Team Ranking: January 2020

4/2/2020 - 00:34

We have updated our Global team ranking - powered by EGB.com - for January 2020, a quiet month with only one notable LAN event.

One month into 2020 and we're still only getting the first taste of top-tier Counter-Strike of the year after a rather dull month of January, featuring just one international LAN, DreamHack Open Leipzig, where BIG ran out victorious to prove that German CS is finally back on the menu.

With the ICE Challenge only halfway through and BLAST Premier merely regarded as a qualifier, there aren't many changes across the board, with the top five looking exactly the same as in last month's ranking.

BIG are knocking at the door for a top 20 place

Despite a strong performance in London last week, FaZe still lost points and moved down one position after BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen disappeared from the list of recent events. Next week it will be IEM Beijing's turn, which could affect teams like 100 Thieves and Astralis.

To counteract the effects of the player break, we are temporarily extending the "recent form" criterion beyond eight weeks. We will go back to the two-month window for this indicator after IEM Katowice, late this month.

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 nine weeks, 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.

Below is the current top 30 table as of February 3, 2020, 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.

CS:GO World ranking on February 3rd, 2020

RANK

TEAM

ACHV

FORM

LAN

TOTAL
POINTS

+/-

Astralis

500

156

300

956

mousesports

320

200

223

743

Liquid

343

167

578

fnatic

247

104

161

512

Evil Geniuses

312

462

Vitality

215

136

450

100 Thieves

130

103

281

Natus Vincere

113

280

FaZe

126

266

-1

10.

109

252

11.

ENCE

109

187

12.

NiP

179

-2

13.

forZe

174

14.

Heroic

162

15.

MIBR

144

-1

16.

MAD Lions

138

17.

Virtus.pro

123

18.

Cloud9

120

19.

FURIA

117

-4

20.

Renegades

103

21.

c0ntact

-2

22.

BIG

+24

23.

North

-3

24.

GODSENT

-2

25.

26.

Spirit

-1

27.

TYLOO

-4

28.

Syman

29.

ex-Virtus.pro

-2

30.

INTZ

Please note that the +/- gain on this table differs from our weekly rankings page, and it is related to the ranking update of January 6.

Here are four key takeaways from January's ranking update:

BIG soar after Leipzig show

It had been so long since BIG's fans had been treated to such a dominant showing that it is hard for them to curb their enthusiasm. And who can blame them? After an underwhelming year without a single title to their name and a group stage exit at ESL One Cologne – an event which has always been a priority for them –, BIG pressed the panic button and finally completed the move they had been dreaming about for months, raiding rival Sprout for Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische and Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne.

And the early signs could not be more promising. BIG cruised through DreamHack Open Leipzig and beat Virtus.pro, Heroic and Renegades (twice) – three teams ranked above them – to end a trophyless run that dated back to May 2018, moving up 24 spots in the ranking.

BIG's current rank is their highest since September

The German team ended the month by clinching a spot in the closed qualifier for the Europe Minor following a three-map victory over Complexity that was not as close as the scoreline suggests. But it wasn't all good news: BIG were one of the teams who lost their spot in ESL Pro League after the recent changes to the tournament, which is a serious blow to their aspirations. It is still unclear if they will commit to ESEA MDL - a league which, quite frankly, seems to be too small for them.

Note: Under normal circumstances, BIG would be the winner of the EPC Shooting Stars prize, a seven-day bootcamp for six people at the Kinguin Esports Performance Center in Warsaw, Poland. Unfortunately, we regret to announce that the partnership with Kinguin has come to an end.

Nothing new on the northern front

Astralis, mousesports, Liquid, fnatic and Evil Geniuses are all in the exact same place as last month, with Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's charges being the only team of the quintet who gained points between the two updates.

All five teams will be in action at IEM Katowice, the first big test of the year. mousesports, who are in the semi-final stage of the ICE Challenge, are the only one who can still gain traction in the rankings before the event in Poland; Astralis and Evil Geniuses will take part in BLAST Premier, but that stage is treated as a qualifier for consistency purposes.

The ICE Challenge will give mouz the chance to close the gap on Astralis

Believe it or not, IEM Katowice will be fnatic's first tournament of the year. By the time it rolls around, 79 days will have passed since the Swedes' last match, in the tournament decider of the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals. The team's fanbase will certainly hope that their controversial omission from the BLAST Premier circuit will only fuel their drive as we approach the year's first showpiece competition.

FURIA almost out of the top 20

Another team that has been out of action this year is FURIA, who are on the verge of slipping out of the top 20 in the rankings for the first time since March 2019.

The Brazilians had a rough end to the season, with some sub-par showings after the third place at StarSeries i-League Season 8, and things didn't get much better at the turn of the year. They were forced to field Lucas "⁠LUCAS1⁠" Teles as a stand-in in the North American closed qualifier for IEM Katowice due to Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles' visa issues, and bombed out of the tournament after just two matches.

FURIA will play their first LAN of 2020 in Anaheim

FURIA have now turned their attention to DreamHack Open Anaheim, where they will face a stacked field of competitors for the grand prize of $50,000 plus the spot at DreamHack Masters Jönköping. A good showing in California will be crucial to increase the team's confidence levels ahead of qualifier for the Americas Minor - an event that could make or break Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's side.

MAD Lions' success story continues

The former Tricked squad rose up five places, from 21st to 16th (their highest-ever ranking), after an impressive start to the year, both online and on LAN, confirming their status as one of the most exciting teams to watch in the tournament circuit.

MAD Lions began 2020 by qualifying for IEM Katowice, the first Big Event in the history of the team, after coming all the way from the open brackets, defeating teams like North, Heroic and ENCE in the process. They proceeded to qualify for DreamHack Open Leipzig, where they placed top-four after once again taking the scalps of the Danish rivals they had beaten on the road to Katowice.

MAD Lions have reached their highest-ever position in the rankings

Nicolai "⁠HUNDEN⁠" Petersen's charges will have the chance to get some more ranking points in the bag before the IEM event as they are still in contention at the ICE Challenge, where they will face OG in the quarter-finals. Their recent success hasn't gone unnoticed: they have been rewarded with an invite to the closed qualifier for the Europe Minor, which will allow them, at least, to skip the grueling open brackets.

LETS GO BIG, TOP 10 IS CLOSE

2020-02-04 00:35

23 replies

nice, faze dropped points lul

2020-02-04 00:37

19 replies

Wins tournament, destroy top 2 team in the world and drops on ranks lulz hltv logic Ps: ence +1 hahahahahah

2020-02-04 01:00

9 replies

NAVI TOP5 NEXT WEEK LEST GO

2020-02-04 01:05

1 reply

FURIA almost out of the top 20 thoo

2020-02-04 01:27

guess Faze just lacks the same firepower

2020-02-04 01:28

Cause the event isnt completed...?

2020-02-04 04:48

2 replies

Still, top of the grp... Losong 1 position makes no sense

2020-02-04 12:28

Exactly GROUPs and the group stage points also havent been awarded cause the 2 other groups havent completed, you cant just end the tournament for 1/3 of the teams that would absolutely fuck up the points because some would be considered older while the later groups would keep their points for longer. Thats obviously unfair when it's the same group stage. Once groups are over and placements are decided there will likely be a rank increase also because other teams will decline too.

2020-02-04 17:19

The tournament hasn't ended yet idiot lol

2020-02-04 12:37

They did that in february and the tournament isnt over. Chillax

2020-02-04 17:01

They won the groupstage you geek, not the tournament. Another braindead chicken from bra71l

2020-02-05 14:16

You two are morons it's a group stage and it's not even over yet therefore no points

5 replies

Faze beat liquid in both series.

2020-02-04 05:33

4 replies

Are you dumb? The points havent been assigned yet because the tournament is still in progress. They dont have points from the event, just some bo3 wins vs top teams 10 That's not worth nearly as much as the decay + Blast copenhagen going out

2020-02-04 07:21

3 replies

lol, leave it man. People are just so dumb. 😂

2020-02-04 10:04

It's a fucking qualifier. Qualifier is a whole different thing than the actual tournament. When a team qualifys for the major they will go up in rankings

2020-02-05 23:48

It's a qualifer yes, that's still has 2 more groups to be completed. Then upon the end of all 3 groups the points for the qualifier will be awarded to the involved teams AT THE SAME TIME. Dont know how much simpler I can say it. They will get more points for the placement once its deemed a completed placement.

2020-02-06 03:45

its gonna update tomorrow idiot

2020-02-04 12:19

shut your dirty mouth bitch

2020-02-04 19:25

toxic

2020-02-07 13:36

+1 and EZ4ENCE who gain one place thanks to Miikka "Firepower" Kemppi Btw nice reference to MIBR_IS_OVERRATED in the BIG section :D

2020-02-04 00:42

xaxaxaxa

Top 10 can't be close if they're not even top 20

2020-02-05 06:49

Nice.

Actually quite boring month

Yea the player break is long

2020-02-04 07:22

COOL

Tyloo -4 because of corona, not cool

2020-02-04 03:44

ENCE +1 lmaoo

Hahahahahahaah

2020-02-04 01:01

It makes no sense lmao :D

2020-02-04 01:23

They put ENCE above NiP LMAO

2020-02-04 09:36

LMAO

2020-02-04 11:08

FaZe -1 xD

2020-02-04 00:36

"Despite a strong performance in London last week, FaZe still lost points and moved down one position after BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen disappeared from the list of recent events. "

But what did ENCE do to desterve +1. Almost win a tier 3 event at the end of last year ?

2020-02-04 06:27

+1 Ence are nothing without AleksiB. Allu can’t do anything with Sergey alone.

2020-02-04 07:38

ENCE did nothing, hence why they lost points. (They were on 225 points last month). It's just a matter of another team, NiP, losing more points.

2020-02-04 10:17

+1 Thanks for clarifiying for people who haven't read how the ranking system works. You must be frustrated for those comments.

2020-02-04 11:14

EZ4ENCE who gain one place thanks to Miikka "Firepower" Kemppi.

2020-02-04 00:46

956 LUL AST28LYS SK always had 1000 at their era

except they never had an era, also another plastic bra71l faze fan Y I K E S

2020-02-04 00:54

Ok lord big brother Brasil

2020-02-04 01:03

BIG CLAN ERA LEIPZIG - COLOGNE 2021 kkkkkkkk EZ4BIG

2020-02-04 00:39

Fck mibr is so bad

let's keep it this way

Wait, nuh, FaZe -1, not a thing, tf hltv

Read the article again dude

2020-02-04 05:46

FaZe -1 and ENCE +1 good one hltv

Dignitas top 15 before March is over

Had to scroll way to long to find the only relevant post.

2020-02-04 11:16

lol you realize that they arent playing any events except the minor qual or did you mean march 2021?

2020-02-04 12:12

2020

2020-02-04 20:18

gl i guess xd

2020-02-04 20:22

faze win tournament and -1 n1

tournament? LUL they won a group and qualified for finals - same as epl groups last year

2020-02-04 01:13

they beat liquid in a bo3 twice I'll count it as something

2020-02-04 01:14

yes it improved their form rating probably - but that obviously also depends which matches maybe slipped out of the time frame used for this subranking

2020-02-04 01:18

my brain is too small to know what you said so I'm just going to agree with you yes

2020-02-04 01:33

good boy

2020-02-04 01:40

ex-vp has better form ranking then actual vp form KEKW

Let’s go counter affecting!

2020-02-04 00:44

faze -1 wtf!!!!!!!!!

wtf - BIG can't go to warsaw to bootcamp, they're fucked

faze -1 and big +-0 after wrecking everything on the minor open qualifier?

2020-02-04 00:47

Online tournaments, like qualifiers, barely have an impact. And Complexity, for example, are ranked 44th.

but faze wins count as lan matches to form ranking, or? they should bring more points than online matches in the end copenhagen is out, thats the reason

This stage of BLAST Premier is treated as a qualifier due to the way that it is structured. It only counts for Form.

2020-02-04 01:15

exactly what i said :D i just wanted to make clear they count more towards the form ranking compared to online matches(e.g. ecs last year) these blast groups are basically the same as the epl lan groups last year

2020-02-04 01:17

Faze should be going up like 2 spots rather then -1 that a fucking joke

Dont understand how ENCE have gone up but ok

2020-02-04 00:53

Ence +1 and faze -1 lmao

bullshit rank like always

2020-02-04 00:57

What is VP and ex-VP still doing in top 30? Why is ENCE and OG rising despite massively shitting the bed? Also Faze -1 HYPERLOL

2020-02-04 01:06

FaZe -1 LOL

stopped read at ENCE #11

2020-02-04 01:26

I understand why faze has -1 but still kinda funny, as no one in their right mind would say that faze is worse than it was before this update. Basically the case looks like this (it happened before): - team A wins a title B - team A is shit for some months - team A wins something C, you see huge improvement in their form (mostly eye-test + this result isn't THAT significant yet in a grand scheme of things) - at the same time, title B decays and team A loses points Result is that, despite apparent rise in form (included in ranking) team still loses point and position in the ranking, and hltv is like "OMEGALUL NICE RETARD RANKING" But it will probably self-correct itself next update so whatever

2020-02-04 01:35

EZ4ENCEEZ4ENCE-------EZ4ENCEEZ4ENCEEZ4ENCE EZ4ENCEEZ4ENCE-------EZ4ENCEEZ4ENCEEZ4ENCE EZ4ENCE---------------------------------------------EZ4ENCE EZ4ENCEEZ4ENCE--------------------------EZ4ENCE EZ4ENCEEZ4ENCE-------------------EZ4ENCE EZ4ENCE---------------------------EZ4ENCE EZ4ENCEEZ4ENCE-------EZ4ENCEEZ4ENCEEZ4ENCE EZ4ENCEEZ4ENCE—----EZ4ENCEEZ4ENCEEZ4ENCE

2020-02-04 06:36

Finally this meme team is dead

2020-02-04 10:03

Faze beat liquid twice and -1 rank. Fuck off hltv

2020-02-04 01:45

Blast premier is a qualifier not a tournament and it was not added in the list that's why faze dropped 1 rank

2020-02-04 05:00

hmm ok

2020-02-04 05:35

Dignitas?

2020-02-04 01:52

#46 probably will get into the top 30 after the minor qualifier

2020-02-04 15:08

how is BIG still under Astralis???? Astralis didnt even win one event in 2020. They are totally out of form. BIG should be #5 minimum now they won DH Leipzig vs the unbeatable Renegades AND the Minor Qualifier vs the Juggernaut Complexity!

2020-02-04 01:53

Yea that's what I'm thinking rn, Big should be atleast top 5

2020-02-04 04:58

Faze -1 dont make any fuck sense.

2020-02-04 02:17

It does if you actually take time to look at the breakdown. Blast isnt over therefore no placements therefore no points

2020-02-04 04:47

That’s a BIG increase, +24 damn

2020-02-04 02:23

Kekw just like fifa ranking it's not accurate on how good the teams are at all Ence and na'vi sucks!!!

2020-02-04 02:46

faze -1 and ence fkn +1 hltv is a joke ayyyyyyyyy lmao

2020-02-04 03:11

Ence +1 FaZe -1 Sorry but....wut?

2020-02-04 03:59

Fazes matches vs Liquid at Blast havent been added yet cause the result is not completed

2020-02-04 04:46

But still....ENCE +1 from 2 losses to a teams barely getting in top 30?

2020-02-04 04:59

That is how the ranking works, you don't lose 100 points from losing games to shits, they just gain nothing which will eventually lead team to ruin as naturally many other teams keep gaining new results... So it is largely matter if other teams do enough to pass them, and secondly if ence have results expiring. In this case other teams didn't manage to pass them as there wasn't many events and ence didn't happen to have many point losses this month, unlike nip for instance who had their blast 2nd place finish to expire from recent lan ranking, leading to ence passing them. However if ence continue only losing, they will eventually have nothing left, just won't happen over night and if they get some results it makes drop slower, which they have managed to do during recent months, hence managing 11 spot when their ancient results when they were top 3 are added that still have a bit value at least for now.

2020-02-04 06:44

2020-02-04 07:25

aaa okay I understand thank you

2020-02-04 10:12

Well what could you expect after simple being 2nd in world ranking xD

2020-02-04 04:06

The original ranking will be in front of us after iem kato as it's the 1st most stacked tournament of the year and if faze manages to qualify for playoffs then they'll definitely climb up in the rankings

2020-02-04 04:57

Ence +1? nice rankings

2020-02-04 07:27

mibr still in the top 20 omegalul

2020-02-04 07:47

Yeah, this is worthless

2020-02-04 08:52

ENCE undeserved

2020-02-04 09:05

How is ence +1??? They've played 4 maps since the past rank update and they are 0-4 in wins vs low tier teams. Explain.

2020-02-04 09:19

ENCE lost points when compared to last month (they were on 225). It's just that another team lost more points (NiP).

2020-02-04 10:18

Its about nip losing their points they got for blast Copenhagen?

2020-02-04 10:28

Correct, same as FaZe

2020-02-04 10:49

Ence #11 LUL Navi better than faze LUL

2020-02-04 10:02

dignitas 46 :)

2020-02-04 10:34

Thats a good start

2020-02-04 11:09

yeah soon top 15-20

2020-02-04 11:10

useless

2020-02-04 10:37

Where is Dignitas

2020-02-04 10:46

they are yet to play lan game so they didn't make it top30

2020-02-04 11:19

They can't be in this list,THEY ARE LEGEND.

2020-02-05 13:00

Fnatic new logo :o

2020-02-04 10:59

yea its been like that

2020-02-04 17:04

lol faze

2020-02-04 11:28

team secret??? kekw

2020-02-04 11:32

I wonder if DIG will get top30/20 ... good luck to them !

2020-02-04 11:37

Faze -1 for beating liquid and nip but ence +1 for getting rekt by og and godsent? Hahahah Nice try hltv

2020-02-04 11:59

ENCE how ??? Should be out of top30

2020-02-04 12:13

i mean fully agree, hltv ranking is corrupt obviously BIG TOP1 MILKY WAY

2020-02-04 12:48

Why does ence go +1 when they go 0-2 and eliminated from ice challenge ???

2020-02-04 12:56

Device #3 ence +1 faze -1 kkk

2020-02-04 13:28

> BLAST Premier merely regarded as a qualifier Finals are 4.5 months away (for who knows what reason), while there's 100k on the line for each group right now. Makes more sense to regard it as a series of small tournaments. After all Dreamhack Opens serve as qualifiers for Dreamhack Masters, and have the same prize pool, yet are treated as separate tournaments.

2020-02-04 14:10

No playoffs.

2020-02-06 03:47

Not exactly true, there is a grand final after the qualification spots are already determined. And previous Blasts have also done the whole group stage -> directly to final thing.

2020-02-06 13:46