Rory "⁠dephh⁠" Jackson	26	1.00

The biggest leap of the top 15 this month was made by Complexity, who had a surprisingly convincing run to the playoffs of the Major, going 3-1 in the first and 3-0 in the second stage. While their opposition wasn't the toughest, they beat some solid teams in convincing fashion: 16-4 against fnatic, 16-11 against G2, 16-8 and 16-12 against BIG.

Playing on the big stage for the first time is never an easy task

This marked the return of stanislaw and ShahZaM to the top tier, with youngsters yay and ANDROID, as well as British import dephh all playing crucial parts in their big achievement. A flop against MIBR in the quarter-final was to be expected from a team with limited experience, and the loss in the final at the MSI MGA Finals to AVANGAR, which was a BO1, was not a big hit to their ranking. Complexity are in a good position, and with spots in EPL, ECS and at StarSeries i-League S6 coming up, they have a good shot of proving the Major wasn't a fluke.

13. G2

Player	Age	Rating
Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon	26	1.08
Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub	23	1.06
Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro	21	0.94
Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans	28	0.87
Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux	29	0.79

G2's struggles continue, and a team that features two of the best players to ever play CS:GO—shox and kennyS—added two more group stage exits to their resume in September. The first one was at the Major, where the Ex6TenZ-led team looked absolutely uninspired, and then a somewhat better showing followed at ESL One New York, but losing the match to NRG, in which kennyS had a poor game, showed how reliant they are on the AWPer to get good results.

With the team being together since June and having only one playoff appearance—at ESL One Cologne—the pressure is mounting on G2. They have too many good pieces to be this average, they haven't been a top10 team since the roster change, and, most importantly, with no LANs coming up next month, they won't be climbing the ladder any time soon.

14. TYLOO

Player	Age	Rating
Kevin "⁠xccurate⁠" Susanto	20	1.10
Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand	23	1.07
Hui "⁠DD⁠" Wu	24	1.04
HaoWen "⁠somebody⁠" Xu	23	1.00
Ke "⁠captainMo⁠" Liu	29	0.85

At the Major, TYLOO were finally figured out, both in a positive and negative way. By making it through the New Challengers Stage and qualifying for the New Legends Stage, the Chinese-Indonesian side finally convinced the CS world that they are a team that belongs in the top 16. However, it has also become apparent that they have one of the weakest map pools in the circuit as they struggle to do much if the map isn't Mirage, Inferno or perhaps Cache.

It seems unlikely that this lineup of TyLoo will be able to accomplish much more than it already has

It all comes down to how they work as a team, the mixture of languages doesn't allow for good communication and makes it hard for them to improve, especially on complex maps such as Overpass or Train. With no apparent way they could develop, they will most likely remain just a top16 team who will struggle against the best teams in the world, especially in series.

15. Gambit

Player	Age	Rating
Rustem "⁠mou⁠" Telepov	26	1.15
Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev	28	0.94
Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov	22	0.90
Mihail "⁠Dosia⁠" Stolyarov	30	0.89
Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov (transfer listed)	24	1.02

Despite losing a player and being eliminated from the Major in the New Challengers Stage without beating anyone of note, Gambit managed to gain some ground in the rankings compared to last month. It mostly came down to their ESL One New York outing, where they beat Natus Vincere twice and placed top four at a fairly stacked event.

However, their top 15 place in our rankings will be short-lived if they don't find a permanent fifth and solve their leadership issues soon. "If they have structure, if they have a good gameplan, it's possible to play without an IGL", is something we wouldn't usually believe in, but if there is anyone who can create a system like that which will actually work and save Gambit, it must be their coach Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy, the CIS mastermind.

Issa "⁠ISSAA⁠" Murad