The No. 1 spot in HLTV’s global CS:GO rankings appears to be haunted since two different teams that held the top spot have now been eliminated in surprising fashion from the IEM Rio Major.
Team Vitality, who had just reached the No. 1 spot in the rankings after their Challengers Stage performance, got knocked out in the Legends Stage by ENCE today with a 1-3 record, less than two hours after HLTV updated its rankings. The update moved Vitality up one spot to first while moving FaZe down to second.
The update to the rankings occurred one day after FaZe’s stunning 0-3 elimination from the Major, the worst performance by a reigning champion in the Swiss stage era. FaZe’s drop from first to second in the rankings had nothing to do with their Legends Stage performance since the update only took into account the results of the Challengers Stage, but they were the first of two different No. 1 teams to get knocked out of the same Major, and they will likely tumble further in the rankings after the next update.
Both Vitality and FaZe failed to live up to the expectations of top-ranked teams during their Legends Stage run. FaZe’s in-game leader Karrigan has claimed responsibility for the loss since, but it was an overall poor effort from the Antwerp champions: only ropz and Twistzz produced positive numbers in their elimination loss to Bad News Eagles.
Vitality looked lifeless against ENCE. Not a single player on the roster stacked with legends produced a positive K/D in the series and no one on Vitality had an answer for the bright SunPayus, who nearly produced twice as many kills as he had deaths.
