McCl0udY's Rants: 2015

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Top 10 NA CSGO Ranking October 2015

(Top 10 teams that compete in the NA division. Lord Thoorin has decreed that LG is not a NA team)

With the departure of ESEA-NEWS and their power rankings, a ranking system for NA does not appear to exist. Thoorin of course has his world top 10 which is comprehensive and accurate and if you’re looking for the 10 best teams, you should go there. HLTV also now has a top 20 best teams, where they use some statistical mumbo-jumbo formula to come up with team ranks. My rankings on the other hand are going old school where I, the ranker, attempt to take into account all the achievements each team has acquired in the past ~3 months. Flame on.

Ranking system:

Teams with offline wins will be ranked before any team with online only achievements: Offline (international) > offline (domestic).

If not all of the top 10 NA teams have offline wins, I will have to consider online achievements via the following: Online qualifier (for international offline event) > ESL/ESEA > PGL > CEVO > Face It > RGN > other online league

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Cloud 9 Roster: freakazoid, n0thing, seangares, shroud, Skadoodle

Achievements:

Offline:

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 Finals 2^nd

· ESWC 2015 2^nd

· FACEIT 2015 Stage 2 Finals 2^nd

· Cevo S7 Professional Finals: 3-4th

Online:

· HTC Reborn 1^st

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 NA 19/3 1^st

· Cevo S7 NA Professional 10-0-2 1^st

Breakdown: While Cloud9 did not get out of groups at the last major, the other teams in this ranking have not done enough in the past three months to contest with C9’s previous achievements. I said at the time that C9 is going to kick itself later for not being able to cash in on one of the three finals appearances (as you never know if you’ll get back there), especially if they continue their on-going streak of failing to get out of groups at the next major.

Cloud9 still needs to continue to work on their T-sides of each map but I believe C9’s best maps are: cache, overpass, cbble, train. This leaves dust2, inferno and mirage. Since C9 regularly bans mirage that leaves inferno and dust2 as the weak points. Although, C9 has the potential to choke on any of their strength maps as well.

Speculation & discussion: About a month or so ago there was some chatter about C9’s time invested: it was reported that some of C9’s main accounts showed less than ~eight hours played over two weeks. Some people cited fatigue and grind of traveling to a bunch of events. I honestly hope this isn’t the case. The easiest motivation comes from not winning an event. If C9 is becoming fatigued by taking 2^nd or not making it out of groups than C9 has a serious problem. They say that winning back to back championships is one of the hardest things to do: first because it is hard to maintain enthusiasm and second because you get everyone’s best. That’s why fnatic’s success is so impressive. I’m really hoping C9 was just using alt accounts in this case as C9 is currently NA’s best shot at doing something at an international event. They have the resources and a quality line up. Last week I watched an ESEA match of theirs against Luminosity where I believe I observed further progress which may lead to a C9 playoff bound at the next major. But then C9 goes off and fails to make the finals at the Crown Invitational. NA fans, hold your breath and cross your fingers. Me on the other hand, I think I've reached my breaking point... Until swag comes back this team won't reach a finals again.

# #2

Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) Roster: FNS, hazed, jdm, reltuC, tarik

Achievements:

Offline:

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 Finals 3-4^th

· Intel Extreme Masters Season X- gamescom 6^th

· WinOut.net CS:GO Championship 1^st

· Cevo S7 Professional Finals: 5-6^th

Online:

· Cevo S7 NA Professional 6-4-2 5^th

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 NA 14/8 4^th

· RGN Pro Series NA 1^st

· CS:Go Championship Series: Season 1 3^rd

Breakdown: Not really anything has changed from CLG since the last rankings: they can beat just about any other team in NA on any given night (but consistency is an issue). However, at international offline events they are middle of the pack. The next goal for this team should be making an international offline final. Ultimately they’d probably lose in the match up but gain much needed experience that every top team has to go through.

Speculation & discussion: Three words: Get a coach.

I’ll refer back to what I said in my previous ranking as I still believe it applies:

“CLG would benefit from a coach whoseexpertise revolves around strategy and execution. A trend I’ve seen watching CLG matches is jdm getting 2-3 kills in rounds that CLG loses. While this ishelpful in not letting the opposing team’s economy become a Swiss bank, at acertain point these multi-kill rounds need to occur in rounds that CLG wins(especially when playing teams ranked in Thoorin’s top 10). Until this happensCLG will stay ranked within the top 3 in NA and not ranked at all on the worldtop 10.”

# #3

Luminosity Gaming Roster: boltzz, Buuyyaakkaa, coldzer44, FALLEN^Raze, fer, steelega

Achievements:

Offline:

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 Finals 5-6^th

· ESL One: Cologne 2015 5-8th

· ESWC 2015 9-12th

· WinOut.net CS:GO Championship 2nd

Online:

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 NA 17/5 2nd

· Intel Extreme Masters Season X- gamescom 6th

· WinOut.net CS:GO Championship 1st

· iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015- Summer 1^st

· iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015- Fall 2nd

Breakdown: Luminosity Gaming has some success at major events (aka making it out of groups at these events). However at both Katowice and Cologne they have lost in the following quarter finals match. This really isn’t all that shocking seeing as the two teams they have been matched up against were Virtus.Pro and fnatic. Per the current international scene, NA teams just cannot compete with team’s on Thooorin’s top 10 rankings.

Speculation & discussion: Overall I think this team is slowly building and has potential to make a semifinals appearance at the next major. If they do this and both C9 and CLG slip again (not make it out of groups), this will dramatically affect my rankings. They have skilled players and clearly employ strategies on each map. As long as LG makes sure they aren’t over rehearsed on a particular game plan: meaning LG doesn’t crumble when the opposing team disrupts their execution. The best teams are fluid; they have a game plan going in but can change on a moment’s notice depending on what happens in game. I have yet to fully see this from LG.

Team Liquid Roster: adreN, EliGE, FugLy, nitr0, hiko

Achievements:

Offline:

· ESWC 2015 5-8^th

· FACEIT 2015 Stage 2 Finals 7-8^th

· PGL Season 1 Grand Final 4th

Online:

· Cevo S7 NA Professional 3^rd 8-3-1

· HTC Reborn Invitational 2^nd

· HyperX CS:Go Clash 1^st

· iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015- Summer 2nd

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 NA 14/8 5th

· CS:Go Championship Series: Season 1, 1st

· iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015- Fall 1^st

Breakdown: It’s quite evident that Team Liquid’s online achievements vastly out number their offline ones. However, TL is hoping this will change with the acquisition of hiko. Hiko brings top tier NA talent and veteran-offline experience to this young-offline team. Other than adren, this team has basically zero international-offline experience. And this essentially sums up where they are at. TL needs to attend every offline event they can and take the lumps (losses) that will come with it. Hopefully they will grow and get better with each loss. Essentially go the Sayian route and get stronger with every loss that doesn’t kill you. Don’t expect this team to do anything offline before the start of next year. Yes, we saw them look better that the PGL finals vs top EU teams but it still wasn’t enough. Also, remember competition level at an event like PGL is far different from major competition. Every team brings 150% effort at a major.

Speculation & discussion: If TL truly wants to become a contender offline and online, they need to consider a gaming house. TL now has a coach and being as TL has vast resources getting the team and coach together in one house where quality practices can occur would be ideal in my opinion. I feel as though Hiko might want to retain his independence (especially for his own personal stream) but TL needs to build chemistry and build it fast. The chemistry on fnatic, VP, TSM and others is definitely one reason for their success. TL has to reach those team’s chemistry levels if they truly want to compete.

Team Conquest (Former Tempo Storm) Roster: daps, NAF-FLY, RUSH, ryx, ShahZam

Achievements:

Offline:

· Cevo S7 Professional Finals: 5-6^th

· ESL One: Cologne 2015 NA Qualifier: 5-8th

Online:

· Cevo S7 NA Professional 4^th 5-2-5

· DreamHack Stockholm 2015 NA Qualifier 3-4^th

· iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015- Fall 3^rd

· FaceIt League 2015 stage 3 NA Qualifier 3-4^th

· HTC Reborn Invitational 5-8^th

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 NA 10/12 8^th

· RGN Pro Series NA 4^th

Breakdown: Conquest has really surprised me. I thought they had a quality performance at Cevo finals given the last minute invite and ever since then they have just been improving. My observation is they have frequently been giving the teams ranked above them (in this ranking) trouble when playing against them.

One of their storylines is Ryx becoming a must watch player:

http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=179&teamid=6292&statsfilter=5

Speculation & discussion: When it comes to this team, I believe everyone is in a “wait and see moment”: either they will continue to improve and move up the ranks or they will stay where they’re at and be middle of the pack. My money says they will stay where they are at as it is just so hard to hit the next level. If Conquest is to have a truly breakout performance it won’t be until the middle of next year. Or maybe they will surprise again at the RGN finals.

WinterFox (Formerly Mythic and Luminosity) Roster: LeX, pyth, Xp3, Devilwalk, anger

Achievements:

Offline:

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 Finals 7-8^th

· ESL One: Cologne 2015 NA Qualifier: 5-8^th

· DreamHack Stockholm 2015 13-16^th

Online:

· Cevo S7 NA Professional 2^nd 6-0-6

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 NA 16/6 3^rd

· Games Academy Show Match 1^st

· RGN Pro Series NA 5-6^th

· DreamHack Stockholm 2015 NA Qualifier 1-2^nd

· iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015- Fall 5-8^th

Breakdown: This team had everything going for it leading up to ESL/ESEA Pro S1 Finals… and that’s when the trouble began. The dominant performances they had online in NA matches did not transfer over to offline-international matches. That’s not surprising as NA is very behind EU and some OCE (Renegades and Immunity on occasion). The problem for this team is once the offline losses started happening, they basically snow balled into losses online too. It feels like this team is currently at rock bottom which isn’t all that bad considering they are still being ranked 6^th here and if they are truly at rock bottom all the can do is go up…

Speculation & discussion: Apparently part of the team is in Europe and part of the team is in North America. This does not sound like a recipe for success as most leagues determine their offline-playoff seeds based on the online season (which WF will clearly have a ping disadvantage in). If this team can figure out its identity there may be potential for a better rank. However, I still don’t expect them to be top 3 NA or even remotely close to being ranked internationally.

Complexity (Formerly Maximum Effort & Nihilum)Roster: automatic, roca, semphis, sancz, valens

Achievements:

Offline:

· ESL One: Cologne 2015 NA Qualifier: 5-8^th

Online:

· Cevo S7 NA Professional 6^th 4-4-4

· RGN Pro Series NA 5-6^th

· iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015- Summer 5-8^th

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 NA 13/9 6^th

Breakdown: Now that the dust has settled and this team has found a permanent home, they can finally begin to put in some hard work. Being picked up by complexity is no joke. Jason Lake (owner) expects his team to compete. While this team is still far off from competing internationally, they do have potential to compete in NA as the lineup is talented. It’s nice to see the former core of Denial E-Sports working together again. That team actually made a run back in 2014 at CEVO 5 and ESEALan 17. This is where I see the potential and part of my basis for this ranking as I know they have been able to produce offline.

Speculation & discussion: It will be interesting to see how much of a leash J.Lake is willing to give this team. coL is currently in 1^st place in ESEA S20 (although they have the most games played) but they are 6^th in CEVO S8. Ideally this team needs to get to as many offline events as possible. As previously mentioned in other team’s rankings, coL needs to get the much needed experience and the lumps that come with them. I think it would be unrealistic of J.Lake to expect his team to compete internationally before 2017. In my opinion it will take coL all of 2016 to just get their foot in the door. I say this because I just haven’t seen the success from this cast against any team in Thoorin’s top 10.

3sUP Roster: DAVEY, jasonR, arya, abE, kiko

Achievements:

Offline:

· WinOut.net CS:GO Championship 3^rd

· CS:GO OC 5k Open 2^nd (m0E stand-in for jasonr)

Online:

· Cevo S7 NA Professional 7^th 4-4-4

· DreamHack Stockholm 2015 NA Qualifier 5-8^th

· iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015- Fall 5-8^th

· RGN Freedom Cup 13-16^th

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 NA 8/14 9^th

Breakdown: My comments regarding 3sUP in my last ranking were they needed to continue to grind and put in hard work to generate wins and thus become eligible to attend offline events. Luckily for them, WinOut.net hosted a NA event and this team took advantage. They achieved a solid 3^rd place showing at this event (behind LG and CLG). Not to mention beating method head to head 2-0 who I declare is now a rival of 3sUP.

Speculation & discussion: Unfortunately 3sUP has slipped a little after a good showing at WinOut.net. They started off S8 of CEVO losing to Coast as well as losing later on to method 2-0. However, 3sUP has been able to beat coL in both CEVO and ESEA, despite losing to coL 2-0 in the DreamHack Stockholm qualifier 2-0. It appears the team understands that this journey is going to be a rough one. I just hope they can continue to take the hits and keep improving because honestly that’s the only way they will improve. If they have indeed found their 5 players (with the addition of kiko), they need to stick with them. I recommend no more changes to the lineup for at least a season.

Games Academy Roster: TACO, Hen1, Lucas1, SHOOWTiME, Fnx

Achievements:

Offline:

· CS:GO OC 5k Open 1^st

· WinOut.net CS:GO Championship 4^th

Online:

· iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015- Fall 9^th

· DreamHack Stockholm 2015 NA Qualifier 5-8^th

· Xtreme League #1 1^st

· FACEIT League 2015 Stage 3 NA Qualifier 5-8^th

Breakdown: This team is essentially LG’s farm team or another BR team that has decided to make the venture to compete in the NA division. Founded by Fallen back on 8-02-15, this team has been off to a decent start. They aren’t currently in ESEA/ESL Pro NA S2 but I expect they will be next season as they are currently 8-0 in ESEA-main. I imagine they will try to get into CEVO as well. In any case their skill range appears to be in the range of the teams ranked here 6-10 and since they have 1 more offline appearance than method, they are earn spot #9.

Speculation & discussion: I’m wondering if this is indeed LG’s farm team and if LG fails to make it out of groups at the next major would they pull the best performer from this team to try and elevate LG to an international contender.

#10

Method Roster: toy, Eleyfs, Silent, Just9n, streboR

Achievements:

Offline:

· WinOut.net CS:GO Championship 5-6^th

Online:

· Cevo S7 NA Professional 11^th 2-5-5

· ESL/ESEA Pro S1 NA 6/16 10^th

· RGN Pro Series NA 13-16^th

· CS:Go Championship Series: Season 1 4^th

· DreamHack Stockholm 2015 NA Qualifier 5-8^th

· FACEIT League 2015 Stage 3 NA Qualifier 5-8^th

Breakdown: Per the achievements this team is essentially an online team. There really isn’t enough data to gauge them on. They can compete online vs most of the teams not ranked 3 or higher on this ranking. However, they are ranked behind 3sUP based on losing to them 2-0 at WinOut.net offline event.

Speculation & discussion:

This team needs to basically go the same route as 3sUP: do whatever you can to get to offline events. The RGN Pro Series Lan in November will be a great opportunity for not just method but the other NA teams on this list. Just9n and SileNt3m are method’s star players. According to my research Just9n had a little drop off from his online to offline performance. He’ll be needed at RGN if this team expects to place well at the event.

Teams that just missed a ranking:

· Ex-Elevate – no recent offline showings

· Coast –no recent offline showings and roster instability: Stanislaw, a player I had my eyes on is currently not on Coast’s ESEA roster (as of 10/7).

Thanks for reading, will try and have my next rankings out before the end of December. Feel free to follow @McCl0udysRants on twitter as I tweet daily about gaming and e-sports.

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- McCl0udy

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

NA Top 10 CSGO Ranking August 2015

McCl0uDY’s Rants NA CS:GO Top 10 Ranking

With the departure of ESEA-NEWS and their power rankings, a ranking system for NA does not appear to exist. Thoorin of course has his world top 10 which is comprehensive and accurate and if you’re looking for the 10 best teams, you should go there. However, I reside in NA and I try and follow the scene closely and therefore am taking of the cause of a NA top 10. Flame on.

Ranking system:

Teams with offline wins be ranked before any online achievements: Offline (international) > offline (domestic).

Due to not all of the top 10 teams having offline wins, online achievements will need to be considered: Offline/Online qualifier (for international offline event) > ESL/ESEA > CEVO > Face It > other online league

#1 Cloud9

Screenshot from: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/counterstrike/Cloud9

With little surprise Cloud 9 ranks number 1 on this list. Their recent success is way above any other team competing in NA CSGO E-Sports: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=188&teamid=5752&statsfilter=2053

Breakdown: Cloud9’s success is still heavily reliant on shroud’s and skadoodle’s performances so when these two are having off games, the team suffers. Occasionally n0thing can fill that void but not on a consistent basis like skadoodle and shroud9. Also Freakazoid has been a work in progress (inconsistent performer) ever since he joined C9 but his attitude and willingness to do whatever Sean says is reason enough to keep him on the squad.

Cloud9 needs to work heavily on their T-sides (on any map not named cache). Since C9 regularly bans Mirage, C9’s long term success will determine whether they can get better at T-side on inferno, train and overpass.

Speculation & discussion: When swag gets unbanned he’ll move to starting and Sean will take up the coach/calling position. I thought for a while that Freakazoid was swag warmer but with the coaching position becoming more relevant in CSGO, it makes most sense to have Sean call and swag do the fragging. Hltv stats:

Player	K-D Diff	K/D	Rating
Swag	416	1.18	1.12
Sean	-525	0.87	0.87

#2 CLG

Screenshot from: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/counterstrike/Counter_Logic_Gaming

Quite a few people said that when CLG lost Ptr, they would go down in flames. However, I believe this is quite the contrary. CLG has produced some quality wins (fnatic, Keyd and liquid) and they are certainly doing better than Ptr’s team (Mythic / ex-Luminosity). They picked the best player available (jdm) albeit through a ridiculous process (open/public tryouts… really?). But with these results, they are the second best team competing in NA:

http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=188&teamid=5974&statsfilter=2053

Breakdown: CLG plays aggressively. When this is done with masterful execution, the opposing team can become traumatized, causing lopsided wins. The problem is CLG for a majority of the time lacks this masterful execution. They are not a virtus plow (Virtus Pro) or fnatic; they are a minor league version of those two teams. To lesser competition there are lopsided wins for CLG. But for stricter competition there are generally loses. CLG was able to surprise fnatic on mirage at the ESL/ESEA finals but that was a bo1.

Looking at the lan stats above, on all of the maps they played, when CLG gets the first kill, the lowest percentage they have of winning the round is 65%. However when CLG loses the first player, their round win percentage is no higher than 26% and as low as 7% (other than a lopsided train win vs liquid).

Speculation & discussion: CLG would benefit from a coach whose expertise revolves around strategy and execution. A trend I’ve seen watching CLG matches is jdm getting 2-3 kills in rounds that CLG loses. While this is helpful in not letting the opposing team’s economy become a Swiss bank, at a certain point these multi-kill rounds need to occur in rounds that CLG wins (especially when playing teams ranked in Thoorin’s top 10). Until this happens CLG will stay ranked within the top 3 in NA and not ranked at all on the world top 10.

#3 Luminosity Gaming (Formerly Keyd Stars)

Screenshot from: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/counterstrike/Keyd_Stars

While the team is originally Brazilian based, their entrance to the NA scene last season in season 1 of ESL/ESEA Pro league places them in this ranking. Breaking news: Since they have now been acquired by Luminosity and will ultimately be moving to the lan house, they are officially a NA team now. These past few months have not been as favorable for this new LG team. They had a good online run in ESL/ESEA until they were ddos’d. They were still able to recover and receive the second seed in NA but other than a win over TSM (where TSM essentially lost the game letting Keyd (at the time) execute without strategies without resistance) at ESL/ESEA finals, LG hasn’t produced offline. I’m not giving LG/Keyd credit for taking fnatic to OT on train at that event because they had a lopsided loss 16-5 against fnatic.

http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=188&teamid=6033&statsfilter=2053

Breakdown: If we go back further than the past 3 months LG/Keyd had success at ESL One Katowice and MLG Aspen (as Kabum). But what matters is what have you done for me lately.

What was kind of exposed with the LG/Keyd win vs TSM and subsequent losses vs other teams after, is that if teams disrupt LG/Keyd’s strategy execution, LG/Keyd do not win. This is something LG/Keyd has to address immediately if they want to breakthrough to the elite and get ranked in Thoorin’s top 10. Before the ESL/ESEA lan finals I was prepared to rank LG/Keyd number 1 in these rankings due to their previous offline wins and their execution based style but clearly they are too reliant on execution and need to be able to change things up when an opening arises or the other team becomes aggressive.

Speculation & discussion: Personally, my biggest questions about LG revolved around their management. I was not a fan of how the hades departure played out. Going on the ESEA forums and counter flaming individual posts is not how an E-Sports enterprise should conduct themselves. However, it appears management may have learned from this. The LG post explaining what was happening with the new LG/Keyd and old LG team was right on the money. If you’re an E-Sports enterprise you should release a public statement and move on. If another public statement needs to be made to clarify things, make another but do not quote specific users. To do so is a lose, lose.

#4 Team Liquid

Screenshot from: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/counterstrike/Team_Liquid

Team Liquid is here because there are really no other NA teams (that haven’t already been listed) that have competed in offline matches as much as they have. For a while it looked like they were putting things together (two bo1 wins vs fnatic & navi at Gfinity Spring and overall improvement in their online matches) but every offline showing since Gfinity Spring has been quite unfulfilling.

Offline: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=188&statsfilter=2052&teamid=5973

Online: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=188&statsfilter=1796&teamid=5973

Breakdown: There’s really nothing to say here other than this is a tale of two teams. Online they can beat any NA team on any night. But offline, they sputter. From my perspective the team has potential. Adren is a good in-game leader; his awp can be effective and he understands that execution is critical to success. Nitro and fugly are solid/nutty fraggers and Elige can go on some sick streaks (out of those 3 nitro is the star). The remaining spot is where the questions start.

Speculation & discussion: I don’t enjoy saying this but flowsick has to go. The team results are proof enough. His rating is well below his teammates (other than adren who gets a pass for calling). http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=173&playerid=1328&statsfilter=2053

Honestly the timing for Liquid couldn’t be better. Nihilum just cut its CSGO team leaving Hiko on the market. From my understanding Hiko wanted adren on his dream team anyway and adding Hiko would immediately add a serious clutch and lurk factor to the team. If Hiko demanded Semphis tag as well, I still think it would be a good idea. Semphis has international offline experience and that is extremely valuable. He also is very good at keeping his team hyped and energetic. We all know lans can be long and jet lag plays a factor when traveling but Semphis keeps everyone alert…

Since Semphis joined Nihilum and focused purely on fragging, his numbers are vastly improved: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=173&playerid=1915&statsfilter=5

But if Semphis came to the party whose spot would he take? In my opinion it would be Elige’s spot. He doesn’t have as much experience and appears streaky. I would be in favor of Team Liquid moving Elige to the backup role as I believe that is an underdeveloped spot on competitive teams. Just about every offline event, one team has to use a fill-in because some circumstance came up. For online matches, just about every series one player has internet issues. Having a 6^th player who knew how the team played and the strategies that would be used would ensure there wasn’t a huge falloff when one of the starters was absent. Just food for thought.

#5 Tempo Storm

Screenshot from: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/counterstrike/Tempo_Storm

This is right about the point I’d place Mythic/ex-Luminosity but their issue is that they've attended recent offline events but haven’t done anything at these events. Also Maximum Effort/ex-Nihilum (who also could be placed here) hasn't played in offline games in the past 3 months (other than the recent NA qualifier where they went out 0-2). I know this Tempo Storm line-up only has 2 events under its belt (Cevolan s7 finals and now ESL NA Qualifier) but they performed surprisingly well at Cevolan. They got some rounds on VP before falling, beat Mythic/ex-Luminosity in a bo3 and took naVi close on mirage and an OT win on inferno. NA teams really compete or beat top EU teams on mirage or inferno.

Breakdown: To be honest I haven’t watched this team much. I’m aware that this team slowly progressed over its ESL/ESEA Pro league season 1 and after EU teams ditched CEVOLAN, they made headway on a free opportunity. Really the team needs more experience. Shahzam was rated as their best player at CEVOLAN and he needs to continue this trend. Primary awpers need to hit shots and it appears this is something he was able to do on Tempo Storm but not when he was on C9. You’re officially on my radar now Tempo, now let’s see if you can keep improving.

Speculation & discussion: Moses himself sees Tempo pretty much right where I do (middle of NA team). The only real question is can they go beyond expectations. I believe they did exceed at CEVOLAN as they realistically should not have beaten Mythic/ex-Luminosity. But they did so kudos.

Offline results: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=188&teamid=6118&statsfilter=2053

#6 Mythic/Ex-Luminosity

Screenshot from: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/counterstrike/Luminosity_Gaming

This team shares a lot of similarities with Liquid: they can compete online but cannot offline. It’s that simple.

Offline: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=188&statsfilter=2053&teamid=6021

Online: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=188&teamid=6021&statsfilter=1797

Breakdown: There’s really not too much to say here other than Mythic/Ex-Luminosity under performs at offline events. Notice the rating decrease on every single player when going from online to offline. Apparently that’s the hurdle they need to overcome.

Offline: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=173&statsfilter=2053&playerid=7527

Online: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=173&statsfilter=1797&playerid=7527

Speculation & discussion: If Mythic/Ex-Luminosity can put it together online they should be able to offline. I guess the team needs further time together to mesh and accept Devilwalk’s calling style and strategies. I believe there is enough experience on this team that they should be higher on this ranking but due to their offline results, I could not justify putting them higher.

#7 Elevate

Screenshot from: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/counterstrike/ELevate

This is where Maximum Effort/ex-Nihilum would be had Elevate not come in and taken care of business at the recent ESL One Cologne 2015 NA Qualifier. Being a new line up that hadn’t competed together offline until this event, they should have had no business beating Mythic or Maximum Effort. Both of those teams have more stars and more offline experience. But Elevate did and for that they earn themselves number 7 on my list.

Breakdown: Offline results: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=188&teamid=5775&statsfilter=2053&eventid=1809

Honestly this team just needs more time playing together. A close loss to CLG (16-11) shows they can compete with top NA teams. As said above they beat 2 middle NA teams and of course they lost without too much contention to Cloud9 (16-7, 16-5) who is well and above every team in NA. Just keep grinding guys. Your first showing offline was a success, now it is time to build off it.

Speculation & discussion: If a team wants to succeed, they need a fulltime coach and I’m not sure of Elevate’s current coaching situation. From my viewpoint Elevate’s weakness is not strategy it is in firepower. When they face the upper teams on this list, their K/D ratios become worse. This is of course is expected (due to harder competition) but Elevate needs a player to take over (put up frags) in these matches. Every top team has a player step up and frag hard in tough matches. Elevate needs a coach that is going to push this agenda: aim, set yourself up for easier kills and improvise when an opening presents itself.

#8 Maximum Effort/ex-Nihilum

Screenshot from: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/counterstrike/Nihilum_Gaming

I’d like to say positive things about this team but I can’t. We all hoped that Hiko was going to organize a super team that would bring NA back into international contention. However, Cloud9 determined that they were going to be that NA super team and that Hiko was not going to be a part of it. Thus Hiko was left to settle with ex-Nihilum. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, Hiko going to ex-Nihilum was a settle.

Breakdown:

This team won some watches online in the various leagues they were in but not enough to be invited to the offline finals. Until the NA qualifier, this team had not even played together offline in the past 3 months: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=179&statsfilter=2053&teamid=6098

And of course their performance at the qualifier was terrible: ESL One Cologne 2015 NA Qualifier: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=188&teamid=6262&statsfilter=5&eventid=1809

Speculation & discussion:

As I discussed in the Liquid’s section, Maximum Effort should be broken up. When this happens this will mostly likely move this team down or off this list entirely but to keep this team together would be a waste of talent for hiko and semphis. I don’t take enjoyment from saying this but this team cannot compete in or offline.

#9 3sup/former affnity

We are now to the section where this team on the list has had no offline performances or wins. What I life about this team is that they’ve worked their way through the ranks, made changes to their lineups here and there and put in a lot of hard work.

Online: http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=188&teamid=5998&statsfilter=1797

Breakdown: I am an overall fan of the additions they made to the lineup. Both abe and arya add some much needed experience to this young line up. Unfortunately for 3sup / former affinity, their ESEA-Pro-s1 matches towards the end of the season were against some of the top teams in the league: CLG, Liquid, Cloud9 and KeyD. Therefore their win to loss ratio was not as good as it should have been. But I do believe the team does have what it takes to compete. Or at least compete near the middle/to the end of the NA top level competition.

Speculation & discussion: The question here is do they have enough of what it takes to make an offline appearance this next season. They certainly have to keep grinding and putting in the work. Only time will tell if we’ll be seeing them offline. Good luck.

#10 CLG Red

I should probably be putting SKDC or another online performer here but honestly who cares. This is the final team on this list and I’d rather rant about female teams in E-Sports and CLG’s actual success at offline events. At least CLG Red knows how to bring home championships. Shots fired.

Breakdown: Ladies, first off congratulations on your success in the female circuit. Both CLG Red (former Ubnited) and Karma have put in work to keep the crowns in NA. I can’t blame you for competing in the female only events as the sponsors put the cash out there and it would have been foolish to not go after it. But now we’ve come to a point where female only competitions are becoming less frequent and open gender competitions are becoming the norm. It’s time to literally start competing against the boys.

Speculation & discussion: There is no reason why all female teams cannot compete with all male teams. Especially when it comes to CLG Red as they have the experience in playing offline, they know they have to practice and execute as a team and they’ve already felt the pressure of eyes on them both via casts and the actual spectators. What I’d really like to see from this team is getting out of ESEA-Intermediate. This past season they went 9-7. For a team with as much experience as they have, CLG Red needs to perform better than that. Records like that make it hard saying that all female teams can even compete with all male teams.

I was extremely saddened to hear @brilebe / masq retired from competitive counter-strike as I felt she was one of the few female competitors that understood what it would take to compete on the highest level in CSGO. I’m having trouble finding some posts she made about the issue (found one: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/esl-s-30-000-female-cs-go-tournament-draws-fire-from-pros/0144784 ) but essentially she understood that competing vs all male teams was harder but playing as a mixed gender team was what E-Sports needs. Opponents would argue that all female teams competing against one another inspire other female gamers to become involved, which is probably true. However, that concept does nothing to counter the issue of segregation of gaming, unlike masq’s perspective. There are no physical restraints in a game. No matter your sex or nationality, you should be able to compete equally in theory. The only difference is how hard someone wants to work and how critical do they want to be of themselves.

In my opinion, E-Sports needs mixed-gendered teams competing together and against each other. It also needs its top all-female teams competing against all-male teams and having success. I believe this is the future of E-Sports and the time to begin this journey starts now.

Thank you for reading, I hope to have these rankings out once each month. Hopefully each month they will increase with accuracy and content. If you disagree with these rankings feel free to comment below and/or write your own. The more people generating content for E-Sports the bigger the scene will become.