CS:GO has always struggled for a consistently updated and coherent set of World Rankings, with so many teams attending different events and the difficulty of judging the context of which event’s results should count for more than another. Rather than construct some kind of elaborate point system and place my expertise into the task of allocating which would receive how many points, I’ve instead looked back over the recent form of each of the teams out there and determined, according to my own analysis and intuition, which team ranks where in my global top 10.
Offline results are the only ones I take into consideration. In general, I consider the results of a team across a range of around three months, with those at the beginning of that period being weighted a little less, in contrast to more recent tournament results. Finishes, consistency, current form and opponents faced are all factors to be weighed up and considered.
Since the last edition of the rankings, ESWC saw more international play and a number of upset wins.
These are my CS:GO Top 10 World Rankings for the 16th of July, 2015.
1. FNATIC (KRiMZ, JW, olofm, Flusha and pronax) [-]
Recent form:
ESEA S18 LAN Finals (2nd)
PGL CCS (2nd)
FACEIT Stage 1 (3rd-4th)
Dreamhack Tours (1st)
Gfinity Spring Masters II (1st)
Fragbite Masters Season 4 (2nd)
Dreamhack Summer (1st)
ESL ESEA ProLeague S1 (1st)
FNATIC were not in action since the previous edition of the rankings.
2. Team SoloMid (device, dupreeh, cajunb, Xyp9x and karrigan) [-]
Recent form:
PGL CCS (1st)
FACEIT Stage 1 (1st)
Fragbite Masters Season 4 (1st)
ESL ESEA ProLeague S1 (7th-8th)
TSM were not in action since the previous edition of the rankings.
3. Na`Vi (GuardiaN, Edward, Seized, flamie and Zeus) [-]
Recent form:
FACEIT Stage 1 (5th-6th)
Gfinity Spring Masters II (3rd-4th)
Fragbite Masters Season 4 (3rd)
Dreamhack Summer (2nd)
StarSeries XIII (1st)
ESWC (1st)
Na`Vi delivered an event worthy of their third place ranking here, winning ESWC as the top ranked team in attendance. They didn’t get the opportunity to add many maps or series wins of note, facing only Renegades and FlipSid3 in the first two rounds of the play-offs, by virtue of the latter’s upset of NiP, but a win over the freshly top 10 reinstated Cloud9, coming in a full three map final, ensured a solid event for the CIS side.
With TSM’s first event victories set to fall out of relevancy, Na`Vi are very much primed to strike at a top two ranking. Their two event wins were not from the most stacked competitive fields, but they are now displaying impressive consistency, with five straight top four finishes, three straight finals appearances and two straight titles. The day of the FNATIC-nV dual hegemony over the scene appears to be over, as Na`Vi join TSM as legitimate future threats to the Swedes’ crowns.
4. EnVyUs (shox, Happy, kioShiMa, SmithZz and NBK) [-]
Recent form:
PGL CCS (4th)
Dreamhack Tours (2nd)
Gfinity Spring Masters II (5th-10th)
StarSeries XIII (2nd)
Gfinity Summer Masters I (1st)
ESL ESEA ProLeague S1 (5th-6th)
ESWC (3rd-4th)
For a line-up which has apparently come to a finish, it’s perhaps fitting that they at least managed to end their run with a top four finish, the hallmark of their time together, having failed to reach that placing group on only two occasions ever. This event saw them once more bested by Cloud9, so beyond the ranking they have nothing to brag about as it pertains to their place among the top teams.
5. Virtus.pro (Snax, byali, pasha, NEO and TaZ) [-]
Recent form:
ESEA S18 LAN Finals (1st)
FACEIT Stage 1 (3rd-4th)
Gfinity Spring Masters II (2nd)
Gfinity Summer Masters I (5th-6th)
ESL ESEA ProLeague S1 (3rd-4th)
Virtus.pro were not in action since the previous edition of the rankings.
6. Ninjas in Pyjamas (GeT_RiGhT, f0rest, friberg, Xizt and allu) [-]
Recent form:
PGL CCS (3rd)
FACEIT Stage 1 (2nd)
Gfinity Spring Masters II (5th-10th)
Dreamhack Summer (3rd-4th)
Gfinity Summer Masters I (2nd)
ESWC (5th-8th)
Last year’s ESWC was the last ever offline tournament for the fifflaren era line-up of NiP, embarrassingly upset by the then unknown Platinium and exiting in the group stage. This year’s saw them once more shockingly upset, this time by a FlipSid3 using Hiko as a stand-in, with second star WorldEdit unable to attend. That shocking loss, in a series in which they had smashed the first map, provides NiP with a second event in their last four in which they’ve failed to reach the final four.
All that keeps NiP in the top six right now is their run of top four finishes and the fact that Cloud9 have still only strung together two good offline performances. NiP are a long way from returning to a top four ranking.
7. Cloud9 (Skadoodle, Shroud, n0thing, fREAKAZOiD and sgares) [+2]
Recent form:
ESEA S18 LAN Finals (7th-8th)
Gfinity Spring Masters II (7th-8th)
Gfinity Summer Masters I (7th-8th)
ESL ESEA ProLeague S1 (2nd)
ESWC (2nd)
Cloud9 repeated two of their feats from the ESL ESEA PL, beating EnVyUs in a Bo3 and reaching the final of an international tournament. They also competed well with the elite level European team they faced in the final, Na`Vi in this instance. A second straight top two finish allows the North Americans to cut through two spots in the rankings and find themselves as high as seventh, matching the highest mark any NA team has been in the history of my rankings, as iBUYPOWER sat there in the first edition, back in November.
To move past NiP is going to mean C9 can have no let-up in their form, as their placings prior to this run were all far outside the top four. On the other hand, NiP can still point to some additional good results beyond their own two finals finishes. Still, C9 have come a long way from the team which could not even crack the top 10, by virtue of never winning Bo3 series over any of the ranked teams and never being relevant in contesting top spots.
8. Titan (kennyS, apEX, Ex6TenZ, Maniac and RpK) [-1]
Recent form:
ESEA S18 LAN Finals (3rd)
Dreamhack Tours (5th-8th)
Gfinity Spring Masters II (3rd-4th)
Dreamhack Summer (3rd-4th)
Gfinity Summer Masters I (5th-6th)
ESWC (13th-16th)
Titan have never looked as bad as at ESWC, where they even lost to the SK team they had beaten at Gfinity. For the first time since the major, the French side went out of a tournament outside of the top eight. Past successes still buoy them up, especially considering they are only holding off the lower ranked teams, but those will disappear as the weeks follow. Losing their two most skilled players threatens to kill Titan for good, especially if they cannot secure the services of shox.
9. Team Dignitas (Pimp, Nico, aizy, Kjaerbye and MSL) [-1]
Recent form:
Dreamhack Tours (3rd-4th)
Dreamhack Summer (5th-8th)
Gfinity Summer Masters I (3rd-4th)
Team Dignitas were not in action since the previous edition of the rankings.
10. FlipSid3 (s1mple, WorldEdit, markeloff, bondik and B1ad3) [NEW]
Recent form:
CIS Championship Voronezh (1st)
Dreamhack Tours (5th-8th)
Dreamhack Summer (5th-8th)
StarSeries XIII (3rd-4th)
ESWC (3rd-4th)
FlipSid3 have been in and out of the rankings over the past three months, but returned with a bang as they won a Bo3 over NiP, the sixth ranked team in the world. That along with the resulting top four finish, albeit with a ringer, adds a nice exclamation point to the CIS side’s resume.
FACEIT Phase 2 Finals are set to be played at Dreamhack Valencia today, providing teams with another chance to alter their standings.
