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 we’ve had the ROG Masters EMEA, EL Premier, Asia Minor, Europe Minor, Americas Minor, CIS Minor, EPICENTER, Dreamhack Denver, iBUYPOWER Masters, IEM XII Oakland, Blast Pro Series, ESL ProLeague S6 Finals and ROG Masters.
These are my CS:GO Top 10 World Rankings for the 11th of December, 2017.
1) FaZe (NiKo, Rain, GuardiaN, olofm and karrigan) [+2]
Recent form:
ESL One New York (1st)
EL Premier (1st)
EPICENTER (5th-6th)
IEM XII Oakland (2nd)
Blast Pro Series (3rd)
ESL ProLeague S6 Finals (2nd)
FaZe may not have won an event since ELEAGUE but their two finals have made this their strongest ranking, being as New York just sneaks in under the three month restriction. Expanding past placings alone, FaZe have one of the most insane resumes of ranked wins I have seen in the history of this series. The international powerhouse have won 13 maps against top 10 ranked opponents and six Bo3 series. SK are pressuring this placing hard, but FaZe’s overall excellence cannot be denied right now.
2) SK Gaming (coldzera, FalleN, fer, TACO and boltz) [-1]
Recent form:
ESL One New York (3rd-4th)
EL Premier (9th-12th)
EPICENTER (1st)
IEM XII Oakland (3rd-4th)
Blast Pro Series (1st)
ESL ProLeague S6 Finals (1st)
Winning three tournaments, a Bo5 over FaZe and four other ranked Bo3 wins shows the power of SK and why they are in hot pursuit of the number one spot, but the Brazilians have only had boltz in their line-up since EPICENTER and so their results prior to that cannot be held in the same regard as those after. Their three titles, to FaZe’s two, do mean FalleN and company are not far from taking the top spot, though.
3) Astralis (device, dupreeh, Kjaerbye, Xyp9x and gla1ve) [+3]
Recent form:
ESL One New York (5th-6th)
EL Premier (2nd)
EPICENTER (4th)
IEM XII Oakland (7th-8th)
Blast Pro Series (2nd)
ESL ProLeague S6 Finals (9th-10th)
Astralis looked to be very much headed down, and indeed have suffered from using stand-ins at recent events, but they have still managed three top four finishes, making the finals of two of those events. The resume looks tasty too, with nine Bo1 wins and three Bo3 wins. Of course, the results with the stand-ins are counted as less significant, but these performances are enough to keep one of the best teams of the year in an elite position in the rankings.
4) Cloud9 (Skadoodle, RUSH, tarik, Stewie2k and autimatic) [+4]
Recent form:
ESL One New York (3rd-4th)
EL Premier (3rd-4th)
Dreamhack Denver (1st)
iBUYPOWER Masters (1st)
IEM XII Oakland (3rd-4th)
Hard to believe Team Liquid looked primed to be the best NA team to close out 2017, as C9 have again reclaimed that crown and continued to rack up solid placings. Three top four finishes at big events go along with wins at lesser tournaments. In the ranked wins department C9 is shining too, with four Bo3 series to their credit. They don’t win big tournaments, but C9 are showcasing impressive consistency, albeit in the face of not qualifying for a few tournaments.
5) Virtus.pro (Snax, byali, pasha, NEO and TaZ) [NEW]
Recent form:
ESL One New York (7th-8th)
EL Premier (13th-16th)
EPICENTER (2nd)
StarLadder i-League Invitational 2 (2nd)
The return of Virtus.pro to the rankings is a welcome sight, as runners-up finishes at EPICENTER and StarLadder put the Poles back on the map. With three Bo3 series wins (Gambit, FaZe and G2) going along with three Bo1 wins (TL and two against SK), TaZ and company blasted back into the rankings with a brief burst of form, but it was enough to push them fairly high up. Having not attended an event for a while since means VP will struggle in the coming months, though.
6) Ninjas in Pyjamas (GeT_RiGhT, f0rest, REZ, draken and Xizt) [+4]
Recent form:
EL Premier (9th-12th)
IEM XII Oakland (1st)
Blast Pro Series (6th)
ESL ProLeague S6 Finals (9th-10th)
NiP weaved their magic at Oakland and have done little since, but winning a big event, a Bo5 against FaZe and a Bo3 against SK goes a long way. For a flash in the pan, NiP have a solid enough resume to bring them close to the top five.
7) G2 (shox, kennyS, apEX, NBK and bodyy) [-5]
Recent form:
EL Premier (5th-8th)
EPICENTER (3rd)
IEM XII Oakland (9th-10th)
Blast Pro Series (5th)
G2 can be proud of being a seventh ranked team with one of the best resumes you’ll see. Third at EPICENTER combines with four Bo3 series wins, including two over Astralis, to keep shox and friends poised to move up higher. Obviously falling so many spots hurts, but much of that came by virtue of so many other teams, including the likes of VP and NiP, charging back into relevance.
8) Team Liquid (Twistzz, steel, nitr0, EliGE and JDM) [-3]
Recent form:
ESL One New York (2nd)
EL Premier (13th-16th)
EPICENTER (7th-8th)
Americas Minor (1st)
iBUYPOWER Masters (3rd-4th)
IEM XII Oakland (11th-12th)
ESL ProLeague S6 Finals (11th-12th)
Team Liquid were in free-fall and the recruitment of steel hurt in as much as they weren’t able to use him at all of their events. Even so, what they did earlier in the time period, including the ESL NY final still on the books, couples with their wins from that time period to maintain a top 10 ranking. With that top placing soon to disappear, TL is in serious danger of starting 2018 outside of the rankings.
9) North (Aizy, k0nfig, cajunb, valde and MSL) [-2]
Recent form:
EL Premier (3rd-4th)
EPICENTER (5th-6th)
Blast Pro Series (4th)
ESL ProLeague S6 Finals (11th-12th)
TL has the wins but not many of the placings, while North has some decent placings but not many wins. In fact, the Danes can only boast a Bo3 over TL and Bo1s over IMT and FaZe. Winning gun rounds won’t keep you ranked if you can’t win maps and series.
10) Na`Vi (Zeus, Edward, electronic, flamie and s1mple) [NEW]
Recent form:
ESL One New York (5th-6th)
EL Premier (9th-12th)
Dreamhack Winter (1st)
This far down the rankings it often gets tough to separate the teams and so Na`Vi edges out teams who had decent placings and more ranked wins, but not a result like Na`Vi’s Dreamhack Winter victory, which came at a tournament featuring many of the teams battling them for this final ranking spot. Na`Vi didn’t beat any ranked opponents there, but they did win the tier two event. For now, they return to the top 10.
