Team Ranking: May 2021
We have updated our Global team ranking for May 2021, a month filled with world-class regional action.
Last month was all about the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournaments. These Major qualifying events, held globally, were responsible for some of the biggest changes in the top 30, including MOUZ jumping to sixth, their highest ranking in exactly a year, and Akuma entering the top 20 on the back of a controversial third-place finish in EPIC League CIS.
But the RMRs were far from being the sole top-tier tournaments that were held in May. Earlier in the month, Natus Vincere added the DreamHack Masters Spring title to their collection after beating fellow CIS side Gambit in the final, moving up to second because of it. And Fiend were rewarded for their grind as they jumped to 25th - their highest-ever ranking - on the back of deep runs in LOOT.BET Season 9 and Spring Sweet Spring 2.
Roster changes also cost some teams inside the top 30 precious points. FURIA dropped down two places after benching Paytyn "junior" Johnson and promoting Lucas "honda" Cano to the starting lineup, while FaZe saw their ranking sink to 39th after moving Marcelo "coldzera" David to the bench.
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 two months, and performance in recent events in the last 3 months.
Each team is required to have a three-man core in order to retain their points. Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, online results, which previously had a minimal effect, now carry more weight as they are also included in the 'Achievements' and 'Recent Events' sub-categories.
Below is the current top 30 table as of June 7, 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.
POINTS
Please note that the +/- gain on this table differs from our weekly rankings page, and it is related to the ranking update of May 3.
mousesports return to the top 10
MOUZ' ranking hovered around the 15th position in the weeks that followed Christopher "dexter" Nong's addition as in-game leader, so it's understandable that expectations surrounding this team were modest heading into Flashpoint 3, the first Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament of the year in Europe.
The international team raised eyebrows with a first-place finish in the closed qualifier, only losing a close three-map affair with Complexity, and then they took it up another notch in the main tournament. Clean victories over fnatic, BIG, Astralis and G2 earned MOUZ a spot in the grand final, in which they were able to prevail 2-1 - the only time that they dropped a map in the entire event.
The Flashpoint prize - MOUZ' first relevant trophy in this online era - seems almost secondary to the renewed sense of belief in the team, who are looking like a serious contender heading into IEM Cologne. After a rough start to his European adventure, dexter is starting to silence his critics by putting up the sort of numbers that many expected from him when he took over from Finn "karrigan" Andersen, and extracting great performances from his star players, Robin "ropz" Kool and David "frozen" Čerňanský.
FaZe plummet to a new low
These are tough times to be a FaZe fan. The team seemed to be on the right track when it landed Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken and re-signed karrigan, but four months on from the Danish tactician's return, the outlook is still bleak.
FaZe had looked far from an elite team in their first tournaments with karrigan, but only a few would have predicted them to crash out of DreamHack Masters Spring and Flashpoint 3 in last place, though it should be pointed out that their matches were decided by fine margins and could have gone their way.
In the end, the challenges proved insurmountable for FaZe, who are starting to plan for a future without coldzera. The Brazilian will see out his contract on the bench while he analyses his options for a return to competition after the player break.
The recent run of poor form, combined with coldzera's exit, sees the team nosedive to 39th, which is by far the worst ranking of any FaZe lineup. karrigan's troops will return to action in a week's time in the BLAST Premier Spring Final, and at this point there is nothing that fans can do except hope for better days.
G2 edge closer to the top three
G2 momentarily dipped out of the top 10 in the rankings when Kenny "kennyS" Schrub was removed from the starting lineup, but the team led by Nemanja "nexa" Isaković has since skyrocketed as the return of Audric "JACKZ" Jug has blessed the squad with a fresh approach to the game and a renewed sense of confidence. Since then, the French-Balkan side has gained brilliant form and consistency, making a semi-final run in DreamHack Masters Spring and finishing third in Flashpoint 3 before topping their IEM Summer group.
G2 were only beaten by one team in DreamHack Master Spring, Gambit, in both the group stage and the playoffs, taking the scalps of several of the world’s best teams in Spirit, Virtus.pro, MOUZ and Astralis. Later in the month, they were able to start Flashpoint 3 with a 3-0 record thanks to victories over FaZe, Heroic and Ninjas in Pyjamas, but they then suffered defeats against the two finalists, MOUZ and Ninjas in Pyjamas, in the upper bracket and consolidation finals.
G2 still added more form points to their tally in the first week of June at IEM Summer as they secured another top-four finish with a clean run in the group stage that puts them straight into the tournament's semi-finals. Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and company went 5-1 in maps during the group stage, dropping only an Ancient game to FunPlus Phoenix because of an otherworldly display from Pavle "Maden" Bošković.
EXTREMUM bounce back after RMR bronze
EXTREMUM have recently found comfort in their home away from home, North America, where they got some respite with a third-place finish in cs_summit 8 following a tough start to the year in Europe that saw the team take a dive in the ranking. Aleksandar "kassad" Trifunović’s men, who have struggled to find the same form they had when Justin "jks" Savage was still on the team, are now in 23rd place, just one below their best position since linking up with Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand at the beginning of the year.
After dropping to 41st place in April, Aaron "AZR" Ward and company were able to find some better results with playoff runs in FunSpark ULTI Europe Regional Series 1 and Spring Sweet Spring 1 to stop their fall before returning to North America in May, but it was the cs_summit 8 showing that put EXTREMUM back on track and on a clear upward trajectory.
EXTREMUM started out their run at the RMR tournament with a 0-2 loss to Extra Salt, one of the more in-shape teams in North America, but they were then able to find their footing. In their cs_summit 8 gauntlet they took revenge on Extra Salt, beat Bad News Bears, took a map in the series against Liquid, and won 2-0 against Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe’s O PLANO before finally falling to FURIA and settling for third place.
fnatic continue to spiral downwards
fnatic’s woes continue as the core of Jesper "JW" Wecksell, Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson and Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin is at its lowest ranking in history, which was previously set at No.28 in September 2019. Having fallen out of the top 20 again in April, the Swedish squad now sit in 29th place following last-place finishes at Flashpoint 3 and IEM Summer. They were also invited to the Spring Sweet Spring 1 and 2 playoffs, where they were knocked out in the semi-finals by EPG Family in the former and in the quarter-finals by Fiend in the latter.
The Black and Orange began 2021 on a high note with a second-place finish at cs_summit 7 after bringing in Jack "Jackinho" Ström Mattsson in lieu of Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, but ever since then, JW and company have chained a series of poor performances leading to consistent early exits at events. fnatic have gone out in last place in three of their four most important tournaments this year after their cs_summit 7 showing, namely the IEM Katowice Play-In, Flashpoint 3 and IEM Summer, and finished near-last in the fourth, ESL Pro League, in 17-20th place.
Their results in the bigger events they played in May and early June, Flashpoint 3 and IEM Summer, are a continuation of a trend that continues nabated. fnatic showed with four straight defeats at the hands of MOUZ, Complexity, Virtus.pro and Ninjas in Pyjamas — with only one map won out of eight —, that the problems run deep. The last time things got this bad for the trio of JW, KRIMZ and Brollan, they made two changes, letting go of Richard "Xizt" Landström and Simon "twist" Eliasson to bring back Maikil "Golden" Selim and flusha, after which they soared in the rankings from No.28 to No.4 in a month’s time.
Lucas Aznar Miles contributed to this story
Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev
Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek
Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado
Josh 'oSee' Ohm
Justin 'FaNg' Coakley
Sanjar 'SANJI' Kuliev
Timur 'buster' Tulepov
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Audric 'JACKZ' Jug
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković
Jesse 'zehN' Linjala
Martin 'STYKO' Styk
Asger 'Farlig' Jensen
Paweł 'dycha' Dycha
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Aurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras
Jamie 'keita' Hall
Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli
Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai
Richard 'Xizt' Landström
Rheniel
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