Team Ranking: October 2015

HLTV.org introduced our new and definite global team rankings system on the first of October, 2015.

Our official rankings scientist Julien "topeiko" Hottias has just updated the rankings, and since it takes place after this past weekend's major at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca, many definitive changes are to be found in the rankings.

Once again, the ranking is based on teams' achievements over the past year (with severe decay in points throughout each month), recent form over the last 2 months, and performance at the last ten offline events.

All of that is predicated around a three-man core each team is required to have in order to retain their past points. Online matches and tournaments are included, but with a diminishing factor which means they cannot make a big difference among the top teams, and mainly serve to put new teams on the map.

We will always have a special page where you will be able to find the latest version of our ranking (which is sometimes updated on a weekly basis if the events scene is busy).

Here is the current top 20 table as of November 3rd, 2015, which goes more in-depth into the way points are distributed.

Rank	Team	Achievements	Form	LANs	Total points	+/-
1.	EnVyUs	452	247	250	949	+2
2.	TSM	445	250	126	821	-
3.	fnatic	500	162	123	785	-2
4.	Virtus.pro	448	153	121	722	-
5.	Null element Natus Vincere	348	141	109	598	-
6.	NiP	284	128	79	491	-
7.	G2	141	99	68	308	+1
8.	Cloud9	196	36	41	273	-1
9.	Luminosity	123	63	36	222	+3
10.	CLG	138	44	38	220	+1
11.	Titan	83	78	40	201	+4
12.	dignitas	120	57	22	199	-3
13.	mousesports	122	40	36	198	-3
14.	Liquid	79	87	30	196	-
15.	FlipSid3	113	42	23	178	-2
16.	E-frag.net	64	59	5	128	-
17.	Renegades	77	14	15	106	+1
18.	Vexed	63	6	21	90	+1
19.	CSGL	51	30	1	82	+1
20.	Immunity	40	9	17	66	+6

We'll now quickly take a look at the top fifteen teams and how they recently fared, especially in regards to our flagship takeover in the form of EnVyUs becoming the highest ranked team in the world.

1. EnVyUs

Player	Age	Rating
Vincent "⁠Happy⁠" Schopenhauer	23	1.14
Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub	20	1.11
Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt	21	1.07
Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire	22	1.06
Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey	21	1.02

Following two offline event wins in September (DH Open London and Gfinity Champions), EnVyUs followed up by winning DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca in a convincing and masterful fashion and are now number one. In a way, taking first place following this result was a fait accompli for the French five.

EnVyUs are still slightly behind fnatic in long term achievements (summer's slump hurt them here as well as a lineup change that retained only 3/5 players from the old nV team) and a little behind TSM in terms of form following the Danes' 25-map win streak, however the overall impression is that nV have conclusively knocked fnatic off of their perch as well as edging out TSM, who underwhelmed at Cluj.

2. TSM

Player	Age	Rating
Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz	20	1.19
Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen	22	1.09
René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg	25	1.08
Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth	20	1.06
Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen	25	0.98

Winning PGL Season 1 finals was a statement of strength, and dominating online regular season games was a show of good form, but Team SoloMid really had to win this major to retain that first place spot (which they quietly gained in the middle of October due to stellar form) and convince the world they were the best.

Unfortunately for TSM, that did not happen as karrigan and his boys disappeared in the quarter-finals against NiP, a performance which hearkened back to the dismal Danish days of 2014 at majors.

Although TSM retain a slight lead in form as well, points decay will soon kick in and could see nV take a lead there as well. IEM San Jose will be the next chance to set the record straight for these top two contendeers.

3. fnatic

Player	Age	Rating
Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist	22	1.15
Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer	23	1.10
Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson	21	1.09
Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell	20	1.00
Markus "⁠pronax⁠" Wallsten	24	0.87

fnatic's dominance in 2015 keeps the Swedish team floating face up for now, but October has been a shaky month for the team in all senses of the word. A third place finish at PGL Season 1 now seems like a relief compred to Cluj, where nV trumped fnatic 2-1 in the quarter-finals and the previous major winners went home in 5-8th place.

And the largest hit to fnatic's points has therefore been the gap between last major's performance in Cologne and the recent major in Cluj. This fact is due to the fact that majors carry tremendous weight.

However, the glaring fact still stands that fnatic have not won an event since ESL One Cologne which happened almost three months ago. With no confirmed event attendance in November (although fnatic will likely qualify for the FACEIT Stage 3 finals), this fact should pose an issue although for now fnatic still hold the most achievement points.

4. Virtus.pro

Player	Age	Rating
Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski	22	1.08
Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas	29	1.03
Paweł "⁠byali⁠" Bieliński	21	1.00
Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski	28	0.97
Jarosław "⁠pashaBiceps⁠" Jarząbkowski	27	0.94

A win at the Crown's Invitational coupled with a second place finish at PGL Season 1 were promising results for the Poles and showed that they were suddenly fighting with a previously unseen consistency in all their offline tournaments.

Despite an unforseen defeat to G2 in the quarter-finals of DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca, with the pan-European team playing out of their minds, VP retain the fourth place spot quite comfortably ahead of teams below them.

This coming weekend's action at CEVO Season 8 will be a test for this ranking, especially with the fifth ranked team, Na`Vi, also attending.

5. Null element Natus Vincere

Player	Age	Rating
Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács	24	1.22
Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev	18	1.05
Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin	21	1.03
Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev	27	0.99
Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko	28	0.92

After months of disappointing results, Na`Vi made an extremely deep playoff run at the Cluj major and reached their first major grand final ever.

Not only does this result allow the team to breach the top five, the Eastern European team's defeat of NiP in the semifinals now widens the gap between the two (with NiP sitting at sixth place) and allows Na`Vi to begin to gun for the top four.

This coming weekend's CEVO Season 8 finals will therefore be extremely important for Zeus and crew.

6. NiP

Player	Age	Rating
Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg	27	1.09
Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund	25	1.07
Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli	23	1.06
Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström	24	1.02
Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg	24	0.89

NiP have dropped into sixth place, but a semifinals major run and convincing wins over Titan and TSM provided much needed points for a team many had classified as dead on arrival and kept them from falling further.

Losing to Na`Vi pretty convincingly killed any chances of a Cinderella run into the finals, but the team can rest easy throughout November with this sort of result.

Although they won't be attending the CEVO finals, the Ninjas will be put to the test in San Jose later this month (as will many teams in our top ten aside from fnatic, G2, and possibly CLG).

7. G2

Player	Age	Rating
Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad	21	1.10
Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard	21	1.10
Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman	24	1.06
Ricardo "⁠fox⁠" Pacheco	29	0.99
Mikail "⁠Maikelele⁠" Bill	24	0.98

G2 gain a spot at the expense of Cloud9 and continue an onwards march following a miraculous semifinals run at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca that continues to defy those who thought the team's inherent composition was unstable.

G2 are now poised to continue the long grind to top five, and they will be aided by the fact that this somewhat newly formed team will not encounter much points decay.

However, November will be somewhat quiet for this pan-European team as they missed out on attending CEVO Season 8 finals despite having an opportunity to attend although G2 still have a strong chance of qualifying for the FACEIT Stage 3 finals at DreamHack Winter that will take place at the end of November.

8. Cloud9

Player	Age	Rating
Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham	22	1.10
Mike "⁠shroud⁠" Grzesiek	21	1.08
Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert	25	1.00
Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares	27	0.96
Ryan "⁠freakazoid⁠" Abadir	22	0.93

The huge bonus accumulated by the North American team over the summer is now in a freefall, and disappointing placings at the Crown's Invitational (losing to Immunity) as well as failing to make it out of groups yet again in Cluj are a worrying sign for n0thing & co.

Unlike European teams, Cloud9 will have have an extremely packed November however and could stand to benefit as a result. Despite not competing in CEVO Season 8, seang@res and his men will attend the iBP cup, the RGN Pro Series LAN, IEM San Jose, and are likely to be one of the two North American teams to qualify for FACEIT S3 at DreamHack Winter.

9. Luminosity

Player	Age	Rating
Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David	21	1.16
Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga	24	1.11
Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo	24	1.10
Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass	18	1.04
Lucas "⁠steel⁠" Lopes	21	0.93

Luminosity gain three spots and rocket into our top ten due to a third consecutive successful run into the playoffs of a CS:GO major. Managing to defeat both Cloud9 and fnatic to take top seed of their group was a feat in and of itself, even if a dominant Na`Vi spoiled the dream of a semifinals finish for FalleN and his men.

The team have one of the busiest November calendars around, starting with CEVO Season 8 this coming weekend and with offline events virtually every weekend after that. This pace could be a blessing or a curse; only time will tell.

10. CLG

Player	Age	Rating
Josh "⁠jdm64⁠" Marzano	25	1.15
Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik	19	1.11
James "⁠hazed⁠" Cobb	26	1.04
Stephen "⁠reltuC⁠" Cutler	26	0.99
Pujan "⁠FNS⁠" Mehta	23	0.97

Although not as red-hot as their South American counter-parts, CLG have played consistent Counter-Strike for a second tier team and, following a much needed win at the WinOut Championships in September, they break the top ten following a strong performance at the major.

While it's true that CLG did not make it out of groups, they defeated dignitas in the losers' match of Group D and dueled Na`Vi in a best-of-one and then a best-of-three with potential for both series to have gone the North American team's way.

Like the other North American teams on this list, November will provide ample opportunity to farm points if the results are promising due to four upcoming events on American soil.

11. Titan

Player	Age	Rating
Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom	21	1.09
Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon	23	1.08
Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy	26	0.98
Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans	25	0.97
Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux	26	0.96

Titan make the second biggest gain in our Top 20 ranking and fall just short of a top ten finish, which could very well have been achieved if the team had not crumbled to NiP in the Group C decider match.

ScreaM and co. were no match for Virtus.pro but they proved they can battle with NiP, or at least that was the case in the opening match. Once again however, the Titanfall was hardest when it mattered and the team sit out of the top ten.

Titan will be attending CEVO Season 8 finals which is a huge plus for the French-Belgian team as later on they will not attend IEM San Jose and will not qualify for FACEIT S3 at DreamHack Winter with a 2-8 record in the regular season.

12. dignitas

Player	Age	Rating
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup	19	1.18
Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche	20	1.07
Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye	17	1.04
Jesper "⁠TENZKI⁠" Plougmann	21	1.00
Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen	20	0.93

dignitas' exchange of Andreas "⁠znajder⁠" Lindberg for TENZKI following a successful qualification for the major was but a pipe dream as the team flopped in Cluj, losing to both EnVyUs and CLG.

dignitas will quietly attend CEVO Season 8 finals and attempt to stand out among the other seven teams there. A good result would be a much needed salve to a disappointing October for the Danes.

13. mousesports

Player	Age	Rating
Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač	18	1.15
Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget	23	1.11
Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong	25	1.05
Denis "⁠denis⁠" Howell	21	0.92
Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik	28	0.80

Much like dignitas above them, mousesports are in a freefall following a failed attempt to exit groups in Cluj. The team did manage to beat FlipSid3 and take a map off of G2, but this was ultimately not enough.

Like the four teams ranked above them, mouz stand to gain from this weekend's CEVO Season 8 finals, assuming that gob b can repeat the solid 3-4th finish that the team achieved at the CEVO Season 7 finals.

14. Liquid

Player	Age	Rating
Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella	20	1.16
Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin	25	1.14
Jacob "⁠FugLy⁠" Medina	20	1.08
Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski	18	1.07
Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag	25	1.04

Many claimed that Liquid were the best North American team of the three in attendance at Cluj following a dominant run in online matches and a fourth place finish at PGL Season 1 (admittedly last place in a four team event, but with a map win taken off of fnatic and a closely played de_overpass against VP).

Following an overtime thriller against Virtus.pro in the Cluj major, Hiko and his men could not find that form within them to defeat NiP and exited the groups. Liquid will have a busy November and attend CEVO Season 8, iBP Cup, RGN Pro Series, possibly IEM San Jose, and possibly DreamHack Winter.

15. FlipSid3

Player	Age	Rating
Georgi "⁠WorldEdit⁠" Yaskin	24	1.15
Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk	22	1.12
Yegor "⁠markeloff⁠" Markelov	27	0.99
Vadim "⁠DavCost⁠" Vasilyev	19	0.93
Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy	28	0.88

FlipSid3 drop two spots in our ranking, and are now floating with enough points to stay quite separate from 16th place but with no planned events in the near future.

As a result, markeloff and co. are a sort of gatekeeper team, and ambitious young teams below them should aspire to attend events and try and eclipse the stagnant Eastern European team before they return to form.

We have also updated our graph showing the evolution of teams' points throughout 2015.

You can also see which teams round up the Top 20 over at our dedicated Team ranking page (which will be updated tomorrow due to technical issues), and we still plan to expand the list over time to incorporate more teams as events continue to proliferate in CS:GO.

November will certainly be a busy month, with four events in North America and one in Sweden at the month's end, and you can certainly expect some changes by the next time we post a feature article to explain new rankings in early December.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter