CS:GO Team Ranking: March 2013

After February provided us with the first big moves in our ranking this year, March and Copenhagen Games have resulted in an almost complete overhaul aside from the first two spots. ESC Gaming lost their 3rd place to Western Wolves and even Virtus.pro leaped ahead of them, while fnatic and mousesports enter the top 10 for the first time.

March had two interesting LAN events on schedule - Techlabs Cup in Moscow, Russia which saw four big names fight for $15,000, and Copenhagen Games in the Danish capital hosting 71 teams with a staggering 33,000€ up for grabs. Although it was no surprise that NiP climbed the highest podium at both events, we did see that Virtus.pro and Western Wolves have what it takes to change the world order.

In addition to these two LANs we also a saw few online competitions – SLTV StarSeries V finished its online stage and RaidCall EMS One held its Cup #4 and the first two groups of the main stage which secured NiP, Anexis, ESC and aL a spot at the LAN Finals.

 

I. Overall Ranking

TOP 20 (2013-03-31)

Rank	Teams	Points	evo
1.	Ninjas in Pyjamas	1062.73	-
2.	VeryGames	348.69	-
3.	Western Wolves	338.79	+1
4.	Virtus.pro	300.03	+1
5.	ESC Gaming	156.42	-2
6.	fnatic	124.62	+7
7.	Quantic	108.85	+4
8.	mousesports	105.18	+11
9.	Lemondogs	79.54	-3
10.	Anexis	72.45	+4
11.	Curse	64.75	+17
12.	LDLC.com	62.53	-3
13.	Curse	57.09	-3
14.	Natus Vincere	54.78	+3
15.	ex-Imaginary	53.64	-7
16.	n!faculty	50.89	-9
17.	ex-3DMAX	47.71	-5
18.	Temp.no	46.93	+23
19.	Epsilon	41.95	New
20.	k1ck	41.12	-5

 

Noteworthy increase apart from the TOP 20
27th EYES ON U	+28
48th Faith	+11
Noteworthy new teams apart from the TOP 20
26th Xapso	New
30th WRTT	New
31st KILLERFISH	New
36th Cph Wolves	New
Noteworthy decrease apart from the TOP 20
49th myXMG.net	-10
35th myRevenge	-9
33rd ProGaming.TD	-8
28th iNation	-6

 

I.1 Teams out of the Ranking:

Overall		Dynamic (previously 18th) n0thing - AZK - swag - adreN - Volcano	-7
25

As we already hinted last month, Dynamic were the most likely candidate to drop out of the ranking in this edition due to not having any events scheduled. And indeed they played no international matches in March, which sees them dropping from the 18th to the 25th spot. On the other hand, they could be in for a quick comeback as they will attend ESEA Finals later in April.

Overall		ex-Absolute Legends (previously 20th) pronax - olofm - rdl	-4
24

After a number of lineup changes and unsuccessful attempts to build a team that would be a contender, Absolute Legends disbanded on March 20th. They peaked back in November at DreamHack Winter with a quarter-final finish, but were never able to improve on that success, not going higher than the 13th spot on our ranking. 

They started this month with a new addition, Olof "olofm" Kajbjer in what turned out to be their last gasp of a lineup. Things looked well in RaidCall EMS One Cup #4 where they beat Temp.no and n!faculty to secure a spot in the main round, but only a week later they announced the sad news of going separate ways and skipping Copenhagen Games.

Nevertheless they decided to play RaidCall EMS One Group Stage, calling up Epsilon's Jesper "jw" Wecksell and Andreas "schneider" Lindberg to stand in, latter of which was already their member during a successful ESEA spell in January. The mix team actually played well and went undefeated in Group B, drawing against ESC and beating LDLC.com and k1ck to secure a place at the LAN finals.

However, this success wasn't enough to keep them in our Top 20 this month. They will attend the RaidCall EMS One Finals in April, but it is still uncertain with which lineup.

Overall		fm.TOXiC (previously 16th) Whindanski - nEiLZiNHo - socN - smF - X	-5
21

The final team that dropped out of our ranking is fm.TOXiC who finished the month in the unlucky 21st spot. They upped their stock back in February after adding two Danish players, when they recorded some notable wins in ESEA, but March wasn't too kind on them.

Having set big expectations for the British event i48, they came back disappointed with a 3rd place finish and consecutive losses to the new Dignitas lineup. Right after that event and only days before Copenhagen Games they decided it was best to cut André "BARBARR" Möller from the team, so they went to Denmark with a stand-in Kevin "kev1n" Hansen.

They didn't fare well there either, finishing in the 17th-24th spot after losses to Quantic and Temp.no in the group stage and ESC Gaming in the lower bracket later on, but beating ALTERNATE and myRevenge. Overall it was an unsuccessful month for the mixed nationality squad and they finish it with an incomplete lineup. Their only big event in April will be Mad Catz Birmingham, which they will once again attend with the stand-in, so bouncing back to the Top 20 will be difficult.

 

I.2 Decreasing teams

Overall		n!faculty (previously 7th) asmo - Kirby - qk-Mantis - smn - disruptor	-9
16

Team that recorded the biggest drop during March was n!faculty. After climbing to the 7th spot thanks to some impressive online wins in February, the Germans finished that month with a dismal display in Vienna at Mad Catz Invitational and they followed it up with an even worse month of March.

Their only online event, apart from EPS Germany which isn't counted in this ranking, was RaidCall EMS One Cup #4 at which they were upset by Absolute Legends in their very first match. Thankfully for them they were already qualified for the main round at that point, so it wasn't a big deal at that moment.

But it did indicate, along with some poor results in the EPS, that their form was going in a downwards direction which was later confirmed at Copenhagen Games. There the German team had a performance they would surely rather forget, losing all maps in the group stage to ESC, mouz and Danish side KILLERFISH, beating only 3DMAX in the lower bracket and then once again losing unexpectedly to Temp.no.

In the end they lost a staggering 20 points, although about half of it due to their early success back in 2012 slowly losing value. That dropped them down to the 16th place, closer to dropping out of the ranking than breaking the top5 which they seemed to be on the way of doing this time last month.

Underachievements  (according to the ranking of February 2013):
7th	n!faculty	vs New	KILLERFISH	0-2	Cph Games group stage
7th	n!faculty	vs 19th	mousesports	0-2	Cph Games group stage
7th	n!faculty	vs 41st	Temp.no	14-16	Cph Games LB round 2
7th	n!faculty	vs 20th	ex-aL	6-16	RaidCall EMS One Cup #4

 

Overall		ex-Imaginary (previously 8th) Ozstrik3r - Uzziii - mshz - MAJ3R - shoxie	-7
15

Promising French team Imaginary held the 8th spot in our ranking coming into this month, and despite the Mad Catz group stage exit, they looked poised to make waves at Copenhagen Games. Sadly things didn't go according to plan and only a week prior to the Danish event they were forced to leave the organization which couldn't fulfill their wish of sending them to the Nordic country.

The squad containing one of the most talented individuals in CS:GO, Richard "shoxie" Papillon was unable to find new sponsorship in time, so in the end they decided to break up. Having missed Cph Games, ex-Imaginary were unable to gain any significant points as their only event in March was SLTV StarSeries V.

In that online league they were largely unsuccessful, losing to the likes of KerchNET, zNation, mouz and fnatic, all of whom were lower ranked than the French in our February edition, which meant they even lost a minor amount of points. They finished the league in 10th place, a disappointing campaign compared to season before when they were 3rd.

Overall, the squad fell down to the 15th spot of our ranking and will likely be removed next month unless at least three of them continue playing together in a new team.

Underachievements (according to the ranking of February 2013):
8th	ex-Imaginary	vs 85th	KerchNET	10-16	SLTV StarSeries V
8th	ex-Imaginary	vs 24th	zNation	7-16	SLTV StarSeries V
8th	ex-Imaginary	vs 19th	mousesports	12-16	SLTV StarSeries V
8th	ex-Imaginary	vs 13th	fnatic	9-16	SLTV StarSeries V

 

Overall		ex-3DMAX (previously 12th) GuardiaN - oskar - sneix - kap1 - .PhP	-5
17

Another team that will no longer exist from this month on is Slovakian-Czech mixture formerly of 3DMAX. They have been unable to improve on their 9th spot in our ranking from December when they came back from Prague with the 3rd place cheque, and have been dropping down since.

After the Mad Catz Invitational disappointment they added another bad LAN performance in Copenhagen, finishing 25th-32nd and sharing the last place with seven other teams. They shouldn't have been too disappointed considering they had a tough set of match-ups, only losing to teams higher ranked than them – VeryGames, Lemondogs and n!faculty, while beating iRAGE in between.

Nevertheless, that result showed that the team hasn't been making progress, so Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács decided to disband the squad on the first day of April. In their matches leading up to Copenhagen Games they showed signs of bad shape when they lost to EYES ON U in the RaidCall EMS One Cup #4, as well as with a poor display in SLTV StarSeries V which included a loss to Faith.

In the team's final month they finished 17th on our ranking and just like Imaginary, they will be removed from the list next month unless they form a new team with at least three players from this squad.

Underachievements  (according to the ranking of February 2013):
12th	ex-3DMAX	vs 60th	EYES ON U	7-16	RaidCall EMS One Cup #4
12th	ex-3DMAX	vs 65th	Faith	13-16	SLTV StarSeries V
12th	ex-3DMAX	vs 19th	mousesports	14-16	SLTV StarSeries V
12th	ex-3DMAX	vs 13th	fnatic	8-16	SLTV StarSeries V

 

Overall		k1ck (previously 15th) fox - mUttt - iNsider - emotioN - n3w	-5
20

Following their third drop in three months, this time by 5 places, Portuguese side k1ck is on the verge of falling out of our Top 20. Due to being one of the rare teams that skipped Copenhagen Games, k1ck were only seen in RaidCall EMS One group stage where they failed to qualify for the next round due to losses to ESC Gaming and Absolute Legends.

They did beat higher ranked LDLC.com though, so their point count overall remained about the same, but despite that several other teams leaped over them and pushed them down to the brink. Luckily for the Portuguese team, they have a trip to Birmingham scheduled right at the beginning of April, so with any kind of successful campaign they will likely hold onto to a spot in the Top 20.

Underachievements  (according to the ranking of February 2013):
15th	k1ck	vs 20th	ex-aLegends	3-16	RaidCall EMS One group stage

 

Overall		Lemondogs (previously 6th) twist - cype - waver - Spitfire - zajp	-3
9

Once 4th placed Lemondogs have continued their fall, this time going down to 9th place despite a relatively solid showing at Copenhagen Games. They had no trouble giong through the qualifier for the main event, at which they came second in their group, behind VeryGames and in front of 3DMAX and iRAGE.

They then bested British Anexis in the first round of upper bracket, but lost to lower ranked fnatic and then even Curse.us, two results which knocked some points off of the Swedes. In the end they placed 9th-12th in the Danish capital and it was after all enough to keep them in the top 10 of our ranking.

Unfortunately, they have only NLAN scheduled for April which is just a local Swedish event and will not count towards our ranking, so they will probably continue their fall.

Underachievements  (according to the ranking of February 2013):
6th	Lemondogs	vs 28th	Curse	8-16	Cph Games LB round 4
6th	Lemondogs	vs 13th	fnatic	0-2	Cph Games UB 1/4 final

 

Overall		LDLC.com (previously 9th) apEX - Happy - atLaNtis - Maniac - Sf	-3
12

One of the most pleasant surprises of February, LDLC.com, have dropped out of the top 10 mainly due to skipping Copenhagen Games. Their only action in March was RaidCall EMS One, where they reached the final of Cup #4 by defeating Natus Vincere and fnatic, but were unable to repeat their heroics from the 3rd cup against VeryGames, this time losing in the final.

Despite that success and good form, they later didn't qualify for the LAN finals due to suffering three incredibly close defeats to k1ck, Absolute Legends and ESC Gaming in RC EMS One group stage. The losses to the Portuguese and Swedish squads also brought them negative points, so in the end they finished the month with the exactly same point count as last time, but also a few spots lower in the ranking due to other teams' success.

Underachievements  (according to the ranking of February 2013):
9th	LDLC.com	vs 20th	ex-aLegends	14-16	RaidCall online groupstage
9th	LDLC.com	vs 15th	k1ck	13-16	RaidCall online groupstage

 

Overall		Curse (previously 10th) allu - natu - reflex - ScurK - KHRN	-3
13

In their first LAN event in 2013 and the first event with their new member Jesse "KHRN" Grandell, Finnish Curse disappointed their fans. Although they successfully made it out of a group with NiP, beating two Danish teams EYES ON U and myRevenge and of course losing to the Swedes, Curse were then knocked out in an unexpected fashion.

In the upper bracket fnatic got the better of them, which wasn't that big of an upset, but it was still a loss to a team ranked lower than them at that point. Then as the new day dawned in Copenhagen, the Finns surprisingly got eliminated by their 4th Danish opponent, Xapso. Due to that match and the depreciation of their older events, once 5th Curse lost points compared to last month and now dropped to the 13th spot.

According to the current schedule, they will miss out on all the big events in April, with GeeX in May the only possible tournament they could be seen next, so their stock is likely going to fall further.

Underachievements  (according to the ranking of February 2013):
10th	Curse	vs New	Xapso	7-16	Cph Games LB round 2
10th	Curse	vs 13th	fnatic	0-2	Cph Games UB 1/8 final

 

Overall		ESC Gaming (previously 3rd) Neo - Loord - TaZ - kuben - pasha	-2
5

One of the teams that disappointed the most in March is the Golden Five of ESC Gaming. The Poles remained on the same point count as last month after a 3rd place finish at Techlabs and 13th-16th placing at Copenhagen Games, although they did manage to qualify for the LAN finals in StarSeries V and RaidCall EMS One.

They seemed to continue their February online woes early on in the month during SLTV StarSeries with losses to German teams ALTERNATE and later mousesports, but they managed to sneak into the top four at the end thanks to a strong finish.

But unlike February where they failed in the first three RC EMS One cups, they used their last chance in the fourth cup by reaching the semi-final after beating NiP 16-12 early on.

They later made it through a group containing ex-Absolute Legends, k1ck and LDLC.com to secure a spot at the LAN finals, and despite having failed to qualify for ESEA Invite finals last month, they ended up receiving an invite due to Virtus.pro pulling out, securing themselves a more than busy April.

But even though it was a more successful month online for the Poles, their usually stronger LAN performance took a hit. While Techlabs 3rd place did bring them $2,000, they suffered two convincing losses to Virtus.pro which already hinted there might come a change in the top5 order.

Copenhagen Games only confirmed that doubt as ESC Gaming found themselves surprised by mousesports in the group stage, which eventually pitted them once again versus Virtus.pro in the upper bracket. The CIS squad defeated the Poles for the third time in a row, and even though they somehow overcame fm.TOXiC in the lower bracket, their next opponent Epsilon beat them 16-14 and knocked them out in 13th-16th place.

This unexpectedly low finish for the team that was considered 3rd best in the world made them lose a significant amount of points, so all of their successful results earlier in the month were negated and they finished with the same amount of points as last month. That allowed two teams to leap over them, so ESC Gaming has now dropped to the 5th spot overall.

Underachievements  (according to the ranking of February 2013):
3rd	ESC	vs 19th	mousesports	0-2	Cph Games group stage
3rd	ESC	vs 5th	Virtus.pro	0-2	Cph Games UB 1/8 final
3rd	ESC	vs New	Epsilon	14-16	Cph Games LB round 3
3rd	ESC	vs 5th	Virtus.pro	9-16	Techlabs UB semi-final
3rd	ESC	vs 5th	Virtus.pro	9-16	Techlabs consolidation final
3rd	ESC	vs 21st	ALTERNATE	6-16	SLTV StarSeries V
3rd	ESC	vs 19th	mousesports	14-16	SLTV StarSeries V

I.3 Increasing teams (which are not in the Monthly Top 10)

Overall		Anexis (previously 14th) RattlesnK - Mx - RE1EASE - weber - Hughsy	+4
10

The British squad whose core reached DreamHack Winter semi-final back in November, and who were one of the teams to give NiP the hardest fight on LAN, has been slowly dropping in our ranking for months now, but in March they've finally done enough to turn their fortunes around.

Even though their SLTV StarSeries V campaign was far from successful (3-11) and they ended up forfeiting their last few matches (which will relegate them from the league in the next season), their performance in the month was overall a positive one.

In RaidCall EMS One Anexis made it through the group stage, defeating ALTERNATE and myXMG.net and once again putting up a great fight against NiP (14-16) to secure a place at the LAN finals. A few days after that, they triumphed locally at Insomnia48 over Dignitas which provided nice preparation for the biggest event on the horizon in 2013 so far.

At Copenhagen Games they topped a not particularly difficult group with Curse.us, LowLandLions and Reason Gaming, where the North Americans took them to overtime on the 3rd map. In the upper bracket they got knocked down by Lemondogs after two close maps, but they made a lower bracket run by beating KILLERFISH and Xapso before losing to mousesports and finishing 9th-12th, just outside of the money.

Despite no big results, those 5 wins on LAN, as well as the qualification for RC EMS One, increased their point count for the first time since November and helped them climb back into the top 10. At the beginning of April they made a lineup change, removing Preben "prb" Gammelsæter and adding Lewis "Hughsy" Hughes just days before attending their other big event in the upcoming month, Mad Catz Birmingham, so we will see how this will affect the team in the future.

 

Overall		Natus Vincere (previously 17th) Zeus - starix - markeloff - ceh9 - Edward	+3
14

Na`Vi entered the ranking for the first time in February, and even though they didn't turn the scene upside down in March, they still made slight progress again.

They continued their successful campaign in SLTV StarSeries V by even handing NiP their only loss in the season, eventually securing a spot at the LAN finals in their home country. On the other hand, despite beating Anexis in the first round of RaidCall EMS One Cup #4, the Ukrainians were stopped by LDLC.com and therefore didn't make it to the group stage of that event.

More importantly though, they were unable to achieve any success on LAN. Their Techlabs campaign ended with two convincing losses to NiP and ESC Gaming, making them last placed of four teams, and they later exited Copenhagen Games again in the last place after the already over-talked about dropout from the tournament.

They did manage to take fnatic's scalp in the Danish capital, which coupled with some online success (mainly the victory over NiP) brought them enough points to make progress in our ranking up to 14th place, but not enough to be in the monthly top 10.

Versus teams higher ranked in the Ranking of February
17th	Natus Vincere	vs 13th	fnatic	2-1	Cph Games group stage
17th	Natus Vincere	vs 14th	Anexis	21-18	RaidCall EMS One Cup #4
17th	Natus Vincere	vs 1st	NiP	16-12	SLTV StarSeries V
17th	Natus Vincere	vs 14th	Anexis	16-7	SLTV StarSeries V

 

II. Monthly Ranking

 

TOP 10 (March 2013)

Rank	Teams	Points
1.	Ninjas in Pyjamas	411.38
2.	Virtus.pro	226.53
3.	Western Wolves	201.33
4.	VeryGames	93.75
5.	fnatic	82.51
6.	mousesports	78.62
7.	Quantic	62.03
8.	Curse.us	50.87
9.	Temp.no	42.74
10.	Epsilon	41.95

 

TEST 

Monthly		Epsilon (new) flusha - jw - schneider - devilwalk - berg	New
10

Achievements:
- 
Total prize money: - 

The most controversial team in the past few months, Swedish side Epsilon, finally had their LAN debut at Copenhagen Games. The Swedes had previously won RaidCall EMS One Cup #1 and were finalists of Cup #2, but saw their success annulled when their former member Jerry "xelos" Råberg was convicted of cheating by ESL.

Upon arrival to Denmark they quickly proved most of their doubters wrong, giving fnatic a hard time and losing only after three very close maps, and then beating Na`Vi in a similarly exciting scenario. They were knocked out of the upper bracket by Western Wolves after snatching a map from them too, and then had a solid lower bracket run where they beat ESC Gaming, to finally be stopped by VeryGames at 7th-8th place.

Overall, it was a very successful LAN debut for this young Swedish team and they have now entered out ranking at the 19th position, highest of all new teams.

Top matches (according to the ranking of February 2013):

Versus teams from the Top20 of February Ranking
New	Epsilon	vs 17th	Natus Vincere	2-1	Cph Games group stage
New	Epsilon	vs 3rd	ESC Gaming	16-14	Cph Games LB round 3

 

Monthly		Temp.no (from 41st to 18th) cENTRYZ - DaY - Polly - Leffa - prb	+23
9

Achievements:
- 
Total prize money: -

While Epsilon, Natus Vincere and even the North American teams were under the close eye of the public all along, the team that came out of nowhere and surprised everyone with their Copenhagen Games success was Temp.no.

With only mediocre online results in the past months, as they finished just below the line in the RaidCall EMS One qualifying process for the main round, the Norwegian team was never seriously considered entering Copenhagen Games.

Nevertheless, they made their way through the on-site qualifier and then came 2nd in the group with Quantic, fm.TOXiC and ALTERNATE, beating the latter two. Although VeryGames were too strong for them in the upper bracket, they made their way through two rounds of lower bracket before getting stopped by Western Wolves at 9th-12th place.

Their final win before getting knocked out came against n!faculty, making it three notable scalps for the Norwegians on LAN which eventually brought them enough points to climb 23 places in our ranking.

At the beginning of April they strengthened their team with former Anexis member Preben "prb" Gammelsæter in hopes of even bigger success in the future.

Top matches (according to the ranking of February 2013):

Versus higher ranked teams in the February Ranking
41st	Temp.no	vs 7th	n!faculty	16-14	Cph Games LB round 2
41st	Temp.no	vs 16th	fm.TOXiC	2-1	Cph Games group stage
41st	Temp.no	vs 21st	ALTERNATE	2-1	Cph Games group stage

 

Monthly		Curse (from 28th to 11th) Skadoodle - anger - stan - ezpk - Michael3D	+17
8

Achievements:
7-8th at Copenhagen Games 2013 
Total prize money: ~500€

In their second outing across the pond, Curse.us had significantly more success than at DreamHack Winter where they didn't make it past the group stage.

This time they not only finished second in their group after a close loss to Anexis, but they also took down a couple of higher ranked teams in the lower bracket, including Lemondogs, to finish in a very respectable 7th-8th place.

Overall they had 5 victories in Denmark which granted them a jump to the 11th place in our ranking, making them the 2nd best North American team after passing Dynamic. They will have a chance to improve on that in April when North American and European scenes will collide in Dallas, Texas at ESEA Invite Season 13 Finals.

Top matches (according to the ranking of February 2013):

Versus higher ranked teams in the February Ranking
28th	Curse	vs 6th	Lemondogs	16-8	Cph Games LB round 4
28th	Curse	vs 21st	ALTERNATE	16-13	Cph Games LB round 2

 

Monthly		Quantic (from 11th to 7th)      hiko - DaZeD - frozt - semphis - tck	+4
7

Achievements:
5-6th at Copenhagen Games 2013 
Total prize money: ~750€

The other North American team that visited Copenhagen Games was Quantic Gaming, formerly known as Area51 and remembered for their 3rd place campaign at ESWC last year.

In their first LAN event since that trip to France, Quantic fulfilled the expectations by reaching the upper bracket semi-finals after taking care of Temp.no, fm.TOXiC, ALTERNATE, Curse.us and mousesports. They were finally stopped by Virtus.pro after three maps and were unable to recover in the lower bracket due to running into VeryGames straight away, so the North Americans had to settle for 5th-6th place.

Even though Quantic has been slowly dropping in our ranking from 3rd place back in November to 11th in February, this performance in Denmark brought them back to 7th. With ESEA Finals coming up, they will have a chance to further improve on that during April.

Top matches (according to the ranking of February 2013):

Versus teams from the Top20 of February Ranking
11th	Quantic	vs 16th	fm.TOXiC	2-0	Cph Games group stage
11th	Quantic	vs 19th	mousesports	2-0	Cph Games UB 1/4 final

 

Monthly		mousesports (from 19th to 8th) Troubley - karrigan - nooky - approx - zonixx	+11
6

Achievements:
7-8th at Copenhagen Games 2013 
Total prize money: ~500€

From the shadows of disappointing results in the past few months, Germans mousesports came to Denmark with no one expecting them to accomplish much at their first LAN event of 2013. But they got themselves back on the map right away by getting all three wins in a group with ESC Gaming, n!faculty and KILLERFISH.

They even made it to the upper quarter-final by taking out Swedes Publiclir, but Quantic proved too strong after that. Another big win for them followed in the lowered bracket, 16-10 over Anexis, but Western Wolves made sure that 7th-8th place is as far as they could go.

A somewhat successful run online in SLTV StarSeries V preceded their Danish adventures, as they beat the likes of Virtus.pro, ESC Gaming, Imaginary and 3DMAX, but they still finished with a negative record of 6-8 in 8th place.

All those wins against higher ranked teams brought them plenty of bonus points, so together with the 7-8th finish in Copenhagen they got enough to advance from 19th to 8th position in our ranking. Unfortunately they have no events scheduled for April, and their only upcoming competition is EPS Germany whose Finals will take place in May.

Top matches (according to the ranking of February 2013):

Versus higher ranked teams in the February Ranking
19th	mousesports	vs 3rd	ESC	2-0	Cph Games group stage
19th	mousesports	vs 7th	n!faculty	2-0	Cph Games group stage
19th	mousesports	vs 14th	Anexis	16-10	Cph Games LB 1/8 final
19th	mousesports	vs 3rd	ESC	16-14	SLTV StarSeries V
19th	mousesports	vs 5th	Virtus.pro	16-13	SLTV StarSeries V
19th	mousesports	vs 8th	Imaginary	16-12	SLTV StarSeries V
19th	mousesports	vs 12th	3DMAX	16-14	SLTV StarSeries V

 

Monthly		fnatic (from 13th to 6th) MODDII - Xyp9x - Friis - Trace - stingeR	+7
5

Achievements:
3-4th at RaidCall EMS One Cup #4
5-6th at Copenhagen Games 2013
Total prize money: ~827€

Following the lineup change at the very end of February when they added Andreas "MODDII" Fridh and Lasse "stingeR" Midtstue, fnatic finally started recording notable results. They built on their RC EMS One Cup #3 title by reaching the semi-final of the fourth cup and securing one of the high seeds for the main round. They also completely overturned their fortunes in SLTV StarSeries V by winning almost all matches since the lineup change, except a 14-16 loss to NiP and a draw with Virtus.pro, but they missed out on the LAN finals by a couple of points.

They came to Copenhagen Games basically undefeated with the new lineup so the expectations were high. A tough group stage with close matches against Epsilon and Natus Vincere still saw them end up on top of a three way tie, paving way for a semi-final campaign in the upper bracket.

After overcoming Finnish Curse and Lemondogs, both of whom were higher ranked than fnatic in February, they were unable to beat NiP so they were sent to the lower bracket. Western Wolves awaited there and ran away with a 16-10 victory, leaving the Nordic mixture at 5th-6th place in the end.

Overall, it was a successful campaign for fnatic in March, so they advanced 7 places up to their highest yet 6th spot and are now very close to breaking the top 5.

Top matches (according to the ranking of February 2013):

Versus higher ranked teams in the February Ranking
13th	fnatic	vs 6th	Lemondogs	2-0	Cph Games UB 1/4 final
13th	fnatic	vs 10th	Curse	2-0	Cph Games UB 1/8 final
13th	fnatic	vs 8th	ex-Imaginary	16-9	SLTV StarSeries V
13th	fnatic	vs 12th	ex-3DMAX	16-8	SLTV StarSeries V
Versus teams from the Top20 of February Ranking
13th	fnatic	vs 19th	mousesports	16-5	SLTV StarSeries V
13th	fnatic	vs 14th	Anexis	16-9	SLTV StarSeries V
13th	fnatic	vs 17th	Natus Vincere	16-13	SLTV StarSeries V

 

Monthly		VeryGames (remained 2nd) Ex6TenZ - kennyS - NBK - ScreaM - SmithZz	-
4

Achievements:
1st at RaidCall EMS One Cup #4
4th at Copenhagen Games 2013
Total prize money: ~2,462€

VeryGames are still a contender at every event they participate in, but as time passes they grow further away from NiP while other teams get closer to them. It's never come as close as it did at the end of March, with VG now holding only the slightest advantage ahead of their followers.

The French-Belgian side even finished outside of the podium for the first time at Copenhagen Games and they are also for the first time not in our monthly top 3.

They began the month by dropping out of SLTV StarSeries V despite a 3-0 start in order to focus more on practice and other tournaments. They did quickly make that count by winning RaidCall EMS One Cup #4, overcoming ESC in the semis and LDLC.com in the final, and securing one of the high seeds ahead of the group stage draw.

At the end of the month, a trip to Denmark to the most competitive LAN so far this year awaited, and VG seemed to be ready as they stormed through the group stage, beating Lemondogs, 3DMAX and iRAGE, as well as Temp.no in the first round of upper bracket.

Unfortunately for them, the random draw decided NiP would be on the same side of the bracket, so the two giants already met in the quarter-final. The French team once again couldn't put up a resistance, so they got sent to the lower bracket early on.

A solid surge through three rounds of best-of-one play saw them eliminate Epsilon and both North American teams, Curse and Quantic, but their new nemesis Western Wolves once again proved to have VG's number, this time knocking them out at 4th place.

Although they still hold 2nd place in our overall ranking, VeryGames will need a good April showing in order to keep it. Luckily for them, they have qualified for just about every event so unless they severely underperform, it will be tough to knock them down.

Top matches (according to the ranking of February 2013):

Versus teams from the Top20 of February Ranking
2nd	VeryGames	vs 11th	Quantic	16-5	Cph Games LB semi-final
2nd	VeryGames	vs 6th	Lemondogs	2-1	Cph Games group stage
2nd	VeryGames	vs 12th	ex-3DMAX	2-0	Cph Games group stage
2nd	VeryGames	vs 9th	LDLC.com	2-0	RC EMS Cup #4 final
2nd	VeryGames	vs 3rd	ESC Gaming	16-3	RC EMS Cup #4 1/2 final
2nd	VeryGames	vs 15th	k1ck	16-11	RC EMS Cup #4 final
2nd	VeryGames	vs 19th	mousesports	16-12	RC EMS Cup #4 final

 

Monthly		Western Wolves (from 4th to 3rd) Nico - Pimp - MSL - gla1ve - Nille	+1
3

Achievements:
2nd at Copenhagen Games 2013
Total prize money: ~8,000€

After their 2nd place finish at Mad Catz Invitational, unu.AiN were left in search of an organization at the end of February due to leaving Anexis. Mid-March that search final came to an end as they were signed by Western Wolves and their first and only event of the month would be on their home soil - Copenhagen Games.

With a tough task of repeating their success from Austria and confirming that it wasn't just a one-time thing, the Danes began their campaign in a somewhat easy group, beating Copenhagen Wolves, ServerForge and plan-B.

They then knocked out Epsilon after three maps in the upper-bracket, but suffered the same fate to Virtus.pro in the next round. Even though a long battle awaited them in the lower bracket, they managed to overcome Temp.no, mousesports, fnatic and then VeryGames in the lower final before getting a chance for revenge against Virtus.pro.

The Danes came out on top 16-10 against the CIS squad and had thus proved they are definitely one of the best teams in the world, but despite having great crowd support on the stage, they were unable to give NiP a good fight in the grand final.

Thanks to this successful lower bracket run and a 2nd place finish, they have almost doubled their point count from last month and have moved up over ESC Gaming to 3rd place in the overall ranking, and are now just a few points behind second placed VeryGames.

A good result at Mad Catz Birmingham could see them leap over the Frenchmen as well, but after that they have no events scheduled so it could be hard keeping that spot.

Top matches (according to the ranking of February 2013):

Versus higher ranked teams in the February Ranking
4th	WWolves	vs 2nd	VeryGames	2-0	Cph Games LB final
Versus teams from the Top20 of February Ranking
4th	WWolves	vs 15th	Virtus.pro	16-11	Cph Games consolidation final
4th	WWolves	vs 19th	mouz	16-9	Cph Games LB round 5
4th	WWolves	vs 13th	fnatic	16-10	Cph Games LB 1/2 final

 

Monthly		Virtus.pro (from 5th to 4th) Dosia - ANGE1 - AdreN - kucher - Fox	+1
2

Achievements:
2nd at Techlabs Cup 2013
3rd and Copenhagen Games 2013
Total prize money: ~7,080€

After showing their potential in online leagues in the last few months (3rd place at ESEA Invite and 2nd place in FFO), Virtus.pro finally attended their first LAN events of 2013.

Firstly they were on show in Moscow, Russia at Techlabs Cup where they finished in second place after losing to NiP in both the upper final and the grand final. Regardless of those losses, they gave the Swedes a good fight in the process, and they beat ESC Gaming two times to gain extra points for our ranking.

A week after that they attended Copenhagen Games where they put in another great showing. Before once again losing to NiP in the upper final they beat the likes of ESC Gaming, Western Wolves and Quantic in the playoffs. In the end, the Danish team retaliated in the consolidation final, so the Russian-Ukrainian-Kazakh mixture finished with the 4,000€ cheque for 3rd place.

In addition to those two podium placements, they continued being successful online by securing a spot at the LAN finals of SLTV StarSeries V. When we put all those accomplishments together at the end of the month, they turned out to be the 2nd most successful team in the world throughout March, thanks to which they also moved up ahead of ESC Gaming and now hold the 4th position overall.

Unfortunately, they had to cancel their ESEA Invite participation due to visa issues, but they will be on show in Kiev, Ukraine at SLTV StarSeries V finals in April.

Top matches (according to the ranking of February 2013):

Versus higher ranked teams in the February Ranking
5th	Virtus.pro	vs 4th	WWolves	2-1	Cph Games UB 1/4 final
5th	Virtus.pro	vs 3rd	ESC Gaming	2-0	Cph Games UB 1/8 final
5th	Virtus.pro	vs 3rd	ESC Gaming	16-9	Techlabs UB semi-final
5th	Virtus.pro	vs 3rd	ESC Gaming	16-9	Techlabs consolidation final
Versus teams from the Top20 of February Ranking
5th	Virtus.pro	vs 11th	Quantic	2-1	Cph Games UB semi-final
5th	Virtus.pro	vs 14th	Anexis	16-14	SLTV StarSeries V
5th	Virtus.pro	vs 8th	ex-Imaginary	16-6	SLTV StarSeries V
5th	Virtus.pro	vs 12th	ex-3DMAX	16-3	SLTV StarSeries V
5th	Virtus.pro	vs 17th	Natus Vincere	16-12	SLTV StarSeries V

 

Monthly		Ninjas in Pyjamas (remained 1st) Xizt - f0rest - GeT_RiGhT - Fliffaren - friberg	-
1

Achievements:
1st at Copenhagen Games 2013
1st at Techlabs Cup 2013
Total prize money: ~22,660€

As always, the first place in our monthly (and overall) ranking is reserved for Ninjas in Pyjamas. With two more LAN titles under their belt, they reached an 85-0 map record on LAN in their CS:GO careers.

However, before their Techlabs Cup victory they suffered a couple of online losses, to ESC in RaidCall EMS One Cup #4 and then to Na`Vi in SLTV StarSeries V. They still topped the standings in the latter competition, while they later qualified for RC EMS One finals as well, so those defeats had no big consequences.

Nevertheless, that showed their vulnerability, which was put to a test in Moscow by Virtus.pro, but the Ninjas came out on top twice to win $8,000.

Same thing happened again at Copenhagen Games where Virtus.pro challenged the Swedes in the upper bracket final, but they passed the test again and later beat Western Wolves to clinch a 16,500€ cheque. They also beat VeryGames and fnatic in best-of-three matches earlier in the tournament, so they continued their dominance over the Frenchmen.

Ninjas in Pyjamas have now accumulated over 1,000 points in our ranking and it will be very tough for anyone to reach them anytime soon, especially considering they are signed up for every upcoming event as well.

Top matches (according to the ranking of February 2013):

Versus teams from the Top20 of February Ranking
1st	NiP	vs 4th	WWolves	16-2	Cph Games grand final
1st	NiP	vs 5th	Virtus.pro	2-0	Cph Games UB final
1st	NiP	vs 13th	fnatic	2-0	Cph Games UB semi-final
1st	NiP	vs 2nd	VeryGames	2-0	Cph Games UB 1/4 final
1st	NiP	vs 10th	Curse	2-0	Cph Games group stage
1st	NiP	vs 17th	Natus Vincere	16-5	Techlabs UB semi-final
1st	NiP	vs 5th	Virtus.pro	16-12	Techlabs UB final
1st	NiP	vs 5th	Virtus.pro	16-10	Techlabs grand final
1st	NiP	vs 19th	mousesports	16-6	SLTV StarSeries V
1st	NiP	vs 14th	Anexis	16-7	SLTV StarSeries V
1st	NiP	vs 3rd	ESC Gaming	16-9	SLTV StarSeries V
1st	NiP	vs 5th	Virtus.pro	16-5	SLTV StarSeries V
1st	NiP	vs 13th	fnatic	16-14	SLTV StarSeries V
1st	NiP	vs 12th	ex-3DMAX	16-7	SLTV StarSeries V

 

III. Main Statistics

III.1 graphics

TOP 5 points evolution (NiP excluded)
November: VeryGames were an indisputable no.2 after finnishing 2nd at DreamHack Winter and ESWC. They were far ahead ESC, Western Wolves (then Anexis) and Virtus.pro.
December: ESC started to create a gap between themselves and the rest after winning SLTV StarSeries IV and finishing 2nd at NorthCon.
January: Western Wolves added Nico and gla1ve, but the Danes and Virtus.pro were still unproven at this point and the month brought no big changes in points
February: Western Wolves came within inches of ESC Gaming after their 2nd place at Mad Catz Vienna
March: Virtus.pro and Western Wolves leap over ESC Gaming after the Poles underperformed at Copenhagen Games, and they also reduce the gap with VeryGames making the battle for 2nd place more than interesting in the coming months.
VeryGames	Western Wolves
Virtus.pro	ESC Gaming

III.2 Ranking by prize money

The amounts of prize money is based only on the events included in the ranking:

Monthly prize money Ranking						Overall prize money Ranking
1st	NiP	~22,660€				1st	NiP	~84,783€
2nd	WWolves	~8,000€				2nd	VeryGames	~23,577€
3rd	Virtus.pro	~7,080€				3rd	ESC Gaming	~11,817€
4th	VeryGames	~2,462€				4th	Quantic	~11,530€
5th	ESC Gaming	~1,617€				5th	WWolves	~11,000€
6th	fnatic	~827€				6th	Virtus.pro	~9,968€
7th	Natus Vincere	~770€				7th	Lemondogs	~6,486€
8th	Quantic	~750€				8th	ex-3DMAX	~4,697€
9th	mousesports	~500€				9th	k1ck	~4,552€
9th	Curse.us	~500€				10th	Anexis	~4,158€

III.3 Other Top Matches from teams outside of the Monthly Top 10

21st	ALTERNATE	vs 3rd	ESC	16-6	SLTV StarSeries V
21st	ALTERNATE	vs 14th	Anexis	16-9	SLTV StarSeries V
21st	ALTERNATE	vs 19th	mouz	16-14	SLTV StarSeries V
65th	Faith	vs 12th	3DMAX	16-13	SLTV StarSeries V
24th	zNation	vs 8th	Imaginary	16-7	SLTV StarSeries V
24th	zNation	vs 17th	Na`Vi	16-3	SLTV StarSeries V
24th	zNation	vs 21st	ALTERNATE	16-4	SLTV StarSeries V
85th	KerchNET	vs 8th	Imaginary	16-10	SLTV StarSeries V
3rd	ESC	vs 1st	NiP	16-12	RC EMS Cup #4
55th	EYES ON U	vs 32nd	LowLandLions	16-6	RC EMS Cup #4
55th	EYES ON U	vs 12th	3DMAX	16-7	RC EMS Cup #4
55th	EYES ON U	vs 26th	myRevenge	2-0	Cph Games group stage
81st	Eternity	vs 41st	dotpiXels	16-11	RC EMS Cup #4
15th	k1ck	vs 9th	LDLC.com	16-13	RC EMS group stage
20th	aL	vs 9th	LDLC.com	16-14	RC EMS group stage
20th	aL	vs 15th	k1ck	16-3	RC EMS group stage
20th	aL	vs 7th	n!faculty	16-6	RC EMS Cup #4

Events

As always, at the end we present you the list of events that were included in the creation of this ranking. Note that older events lose value as time goes by.

 

High:	DreamHack Winter 2012, ESWC 2012, Mad Catz Invitational, Copenhagen Games 2013
Medium:	DreamHack Valencia, SLTV StarSeries IV, NorthCon, THOR Open, AMD Sapphire, Techlabs Cup 2013
Low:	ESEA Invite Season 12, DreamHack Winter international qualifer, ESL Major Series, ESEA Invite Season 13 North America & Europe, XLParty, RADEON Offensive, IEM Poland, EMS Winter Season 2012, Fnatic FragOut league, RaidCall EMS One Spring 2013 cups #1-#4, RaidCall EMS One Spring 2013 Group Stage, SLTV StarSeries V

 

The action is April has already started and it will be the most active month in CS:GO so far, with 4 LAN events scheduled. That will certainly cause major changes in the next edition of our ranking, so stay tuned to HLTV.org.