Team Ranking: January 2022

FURIA falls down to #27, Apeks enters the top 30, and K23 continues to make strides.

The first month of 2022 has concluded, seeing many teams who performed well at the PGL Stockholm Major like FURIA, ENCE, and Copenhagen Flames fall off, as the event has exited the Recent LANs category. Meanwhile, teams like BIG and OG gained positions off important wins at the BLAST Spring Groups.

The top end of the ranking has yet to change much, with the biggest difference seeing Heroic move down three spots. Natus Vincere are still very much in charge, though their lead has decreased over the past few weeks.

The newly signed HEET won Malta Vibes Knockout Series #5

Here's a summary of the HLTV World Ranking by 1xBet 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 Monday, February 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.

CS:GO World ranking on February 7th, 2022

RANK

TEAM

ACHV

FORM

LAN

TOTAL
POINTS

+/-

1.

Natus Vincere

500

200

300

1000

-

2.

Gambit

291

155

165

611

-

3.

Vitality

192

129

164

485

-

4.

G2

140

75

64

279

-

5.

Virtus.pro

113

93

61

267

+2

6.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

113

72

62

247

-

7.

Astralis

82

82

72

236

+1

8.

Heroic

143

30

36

209

-3

9.

FaZe

81

62

37

180

+2

10.

Entropiq

77

67

31

175

-1

11.

BIG

65

49

33

147

+5

12.

OG

52

57

29

138

+5

13.

GODSENT

38

50

37

125

+2

14.

fnatic

36

48

31

115

-2

15.

K23

23

62

14

99

+8

16.

ECSTATIC

23

36

13

72

+4

17.

Copenhagen Flames

44

17

5

66

-4

18.

HEET

9

45

5

59

+9

19.

FORZE

17

32

7

56

+2

20.

Sprout

5

42

7

54

+6

21.

Bad News Eagles

7

41

3

51

+3

22.

ENCE

34

12

4

50

-8

23.

Movistar Riders

18

27

5

50

-4

24.

Eternal Fire

5

40

4

49

+1

25.

GamerLegion

5

37

5

47

+5

26.

SKADE

9

33

5

47

+2

27.

FURIA

42

3

0

45

-17

28.

Dignitas

9

32

3

44

+4

29.

Complexity

5

32

6

43

-7

30.

Apeks

4

29

5

38

NEW TEAM

Please note that the +/- gain on this table differs from our weekly rankings page, and it is related to the ranking update of January 3.

Major drop offs

The biggest instigator of change during this month was the expiration of the PGL Major from the Recent LANs category, leading to many teams who performed well at the event, and either performed poorly afterward, or just played less, to drop down positions. The biggest victim of this change was certainly FURIA, who dropped 17 places. On top of losing their top eight placing at the biggest event of the year, the Brazilians haven't competed in any events until the recent Pinnacle Winter Series #1, where they lost to Wisla Krakow.

Many other teams who exceeded expectations in Stockholm also dropped down, including Heroic, Copenhagen Flames, ENCE, and Movistar Riders. In particular, Heroic had a really rough end to the year, going out last in their final two events and then following up with a loss to K23 in the Pinnacle Winter Series in January.

Following their miracle run at the Major, Copenhagen Flames saw a sort of return to the mean, putting up average performances at tier two events in November and December. Despite many reports of the team being signed by a larger organization, notably Complexity, no sale came to fruition and Copenhagen Flames ended up committing to their current lineup.

Heroic will look to recover at Katowice

BLAST Risers

The only tier one event to take place in January was the BLAST Premier Spring Groups, which featured a new format for the 2022 season. The two participants who saw the biggest gains were OG and BIG, who both found success with their new lineups. In a quite impressive debut for Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković leading a new set a players, OG went undefeated in the groups, only dropping a map to Ninjas in Pyjamas in the knockout stage.

BIG also managed to qualify for the Spring Finals, defeating Astralis in two convincing series. The now fully German squad also competed at the Funspark ULTI 2021 Finals, where they secured a 3rd place finish, taking down both fnatic and K23 in the bracket.

BLAST also witnessed the debut of Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool in FaZe, with the team putting up a classic Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen strong start. While three of their maps went to overtime in Group C, they were able to pull through and secure a top seed going into the knockout stage. After that, it was a simple matter of defeating BIG in a three map series to secure a place in the Spring Finals. ropz immediately stepped up to the plate and ended their campaign at BLAST as the highest rated player on the team, and one of the highest at the event.

K23, HEET continue to rise; Apeks makes strong debut

New CIS challengers K23 have certainly been one of the revelations of the past three months. Following their roster overhaul after failing to qualify for the Major, the team began to quickly rise through the ranks, eventually winning the Funspark ULTI Europe Playoffs 2 over the likes of Entropiq, Copenhagen Flames, and Dignitas.

At the Funspark ULTI Finals in January, they took things a step further and took down Astralis in their first match. Their excellent form continued throughout January, with K23 beating ECSTATIC and SINNERS in Malta Vibes Knockout Series 5 and winning Pinnacle Winter Series 1 after defeating Heroic and Sprout.

Apeks have hit the ground running

HEET made a strong first showing under their new organization, winning the aforementioned Malta Vibes event in a very convincing fashion. The Frenchmen will have a chance to rise even further at the upcoming ESL Challenger February event, which they qualified for back in December.

As a brand new core, Apeks have secured themselves an early spot in the top 30, thanks to an impressive debut tournament at the Pinnacle Winter Series. Coming all the way from the regional stage, the international squad fought their way all the way to the grand final, picking up victories over SKADE, Endpoint, and fnatic.