Team Ranking: October 2018

October was headlined by a couple of "Big Events", including EPICENTER and BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, with a few smaller events — StarSeries i-League Season 6 and cs_summit 3 — and lots of online play in ESL Pro League and ECS complementing the large-scale tournaments

We witnessed a couple of surprising wins at the highest step of competition, with FaZe grabbing a title in Moscow, Russia despite recent struggles in rather convincing fashion, as they took out Ninjas in Pyjamas, Liquid, and Natus Vincere in the playoffs without conceding a single map.

A great month sees Natus Vincere close the gap to first place

Falling just short of a win at EPICENTER, Natus Vincere went on to secure the BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen trophy, an event where Astralis were in action as the favorites but only finished third. After going 4-1 in the round-robin, only losing their match against FaZe, the Ukrainian-Russian side ended up defeating Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 in the grand final, with Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev taking home his sixth MVP trophy of the year.

At the medium-sized tournaments, ENCE surprised everyone with a triumph in Kiev as one of the "middle-of-the-pack" teams after defeating Vega Squadron in the final. Having exited the aforementioned event in the semi-finals, NRG redeemed themselves by winning cs_summit 3 following an undefeated run through the upper bracket.

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 5, 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 October 1, 2018.

Rank	Team	Achievements	Form	LANs	Total points	+/-
1.	Astralis	500	200	300	1000	-
2.	Natus Vincere	425	124	253	803	-
3.	Liquid	262	78	170	510	-
4.	FaZe	254	80	147	481	+2
5.	MIBR	182	80	152	414	-
6.	Ninjas in Pyjamas	172	51	148	371	+2
7.	MOUZ	178	61	117	356	-3
8.	NRG	120	100	96	315	+2
9.	North	71	76	103	250	-
10.	BIG	105	65	73	243	-3
11.	HellRaisers	74	53	63	190	-
12.	OpTic	56	67	46	169	+12
13.	ENCE	55	51	57	163	+7
14.	Complexity	57	43	61	161	-2
15.	AVANGAR	39	41	58	137	+10
16.	Vega Squadron	38	29	56	122	+3
17.	G2	46	42	28	116	-4
18.	Heroic	39	33	42	114	-2
19.	TYLOO	55	14	40	108	-5
20.	Renegades	25	57	21	102	+10
21.	Gambit	26	31	38	96	-6
22.	Kinguin	26	33	34	93	-5
23.	ex-Space Soldiers	29	31	33	92	-1
24.	Ghost	16	43	27	86	+2
25.	Cloud9	18	36	28	83	-4
26.	fnatic	28	30	17	74	-8
27.	Virtus.pro	22	28	19	69	-
28.	Fragsters	19	29	21	68	+3
29.	LDLC	5	46	10	61	+7
30.	AGO	15	23	12	50	-7

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

1. Astralis

Player	Age	Rating
Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth	23	1.22
Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz	23	1.20
Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif	20	1.18
Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander	23	1.12
Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen	25	1.10

The Danish powerhouse keep their place at the top for the seventh consecutive month, with full points to their name. Following the start of the eighth season of ESL Pro League and the sixth season of ECS, Astralis have had a busy month despite only attending one offline tournament, and they have been dominant as ever online, securing spots at the finals of both leagues with an incredible 17-1 final record in ECS and a 19-5 so far in ESL Pro League.

Offline, things didn't quite go as planned for the best team in the world, who skipped EPICENTER and only attended BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen a few days ago. Astralis ended the group stage in third place after suffering losses to the finalists, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Natus Vincere, while also having issues with closing out significant leads in their matches against the Swedes, Cloud9, and MIBR.

Astralis are still safe in first place despite hitting poor form at their home tournament

With 1000 points, Astralis have nothing to worry about just yet, but the second-best team, Na`Vi, have closed the gap from about 400 to just under 200 points in the past month, so should this continue, the Danes' streak at No. 1 could be in real danger by the end of November. All eyes will be on gla1ve's squad as they'll attend two big events in the upcoming month: IEM Chicago, which kicks off on Tuesday, and ECS Season 6 Finals.

2. Natus Vincere

Player	Age	Rating
Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev	21	1.37
Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov	20	1.25
Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev	30	1.06
Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev	21	1.06
Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko	31	0.95

Although they are not part of ECS Season 6, Natus Vincere have confirmed their place at ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals over the last month with four matches left to play, as they have gone 18-6 so far in the league.

Unlike Astralis, Zeus's team went to both large events of October, EPICENTER and BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, and they have returned home with silver and gold. In Russia, Na`Vi looked comfortable until they met FaZe for the second time during the tournament in the grand final, in which the European mixture prevailed after two maps, leaving the Ukrainian-Russian side in second place.

Na`Vi draw closer to No. 1 after grabbing silver at EPICENTER and gold at BLAST

In Copenhagen, Natus Vincere redeemed themselves despite losing to FaZe again, in the group stage, which ended up being their only map loss of the tournament. s1mple & co. beat everyone else in the groups, including Astralis, and took down Ninjas in Pyjamas in the title decider without ever looking in danger, clinching their first title since ESL One Cologne in early July.

That will come as an important confidence booster ahead of Na`Vi's only offline tournament of November, IEM Chicago, where they'll have a chance to double down against some serious competition, including all of the current top five teams in the world.

3. Liquid

Player	Age	Rating
Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken	18	1.19
Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic	20	1.17
Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski	21	1.17
Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella	23	1.14
Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo	23	1.05

Liquid round out the exact same top three of last month after five weeks full of online matches as well as one offline event, EPICENTER. Both ESL Pro League and ECS are looking promising for the North American squad, who are currently placed fourth (out of six advancing) in the former league and third (out of four advancing) in the latter.

Although Liquid keep making deep runs at big tournaments, titles keep eluding the North American squad, as they once again missed out on one when they were among favorites at EPICENTER. In Russia, nitr0's team breezed past the group stage opponents, Swole Patrol and AVANGAR, but they couldn't overcome a reinvigorated FaZe in the semi-finals.

Liquid continue to make deep runs at big events, but titles keep eluding them

With Na`Vi outplacing them there and winning BLAST, Liquid have a lot of ground to make up to have a shot at No. 2, where they briefly resided in October. At the same time, FaZe have almost caught up with them just before all of the big teams' next tournament, IEM Chicago, which puts pressure on the North American side to perform.

4. FaZe

Player	Age	Rating
Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač	21	1.17
Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács	27	1.07
Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard	24	1.06
Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer	26	0.98
Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen	28	0.91

After spending a few weeks outside of the top-five during October, FaZe return to the fourth place with a promising month behind them. Online, the European squad has been shaky. FaZe are unlikely to make it to ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals with 10 wins from 24 matches, though they're well within contention for a spot at ECS Season 6 Finals with nine wins from 16 matches

Their recovery is largely a result of the team's win at EPICENTER towards the end of the month, where they snatched the title away from the favorites, Liquid and Natus Vincere, following a dominant playoffs run.

FaZe make their way back to the top five after the EPICENTER triumph

Just a few days later, the NiKo-led squad went to BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, but couldn't find their EPICENTER form, as they finished the group stage with a 2-1-2 record (good for only the fourth place) after tying Ninjas in Pyjamas and losing to Astralis and most notably to Cloud9, which cost them a spot in the grand final.

Now they are ready for their next challenge in Chicago, where a strong run could place FaZe a spot higher, as they're nearing Liquid in points, but the competition will be harder than at either of October's tournaments.

5. MIBR

Player	Age	Rating
Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga	27	1.28
Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David	24	1.20
Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip	20	1.15
Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo	27	1.13
Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik	22	1.06

MIBR round out the top five for the second consecutive month, though they've largely hung on to their placing due to MOUZ falling out of the top five, as October didn't go very well for the Brazilian-American roster.

Online, FalleN's team has been looking strong, with their spot at ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals already secured with 17 wins from 20 matches in the NA division. They also have a good chance to make it to Arlington's ECS Finals with a 9-5 record so far, which puts them in fifth place but with fewer matches than any team placed above them at the moment.

Placing last at BLAST doesn't bode well for MIBR ahead of a busy November

However, after making the grand final in Istanbul, this month's BLAST Pro Series in Copenhagen ended in disaster for MIBR, who lost all five of their matches last weekend despite close results against Astralis, Cloud9, and Natus Vincere. That puts the team in a tough position ahead of IEM Chicago.

6. Ninjas in Pyjamas

Player	Age	Rating
Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg	30	1.05
Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman	27	1.00
Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson	25	0.97
Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner	20	0.97
Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund	28	0.92

Falling just short of a place within the top five, Ninjas in Pyjamas come in sixth place of the ranking, improving from eighth place, where the Swedes have stayed for most of the last two months. Until this week, Lekr0's lineup looked shaky at best, with a spot at Pro League Finals already out of reach and somewhat unlikely when it comes to ECS.

On top of that, they finished fifth-sixth at EPICENTER. After losing to AVANGAR, Ninjas in Pyjamas beat the biggest underdog of their group, Swole Patrol, to make it to quarter-finals before falling to FaZe in a rather convincing series in the playoffs.

NiP move up to sixth place after the runners-up finish in Copenhagen

The Swedish side have, however, improved their outlook with a grand final appearance at BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen. They went 3-1-1 in the groups, securing points off three teams ranked above them with wins over Astralis and MIBR and a tie with FaZe, though Na`Vi denied Ninjas in Pyjamas the title as the only team to beat the Swedes in Denmark.

7. MOUZ

Player	Age	Rating
Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný	27	1.13
Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool	18	1.09
Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi	24	1.08
Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong	28	1.01
Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk	22	0.99

This month, MOUZ dropped out of the top five. The European squad lost a portion of their points after waving goodbye to Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski, although they also gained some back with STYKO returning to the team after a four-month-long hiatus.a

The Polish player was relieved of his duties after chrisJ's squad bombed out of StarSeries i-League Season 6, a tournament where mouz were favored to take the title, despite getting off to a 2-0 start in the Swiss format, as they then lost to ENCE, OpTic, and BIG.

After the change, MOUZ decided to skip EPICENTER. That has left them with just online matches for over three weeks, and so far they are placed within the top eight of Pro League and top four of ECS, though there's a real danger they will miss out in each league.

8. NRG

Player	Age	Rating
Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte	20	1.28
Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold	18	1.23
Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov	18	1.12
Jacob "⁠FugLy⁠" Medina	23	1.06
Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele	22	0.95

The North American squad started working back towards the top in October, attending two mid-tier tournaments, StarSeries i-League S6 and cs_summit 3. At the event in Kiev, NRG didn't capitalize on the fact that many of the top teams weren't present, finishing only 3rd-4th after a shocking loss to Vega Squadron. One of the issues for the team at StarSeries was CeRq, who simply didn't play up to his standards, but the young Bulgarian stepped up his game at their most recent event, cs_summit 3.

NRG added another title to their name at cs_summit 3

In a more relaxed environment of the Summit House, NRG did what was expected from them by beating out lower tier opponents such as Heroic and Ghost, and managed more challenging victories over BIG and OpTic. That, despite some issues with anti-ecos and their Overpass game deteriorating, saw NRG claim the cs_summit 3 trophy, with Brehze being the MVP of the run, establishing himself as the main star of this team. daps's squad made a step in the right direction in October by beating teams in the lower part of the top 15, but to continue their rise, they will have to have a good showing at IEM Chicago as well, where they are placed in a group with teams such as Astralis, FaZe and MIBR.

9. North

Player	Age	Rating
Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså	23	1.18
Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye	20	1.16
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup	22	1.05
Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade	23	1.03
Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller	23	1.02

Since changing two players on their roster, which cost them some ranking points, North have attended only one LAN event, StarSeries i-League S6. With just a couple of days of practice, cadiaN and co. managed to advance to the playoffs after beating OpTic, Gambit and Imperial, with their two losses coming at the hands of NRG and Fragsters. The luck of the draw saw them face off against NRG in the playoffs once again, a series that they lost 2-0, but with both maps being strongly contested by the Danish side.

Kjaerbye and valde have been looking better under cadiaN

Since the lineup change, valde and Kjaerbye have been reinvigorated, after somewhat underwhelming tenures both players had during the team's last months with Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen. Aside from StarSeries, North didn't have a chance to play another LAN and improve their ranking that way, but qualifying for ECS S6 and doing well in that online league, as well as in ESL Pro League, could see North having more opportunities to show what they are capable of on LAN in the near future.

10. BIG

Player	Age	Rating
Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz	23	1.26
Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield	19	1.09
Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget	26	1.08
Tizian "⁠tiziaN⁠" Feldbusch	22	0.98
Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik	31	0.94

Teams often fall off after doing well at a Major, and while it did happen to BIG, to a degree, they have still been doing significantly better than other top-eight finishers such as HellRaisers and Complexity. The German side finished top eight at StarSeries S6, where they were eliminated by ENCE who went on to win the event, finishing slightly below where you would expect them to judging by their ranking at the time.

smooya hit a rough patch in October

Other than that, gob b's squad played cs_summit 3 this weekend, and did just a tad better, reaching the upper-bracket final where they lost to the eventual champions NRG and then falling to OpTic in the consolidation final, after they beat the Danes 2-1 earlier in the tournament. BIG's three-place drop in this month's ranking can be tied into two players having significant drop-offs in performances: gob b and smooya.

The UK AWPer went from a 1.24 average rating in September to a 1.09 rating for October, with the team's IGL 1.06 rating for September proving unsustainable as he finished October with 0.94. On the other hand, tabseN has been outstanding and nex has been consistent, but they need more to truly challenge the top 10.

11. HellRaisers

Player	Age	Rating
Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker	20	1.25
Issa "⁠ISSAA⁠" Murad	21	1.06
Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow	29	0.99
Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk	25	0.98
Bence "⁠DeadFox⁠" Böröcz	23	0.88

Talking about teams that dipped in form after the Major, HellRaisers are a great example. The mixture of players from all over the world, but with a Ukrainian foundation, had a rough start to the month. First, they were eliminated in the first round of the EPICENTER 2018 CIS Closed Qualifier and then they went out in groups of StarSeries i-League S6, a tournament they were one of the favorites to win.

On an individual level, ISSAA struggles to maintain his form, with no one else stepping up to carry the burden; ANGE1, bondik and DeadFox all finished October with a below average rating. woxic has been the only player one performing admirably, but even with his contributions, HellRaisers sometimes struggle on a team level as they convert 5v4 advantages at a low rate, only 69%.

Still, some luck saw HellRaisers get invited to the EPICENTER Wild Card Qualifier as a replacement, and they fought through the first stage and advance to the playoffs over ENCE to get at least one good LAN placing this month. Even though EPICENTER helped them maintain their #11 spot in the rankings, they still left the event disappointed as they lost to AVANGAR in the playoffs, a team that they were a big favorite against.

12. OpTic

Player	Age	Rating
René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg	28	1.13
Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke	21	1.11
Jakob "⁠JUGi⁠" Hansen	21	1.08
Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer	28	1.07
Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen	20	1.02

Even though OpTic are still not as good as people were expecting them to be when this roster came together, after they swapped gade for niko, things took a turn for the better. OpTic qualified for ECS S6 and finished 3rd-4th at StarSeries i-League Season 6 after losing to ENCE in the semis. At the more recent cs_summit 3, OpTic finished as runner-ups to NRG, losing the grand final 3-1 after coming up from the lower bracket.

OpTic are finally showing some promise

OpTic are finally showing some promise

The two standout players for the team this month are cajunb, who has found a way to consistently contribute from a lurking role, and k0nfig, who is back to doing a lot of the entry fragging. A good sign for the future is also that, after months of struggles, it seems that JUGi's form is improving. Overall, the team is nowhere near perfect yet, but they have finally shown promise and made a massive jump in the rankings as well.

13. ENCE

Player	Age	Rating
Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli	26	1.20
Jere "⁠sergej⁠" Salo	16	1.17
Jani "⁠Aerial⁠" Jussila	25	1.12
Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen	21	1.04
Sami "⁠xseveN⁠" Laasanen	24	1.01

After a few months of being on the verge, ENCE broke out this month at StarSeries i-League S6 and took the title over teams such as MOUZ, BIG, and NRG. However, they didn't play the grand final against any of these teams, but another surprise, Vega Squadron, who pushed the Finns to all five maps.

sergej was the star in Ukraine and the 16-year-old grabbed his first MVP award, but over the course of the whole month, the veteran AWPer allu was the more consistent one. Shortly after StarSeries, ENCE attended EPICENTER, but had an underwhelming tournament, something that allu put down to burnout.

ENCE have made a jump to the top 15 this month, but are still far away from an elite team and need to go through tough qualifiers to play these teams regularly. With no tournaments lined up, their ranking might suffer in the short term, but doing well in MDL and the Minor Qualifiers is crucial to the team developing further.

14. Complexity

Player	Age	Rating
Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz	24	1.09
Shahzeb "⁠ShahZaM⁠" Khan	25	1.06
Rory "⁠dephh⁠" Jackson	26	1.05
Bradley "⁠ANDROID⁠" Fodor	24	1.04
Jaccob "⁠yay⁠" Whiteaker	20	0.92

Complexity was served a wake-up call at StarSeries, where the North American side not only crashed out in groups, but also did it by going 0-3 and looking very unconvincing in all three maps. After the Major success hype deflated, Complexity returned home and played in the online leagues, only returning to LAN action at cs_summit 3 last weekend, where they had a much better showing.

stanislaw and co. took down G2 and Heroic in three maps, but lost the grudge match to OpTic twice, which saw them finish fourth. Even though it is not the greatest of achievements, it seems that Complexity regressed to the mean at cs_summit after an overperformance at the Major and an underperformance at StarSeries. Should they want to climb the ranks, getting more production out of ShahZaM, who has been positive but not outstanding, and activating yay, who hit a post-Major slump, seem like the ways to go.

15. AVANGAR

Player	Age	Rating
Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali	20	1.26
Timur "⁠buster⁠" Tulepov	18	1.08
Alexey "⁠Qikert⁠" Golubev	19	1.05
Bektiyar "⁠fitch⁠" Bahytov	26	1.02
Aidyn "⁠KrizzeN⁠" Turlybekov	19	0.96

The Kazakhstani team had a strong run online before they finally managed to face off against some strong opponents on LAN in October and show what the roster with fitch is capable of. They made the most out of the opportunity at EPICENTER, taking down Ninjas in Pyjamas in a BO3 series before eliminating HellRaisers in the playoffs, and also putting up a strong fight against Natus Vincere, taking more than ten rounds on both maps in a 2-0 defeat.

AVANGAR made a name for themselves at EPICENTER

AVANGAR has been relying on Jame's AWP to get the wins, and the sole Russian in the squad has been delivering, game-in, game-out, since Qikert took on the IGL role once again. The squad made a giant leap in the rankings over the last 30 days, and with IEM Chicago coming up for them, they have a good chance to continue the climb.