Player stock shift: November

SuperNova CS:GO Malta and DreamHack Open Winter have rounded out November, which means it's time to look at the biggest movers of the busy month in the penultimate Player stock shift of the year.

November featured an unusually high amount of events, with BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, IEM Chicago, and ECS Season 6 Finals as the big tournaments alongside a plethora of smaller ones: cs_summit 3, Toyota Master Bangkok, SuperNova CS:GO Malta, and DreamHack Open stops in Atlanta and Jönköping.

The majority of players featured in this month's stock shift played at least one of the big events, with just one exception in Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, who earned his place here with incredible play at DreamHack Open Atlanta.

You can go back to previous editions of the Player stock shift via the list below:

October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

Last month's rising and falling players are:

Rising

fnatic as a whole impressed at IEM Chicago, their only event last month and their first since ESL One New York in late September, with their best placing since DreamHack Masters Marseille and a great outlook in series against some of the best teams in the world.

That includes Liquid, whom the Swedes beat in the group stage 2-1 to advance to the semi-finals. There they were stopped by Astralis, but only barely, as fnatic's two losses in the three-map series came down to the wire. They lost Dust2 14-16 after a great attempt at a comeback, while on Inferno it was a big turnaround from the Danes that sent the deciding map to overtime, in which the Swedish side ultimately lost the series.

The promising showing came down to some great individual play from the trio of KRIMZ, JW, and Brollan. The experienced duo had been featured in the Player stock shift after lackluster performances in June in KRIMZ's case and September in JW's, and now we're bumping them back up after their best event in months. fnatic's new addition, Brollan, impressed as well in his debut for the squad, as he was close to getting an EVP mention for his play, which is a sign of great things to come from the 16-year-old.

The same tournament yielded more surprises, one of which was eUnited's upset win over Na`Vi in the group stage, a stunning 16-6 on Mirage that helped send Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko's team home early. The North American side then took fnatic to a close result before getting eliminated by Luminosity in the lower bracket of their group.

Though it was in a losing effort in the end, moose finished IEM Chicago as one of the highest-rated players of the event, with highly-consistent play at his big-event debut yielding a 1.24 overall rating. He topped that off with another solid tournament at DreamHack Open Atlanta, where it was once again the Brazilian side who eliminated eUnited from the tournament in the group stage, with the Canadian looking like by far the team's best player.

LDLC came out as another impressive story from the Windy City, where the team played their first big tournament. The French side returned home with their heads held high after making the playoffs, beating Renegades, North, and NRG in the process, while also taking FaZe and Liquid to their limit in the losses.

Although the team could not follow up on that result at DreamHack Open Winter, where they were eliminated after convincing losses to Heroic and x6tence Galaxy, AMANEK was a constant across both tournaments, with a 1.17 rating at the larger tournament and 1.27 over three losses at the smaller.

NRG had quite the busy month in November, attending one tournament every week and returning with a title and a runners-up finish to their name from the two smaller ones, cs_summit 3 and SuperNova CS:GO Malta, as well as a 7th-8th finish at IEM Chicago and a 5th-6th at ECS Season 6 Finals.

After CeRq fell last month as his play from August on was far from the AWPer we had known in the first half of the year, the Bulgarian returns as a rising player due to some impressively consistent showings across all four tournaments, finishing on par with Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte as NRG's highest-rated player in November.

ZywOo has been turning heads for a while now in online competitions, but he was missing more notable offline tournaments, of which he had only attended one in the past, at ESWC 2017. The young French star rounds out the list of risers in November after Vitality attended their first tournament, DreamHack Open Atlanta, and won it in convincing fashion, much thanks to the 18-year-old.

In Atlanta, the Frenchman started out fairly slow in the team's opening loss to Ghost, but he quickly came into his own in the group stage wins over Fragsters and Rogue before dominating Complexity with two maps rated above 2.00 in semis, as well as a 1.58 rating in the final against Luminosity.

Falling

After winning EPICENTER in October, FaZe have gone on to place fourth at two events in a row, BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen and IEM Chicago, following up and down results against the world's best teams. In Denmark, they went 2-1-2 in groups, with a win over Na`Vi but also a loss to Cloud9 to their name, while in Chicago, they beat Astralis in the groups only to suffer a stunning loss at the hands of Liquid in semis.

olofmeister (BLAST) and GuardiaN (Chicago) recorded their lowest-rated events in over a year and couldn't make up for it at the other. The Swede rose in July after returning to FaZe and he also put up great numbers at the FACEIT Major in September, but he has only dipped since then, while for the Slovakian only November's tournaments play a factor in his first appearance in the stock shift.

When he was still part of Rogue, cadiaN put in some impressive performances at international tournaments, most notably at his last event with the team, the New Challengers stage of the FACEIT Major.

Since he came back to Denmark to join up with North, the AWPer and in-game leader has dipped severely, with a 0.91 average rating over the course of the three tournaments they played at; StarSeries i-League Season 6, IEM Chicago, and ECS Season 6 Finals.

BIG attended three tournaments last month, placing third at cs_summit and at SuperNova CS:GO Malta, and bombing out of the group stage at IEM Chicago. They grabbed their first series win over Na`Vi, but otherwise, they also conceded a favorable matchup against OpTic in Los Angeles alongside losses to Liquid and MOUZ that eliminated them in Malta and Chicago.

Overall, November hasn't been the best month for smooya, who had an especially poor showing at IEM Chicago, his worst event to date with the German side, only two months after he had been featured as a rising player following the FACEIT Major.

Liazz had been a promising new star coming from the Oceanic region, as he became better known at IEM Sydney with ORDER thanks to a few great maps, which eventually helped him find a place in the struggling Renegades at the beginning of October.

Since he came into the much more traveled squad, he hasn't quite lived up to the expectations with three below-average tournaments (StarSeries, IEM Chicago, and Toyota Master Bangkok) and particularly underwhelming play in Chicago, where the Aussie side went out in last place after losses to MIBR and LDLC.

Before this month, suNny had been featured twice in the Player stock shift. In July, he fell after two average events, ESL One Cologne and ELEAGUE Premier, before returning to his old spot in September after MOUZ' win at ESL One New York.

The Finn falls for the second time in November after recording two lowest-rated tournaments, at StarSeries i-League Season 6 and ECS Season 6 Finals, in over a year, as well as after quite an inconsistent showing at IEM Chicago.