Team ranking: February 2024
IEM Katowice and the Copenhagen Major RMRs have considerably shaken up the order in this month's team ranking.
February marked the full return of Counter-Strike action in 2024. The month began with the IEM-Katowice Play-in that fed into the $1,000,000 main event before the PGL Major Copenhagen regional RMRs overtook the calendar.
The European RMR, played in Bucharest, Romania, was split across two different tournaments and awarded 17 Major spots. The event delivered heartbreak and elation in equal measures, as is usually the case for these events.
The Asian and Americas RMRs were also played during the month, with the latter postponing the ranking until Tuesday for the list to feature all of the Major-qualified rosters upon the conclusion of the qualification cycle.
Several online competitions also unfolded in February, including a handful of regional qualifiers for the BLAST Showdown, IEM Chengdu, and a wealth of other regional leagues and tournaments.
For new readers or those in need of a refresher, here's a summary of how the HLTV World Ranking by 1xBet works:
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. 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.
Below is the current top 30 table as of Tuesday, March 5, 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
FaZe retake top spot
FaZe were knocked off their perch by Vitality at the end of last year after Dan "apEX" Madesclaire and company ended 2023 with titles at the BLAST Premier Fall Final and World Final, but have now reclaimed their spot at the top of the hill.
The European combine reached the grand final in Katowice, and while they were bested by Danil "donk" Kryshkovets' Spirit, FaZe's high placing earned them significantly more rankings points than Vitality received for their last-place exit. Finn "karrigan" Andersen's troops seemed close to their best at the Polish event and lost just one map across their wins against Rebels, Eternal Fire, MOUZ, and G2. They just couldn't best Spirit in either of their two clashes.
FaZe followed that up by comfortably traversing the RMR with a 3-1 record to put their previous RMR struggles behind them and give themselves plenty of preparation time ahead of karrigan's home Major. With the next month reserved almost exclusively for PGL Major Copenhagen, their result in Denmark will determine if they hold on to the top spot for a while longer.
Spirit enter top three
Spirit's meteoric rise continues as the organization reached its peak of No. 3 in HLTV's world ranking after a month during which they staked their claim as Major favorites. The Russian squad had a near-flawless run to the title at IEM Katowice, which included a 3-0 win over FaZe in the Spodek.
During their Katowice campaign, donk reached never-before-seen highs as he equaled the Big Event rating record on his debut and clinched the MVP award in the process. Their title helped Spirit shoot up to third in the world rankings for the first time in their history, a spot they kept after a solid RMR campaign.
Spirit beat ENCE, Astralis, and HEROIC to qualify for the Major as Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov (1.20) and Boris "magixx" Vorobiev (1.14) provided worthy support for donk (1.24). With Spirit just at the start of their world-beating form, it remains to be seen if they can follow it up on the biggest stage in Copenhagen.
New-look ENCE rise up the rankings
ENCE were dealt a cruel blow in the off-season after they lost Álvaro "SunPayus" García, Pavle "Maden" Bošković, and Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer to Falcons, as well as Guy "NertZ" Iluz to HEROIC, but their Polish roster has surprised many with their early-season form. The Polish quartet, led by the legendary Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander, began the month at the IEM Katowice Play-In and qualified for the main event, where they went one better and secured their appearance in the Spodek after defeating Vitality and G2.
They then flew to Bucharest for the RMR, where their tournament started terribly after a 13-0 drubbing at the hands of Spirit. The Polish-majority squad bounced back well, though, and clinched their Major appearance with a 2-0 win over a misfiring Astralis — a result that led to Benjamin "blameF" Bremer's removal from the roster and returned ENCE to the top 10.
After gla1ve helped his Polish comrades make their Spodek dream come true, they returned the favor and helped the Dane clinch a spot at his home Major. While ENCE aren't among the favorites for the title, the Finnish organization survived the turbulent offseason and is now in a comfortable position.
Major attendees appear in top 30
As is customary for the RMRs, a few unexpected teams qualified for the Major, which coincided with their rise up the rankings. On the European side, 9 Pandas, AMKAL, and SAW all received a sizable jump due to their qualification, while ECSTATIC and KOI returned to the top 30 after they punched in their tickets to Copenhagen.
In Asia, The MongolZ reached their peak ranking of No. 18 after their win against FURIA at IEM Katowice and their flawless RMR campaign that further solidified their status as the best team in the region. Imperial are another team to profit from a dominant RMR display, as Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo and company rose eleven places to squeak into the top 30.
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
David 'frozen' Čerňanský
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Helvijs 'broky' Saukants
Filip 'NEO' Kubski
Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Jimi 'Jimpphat' Salo
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Álvaro 'SunPayus' García
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Tiago 'JUST' Moura
Adam 'adamS' Marian
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković
William 'mezii' Merriman
Nicolas 'Keoz' Dgus
Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou
Antonis
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