Team ranking: August 2011
HLTV.org is proud to present to you a feature that has been missing in the scene for far too long - Team ranking. In the first edition we will present to you the ranking from the end of August.
Team rankings haven't been taken seriously in the scene for several years now, so we finally decided to put a stop to that. In order to make the feature as credible as possible, many factors need to be considered, so for this job HLTV.org brought in Etienne "reakq" J. who has been working on such very detailed ranking for several months, making his name by displaying his work in our blog section.
The purpose of this ranking will be to, as objectively as possible, rank the teams based on their results and achievements in international tournaments. It's purpose is not to claim that Team A is better than Team B, but to help everyone keep track of the form of top teams and their overall success.
First of all, with this being a new feature, I will explain how it was made.
Initially, each event is given a level from 1-9 based on the following three factors: how well known the event is, the variety of countries represented and the number of top teams in attendance.
Points for each team in each event are then calculated, where a team can win or lose points based on the following factors:
- team's final placing at the event
- winning or drawing a match
- bonus points for defeating a higher ranked opponent (inversely, the higher ranked team will lose points)
- bonus points for round difference
All of these factors give a different amount of points based on the level of the event. For example, getting a top3 placing at IEM5 European Finals brings more points than the same placing at ICSC 8.
Finally, there is a depreciation system in place, which considers the fact how old an event is, decreasing the amount of points distrubuted from previous events as time passes. For example, points gained during IEM5 World Championship in February are in August worth 68% of their initial value. Also, an inactive team will see its place decrease after losing points month after month.
| Events in August |
The ranking includes events dating back from the very beginning of the year, but let's see which August events caused the latest changes.
The new IEM system gave us qualifications for the first Global Challenge in Guangzhou. Temporary secured the American spot by defeating Backfire (although it turns out they won't attend the Chinese event), while Fnatic, Anexis (then known as TCM-Gaming) and mousesports took the Europeans spots.
| IEM6 GC Guangzhou final qualifer | |
fnatic |
mousesports |
Anexis |
Temporary |
Without a doubt, the biggest LAN event of the month was e-Stars Seoul 2011 where SK's invincibility was ended by Frag eXecutors. ASUS Summer 2011 was another notable LAN tournament, although less influential.
| e-Stars Seoul 2011 | ASUS Summer 2011 | ||
| 1st | Frag eXecutors |
1st | Frag eXecutors |
| 2nd | SK Gaming |
2nd | DTS |
| 3rd | Natus Vincere |
3rd/4th | Lions |
| 4th | mTw |
3rd/4th | Natus Vincere |
After these events, is SK still at the first place? Did Frag eXecutors make up the gap with Na´Vi and SK? What will be mousesports' & WinFakt's place after their e-Stars performances? Are ESC Gaming, M5 and Anexis affected by not attending e-Stars?
| The Top 10 |
Let's take a closer look at the current top 10 teams and what affected their place on the list.
10.
WinFakt
WinFakt boot Lions out of the top 10 and take their 10th place. Even though the Finnish team wasn't able to reach the final step for the Guangzhou GC, they made a very respectable top 6 at e-Stars.
| Top matches: | WinFakt |
16-9 | fnatic |
WinFakt |
16-5 | project_kr |
|
WinFakt |
16-8 | eSahara |
|
| Results: | 5-6th at e-Stars | ||
9.
mousesports
After qualifying for the IEM6 GC Guangzhou and a top 6 at the e-Stars, mousesports make a really strong comeback with the best increase of the month (+10 places).
| Top matches: | mousesports |
16-13 | WinFakt |
mousesports |
16-8 | WinFakt |
|
mousesports |
16-11 | Lions |
|
| Results: | qualified for IEM6 GC Guangzhou | ||
| 5-6th at e-Stars | |||
8.
Anexis
Despite of not attending e-Stars, Anexis keep their 8th place thanks to their qualification for the Guangzhou Global Challenge, although mousesports & WinFakt are now very close to the Danish team.
| Top matches: | Anexis |
16-12 | WinFakt |
Anexis |
16-7 | Lions |
|
| Results: | qualified for IEM6 GC Guangzhou |
||
7.
Moscow Five
Even though M5 was inactive during the month, they keep their 7th place despite losing some points.
6.
ESC Gaming
Just like M5, ESC was inactive but stays at their 6th place.
5.
fnatic
Since their victory at the IEM5 European Finals, fnatic seem to have difficulties to climb on the top of big events. The Swedish powerhouse stays at the 5th place, despite in August only winning their ticket for the Guangzhou Global Challenge and finishing at for them disappointing 7-8th place at e-Stars.
| Top matches: | fnatic |
21-19 | Anexis |
fnatic |
16-6 | x6tence |
|
fnatic |
16-14 | Soltec |
|
| Results: | 7-8th at e-Stars | ||
| qualified for IEM6 GC Guangzhou | |||
4.
mTw
4th at the e-Stars, mTw has not been able to reach the podium contrary to usual. There is now a real gap between the Danish team and the current top 3.
| Top matches: | mTw |
16-6 | mousesports |
mTw |
16-12 | project_kr |
|
| Results: | 4th at e-Stars | ||
3.
Natus Vincere
The first indisputable team of the top3 is Na´Vi. As SK and Fx are currently winning almost everything, Na´Vi is lurking from behind after a 3rd place at e-Stars and a top4 at ASUS Summer.
| Top matches: | Na´Vi |
22-18 | mTw |
Na´Vi |
16-3 | WinFakt |
|
Na´Vi |
16-12 | mousesports |
|
| Results: | 3rd at e-Stars | ||
| 3rd/4th at ASUS Summer | |||
2.
Frag eXecutors
Frag eXecutors have made a strong comeback after missing major events DH Summer and GameGune. As the Polish team has won both e-Stars and ASUS Summer, they are the team of the month and those achievements put them at the 2nd place, very close to the top spot.
| Top matches: | Frag eXecutors |
16-9 | SK |
Frag eXecutors |
16-8 | Na´Vi |
|
Frag eXecutors |
2-0 | DTS |
|
| Results: | 1st at e-Stars |
||
| 1st at ASUS Summer | |||
1.
SK gaming
Despite their defeat against Fx in the e-Stars final, SK keep their 1st place in the ranking, mainly thanks to their 3 successive victories at DreamHack Summer, ICSC8 and GameGune.
| Top matches: | SK |
16-8 | mTw |
SK |
16-9 | Na´Vi |
|
SK |
16-10 | fnatic |
|
| Results: | 2nd at e-Stars |
||
| Top 25 teams ranking |
Let's take a look at the overall table with the top 25 teams, including amount of their points and position change compared to the previous month.
| Evo | Place | Points | Teams | ||
| - | 1. |
1031.63 | SK Gaming |
||
| +1 | 2. |
919.15 | Frag eXecutors |
||
| -1 | 3. |
824.06 | Natus Vincere |
||
| - | 4. |
496.35 | mTw |
||
| - | 5. |
470.65 | fnatic |
||
| - | 6. |
344.31 | ESC Gaming |
||
| - | 7. |
248.02 | Moscow Five |
||
| - | 8. |
181.91 | Anexis |
||
| +10 | 9. |
175.06 | mousesports |
||
| +3 | 10. |
165.17 | WinFakt |
||
| -2 | 11. |
162.46 | Lions |
||
| +3 | 12. |
97.42 | DTS |
||
| -3 | 13. |
96.18 | FireGamers |
||
| -2 | 14. |
85.65 | KerchNET |
||
| +2 | 15. |
82.57 | eSahara |
||
| -5 | 16. |
79.30 | Evil Geniuses |
||
| -3 | 17. |
78.94 | x6tence |
||
| -2 | 18. |
68.25 | Virtus.pro |
||
| E | 19. |
45.97 | TyLoo |
||
| - | 20. |
45.90 | paiN |
||
| +1 | 21. |
45.72 | Soltec |
||
| +6 | 22. |
43.62 | project_kr |
||
| -2 | 23. |
42.29 | DELTA |
||
| +5 | 24. |
33.87 | UMX |
||
| -1 | 25. |
33.21 | HEADSHOTBG |
| Evolution of the Top 10 Teams (points per months) |

| Events |
If you are wondering which events were included in the making of this ranking, here is a list in 3 levels (although there are in fact 9, but we merged them for displaying purposes).
| High: | IEM5 European Finals, IEM5 World, Xperia PLAY, DreamHack Summer, GameGune, e-Stars |
| Medium: | IEM5 American Finals, ICSC 7, ASUS Winter, OSPL Spring, ASUS Spring, ICSC 8, GC Guangzhou EU qual, ASUS Summer |
| Low: | WGF, Digifest 2011 Solaris, ESEA Invite Season 8, Adepto BH, Balkan Challenge Summer, GC Guangzhou US qual |
If you have any questions about the ranking, feel free to ask in the comments below and of course stay tuned to HLTV.org for the next update at the end of September.
Temporary
project_kr
eSahara
x6tence
FireGamers
TyLoo
UMX
HEADSHOTBG
roman~
Demondrazs
GameBoyGT
to the stars
neoxF
|
reloadnvc
spaga
|
tumorjacka
|
P|chrisJ
blg-
brnego
Nroth
4lPha
_LuBoss_
hypno123
vniik
ARLiNd-
Lola23
AdiosAmigo~
Ruban M.
tinchOO
Haighanho
khr1sh <3Goodfellas
|
W0Lv333
aqua:)
eisentyrannen
Mek0
PedMar
h3ro1n
|
spadzxf
GoMeZ
pApax
zen'
dbie
ygos?
sandzetional
trip_10
rixid
squ1sh
NuuB
Hydrox-
|
|
VivaLaPastaa
vviper
gCN
Archii
GoGAW

