Video: Evolution of top 10 teams throughout 2021

In anticipation of the revelation of 2021's top 10 teams, here's an animation showing the evolution of HLTV.org's World Ranking throughout the year.

We've made it a tradition since 2018 to reveal who the top 10 teams of the year were in a list that is determined by a formula entirely based on HLTV.org's team ranking by 1xBet, which awards points to teams each week depending on how they performed in matches and tournaments that took place in that time.

In preparation for the big reveal, we have put together an animation that depicts the exact top 10 standings of each week's update to help visualize how well the best teams did over the course of the year.

In it, you can see just how far ahead the two teams who spent the longest at No. 1 were at certain points in 2021 following Gambit's rise early on and Natus Vincere's domination later in the year.

It also shows the vast impact of the biggest events that took place, such as PGL Major Stockholm, which helped big underdogs Copenhagen Flames and Entropiq make a brief appearance and several other teams solidify a spot at the top for the rest of 2021.