Dust2.us Top 10: Liquid remain unanimous number one; compLexity overtake Cloud9

The Dust2.us Top 10 rankings of North American-cored teams returns for the month of September. As usual, the likes of MIBR, Renegades, and Luminosity aren't included. This month's panel included:

• 2 Dust2.us staff
• 1 personality/talent
• 2 Pro coaches
• 1 MDL coach
• 1 MDL player

The main events that played out this month to influence the rankings include: FACEIT Major, MSI MGA Finals, ESL One New York, BLAST Pro Series Istanbul, DreamHack Open Montreal, and Java Collegiate LAN. In addition to the LAN events, MDL Season 28, Gfinity Spring Series, EPICENTER qualifiers, the Toyota Master qualifier, and two ECS qualifiers all played out online.

1.  Liquid - 1000 points (-) / HLTV #3

Liquid remain at the top of our standings as the clear-cut best team in North America after their runs at the FACEIT Major and ESL One New York. A flawless 3-0 in both the New Challengers and New Champions stages of the Major saw Liquid take down the likes of OpTic, HellRaisers, NiP, and Astralis to secure a playoffs berth. Although Liquid secured a 2-1 victory in a rematch against HellRaisers in the quarterfinals, they were unable to overcome Astralis in series play as the Danes came out on top with a dominant 2-0 win. 

Liquid continued their good form at ESL One New York, cruising through NRG, G2, and Gambit in best-of-threes on the road to the finals. With FaZe and Na`Vi both eliminated in the group stage of the tournament and Astralis absent due to their attendance at BLAST Pro Series Istanbul, everything seemed set for Liquid to finally win a big title of their own.

Despite falling to mousesports in the opening map of Cache, an incredible performance by Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken allowed for Liquid to pull ahead 2-1 in the best-of-five series. They were inches from taking home their first big trophy as they sat at a 13-4 scoreline on Dust2, but mousesports persevered while Liquid crumbled to take the series to a final map, where the European side emerged victorious off the back of an incredible AWP ace by Chris "chrisJ" de Jong.

While Liquid still struggle to claim premier tournament titles, they remain the most consistent and competitive team in North America, and a top 3 team in the world.

Liquid's current roster is:

• Nick "nitr0" Cannella
• Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski
• Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken
• Keith "NAF" Markovic
• Epitacio "TACO" de Melo
• Wilton "zews" Prado (Coach)

2.  NRG - 900 points (-) / HLTV #10

NRG had a relatively quiet September as they did not attend the FACEIT Major, although their in-game leader Damian "daps" Steele did end up in London to make his debut as an analyst. While daps was away, the team attempted to compete in the EPICENTER qualifier online with Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert standing-in, but fell 1-2 to Swole Patrol in the grand finals to narrowly miss out on a slot in the WIld Card tournament.

Once daps returned, NRG headed off to ESL One New York, where they were able to steal a map away from Liquid in overtime before falling in the series 1-2. NRG's elimination match saw them up against FaZe, with the recently-struggling European roster front-running on NRG's map pick of Inferno. NRG were able to return fire to take the map to overtime, eventually taking the opening map before securing FaZe's map pick of Mirage to 2-0 the series. 

Another 2-0 win against G2 in the Group B decider match granted NRG a spot in the semifinals, where they finally fell to the eventual tournament champions from mousesports. A solid run allows for NRG to maintain their position as North America's second best team, although competition may be headed their way in the form of compLexity.

NRG's current roster is:

• Jacob "FugLy" Medina
• Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte
• Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov
• Damian "daps" Steele
• Ethan "nahtE" Arnold
• Chet "ImAPet" Singh (Coach)

3.  compLexity - 579 points (+133) / HLTV #12

compLexity jump from 6th to 3rd in our rankings after a strong performance at the FACEIT Major, continuing Cloud9's downward spiral as the team made up of three Major champions continue to drop in our rankings month-to-month.

Led by Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz, compLexity were able to advance to the New Legends stage of the Major after going 3-1 on Inferno in the New Challengers stage, falling to Astralis in their opening matchup before taking down Space Soldiers, BIG, and Vega Squadron. They were then able to surprise everyone as they joined Liquid as one of the two teams to go 3-0 in the New Legends stage, defeating fnatic, G2, and BIG to clinch a spot in the playoffs.

compLexity's Cinderella story came to an end in the quarterfinals as MIBR picked up an assertive 2-0 win on stage, eliminating the North Americans from the Major. Although they didn't face the toughest competition, their accomplishment at the Major is still commendable. compLexity more recently qualified for ECS Season 6 with wins over lmfao and Bravado in the Challenger Cup, and were the runner-ups at the best-of-one MSI MGA Finals in New York after two close overtime wins over eUnited and Movistar Riders gave way to a 9-16 loss to AVANGAR.

compLexity's current roster is:

• Rory "dephh" Jackson
• Bradley "ANDROID" Fodor
•  Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker
• Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan
• Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz
• Ronald "Rambo" Kim (Coach)

4.  Cloud9 - 493 points (-78) / HLTV #21

As the core of the team remained the Major champions going into the FACEIT Major, Cloud9 received a invite directly to the New Legends stage of the Major. There, with Martin "STYKO" Styk and Maikel "Golden" Selim in tow, they finished in 12-14th going 1-3 in the Swiss group stage, dropping to Vega Squadron 4-16 before falling in overtime to HellRaisers, narrowly inching past Winstrike in overtime despite an inital 13-3 lead, and dropping to G2 19-22 in their fourth matchup. 

Shortly after their exit from the Major, Cloud9 announced the acquistion of Robin "flusha" Ronnquist, who would be replacing STYKO on the lineup. With the mouse-lifter in tow, Cloud9 attended BLAST Pro Series Istanbul, where their results continued to be lackluster with losses to Virtus.pro, MIBR, Astralis, and NiP, and their sole victory coming over Space Soldiers. As they now have a month off from LANs, Cloud9 will have plenty of time to practice as they look to regain their footing.

Cloud9's current roster is:

• Timothy "autimatic" Ta
• Will "RUSH" Wierzba
• Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham
• Maikil "Golden" Selim
• Robin "flusha" Ronnquist
• Soham "valens" Chowdhury (Coach)

5.  Ghost - 393 points (-26) / HLTV #26

Ghost only played one official match this month, falling 0-2 to Bravado in the semifinals of the Toyota Master Bangkok qualifier. As they failed to qualify for the Americas Minor without their in-game leader Joshua "steel" Nissan, Ghost were not at the FACEIT Major and instead spent September practicing and scrimming while looking for a new fifth player to replace Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend. Eventually the team settled on Jason "neptune" Tran, who only recently became re-elligible to play in ESL Pro League after turning 16 for the second time.

Ghost are competing in ESL Pro League Season 8, where the team started off their season with a clean 2-0 over MIBR.

Ghost's current roster is:

• Matthew "Wardell" Bowman
• Yassine "Subroza" Taoufik
• Joshua "steel" Nissan
• Kenneth "koosta" Suen
• Jason "neptune" Tran
• James "JamezIRL" Macaulay (Coach)

6.  eUnited - 354 points (-3) / HLTV #37

eUnited were the only North American team to attend DreamHack Montreal, where they unfortunately finished in 7-8th after losing their opening best-of-one against ENCE and falling 1-2 to Kinguin in their group's elimination match. Mere hours after their elimination from Montreal and still playing from the venue, eUnited took on Swole Patrol in the EPICENTER closed qualifier semifinals. A strong performance from Austin "Cooper-" Abadir saw eUnited completely shut out of the series, bringing the day to a dismal end for the team.

While eUnited originally had the end of September off as they awaited the start of EPL S8 and ECS S6, a last minute invite to the MSI MGA Finals was sent their way when 5POWER were unable to attend. There, eUnited managed to take down AVANGAR 16-9 in their opening matchup, but fell to compLexity in overtime in the upper bracket final before being eliminated from the running in a rematch against AVANGAR. Due to no practice facilities being available to eUnited in New York, they were also forced to forfeit their match in the Toyota Master qualifier.

eUnited will have the chance to inch up the standings as they compete in ECS and EPL over the following month. They are also set to compete at IEM Chicago in November, where they'll face their first true test as they go up against the likes of Astralis, FaZe, and Na`Vi.

eUnited's current roster is:

• Brandon "Ace" Winn
• Kaleb "moose" Jayne
• Will "dazzLe" Loafman
• Skyler "Relyks" Weaver
• Michael "dapr" Gulino
• Jared "osorandom" Hartman (Coach)

7.  Rogue - 343 points (-64) / HLTV #35

In spite of a notable performance in the New Challengers stage of the FACEIT Major that saw Rogue narrowly lose out to Astralis 13-16 and North 23-25, Rogue drop to 7th in our standings with their in-game leader Casper "cadiaN" Møller returning to Denmark to play for North. 

With their recent pickup of Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend, Rogue will now look to recompose as EPL and ECS kick off. 

Rogue's current roster is:

• Daniel "vice" Kim
• Spencer "Hiko" Martin
• Hunter "SicK" Mims
• Ricardo "Rickeh" Mulholland
•  Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend
• Matthew "mCe" Elmore (Coach)

8.  Swole Patrol - 143 points (-) / HLTV #39

Swole Patrol maintain their eighth place seat from last month after a relatively quiet September. Best-of-three wins over FURIA, eUnited, and NRG secured Swole Patrol a slot in the EPICENTER Moscow Wild Card qualifier, which will take place on the first day of the main event in Moscow and grant two teams a slot in the $300,000 tournament.

An attempt to grab a spot in ECS Season 6 was quickly derailed as Swole Patrol fell to Gorilla Gang in the quarterfinals of the first qualifier, where they were forced to field Owen "oBo" Schlater as Braxton "swag" Pierce is still not allowed to compete in the FACEIT-run league. Fortunately, Swole Patrol's MDL season has gotten off to a good start as they only dropped a mere 5 rounds combined in their first two matches.

Swole Patrol's current roster is:

• Ryan "freakazoid" Abadir
• Austin "Cooper-" Abadir
• Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro
•  Braxton "swag" Pierce
• Edgar "MarKE" Jimenez

9. Envy - 98 points (new) / HLTV unranked

Envy somehow appear at ninth on our standings after finally announcing their roster for the upcoming EPL season. With no matches actually played, our panel hypothesizes Envy to at least be better than Gorilla Gang when EPL kicks off.

EnVyUs' current roster is:

• Taylor "Drone" Johnson
• Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen
• Stephen "reltuC" Cutler
•  Josh "jdm64" Marzano
• Noah "Nifty" Francis
• Zachary "Eley" Stauffer (Coach)
• Taylor "Tailored" Broomall (Analyst)

10.  Gorilla Gang - 50 points (new) / HLTV #65

Gorilla Gang make their debut on our standings after an eventful end to September. Although the team only played online matches, they secured themselves a spot at the WESG USA Finals in Los Angeles in November. A 2-0 win over Swole Patrol and 2-1 victory over Infamous also advanced the team to the ECS Season 6 Challenger Cup. Here, Gorilla Gang were able to add to the streak by taking down oNe 2-1 before falling to the lower bracket after an 0-2 loss to AZIO. 

Shortly after, they were able to upset AZIO in the quarterfinals of the Toyota Master qualifier, but later dropped to oNe 1-2 in the semifinals. They also managed a 2-0 win over FURIA in the second round of the lower bracket for the ECS Challenger Cup, but were up against MIBR in the final hurdle for a slot in ECS Season 6 and fell to the EPL team 0-2.

Gorilla Gang's current roster is:

• Anthony "Vanity" Malaspina
• Cameron "hydrex" Kern
• Josh "oSee" Ohm
• Ryan "ryann" Welsh
• Victor "food" Wong
• Jared "MAC-1" Schneider (Coach)

Just below Gorilla Gang sit AZIO with 36 points, while cantwinalan trail further behind. In October there will be only two premier LAN events in StarSeries i-League Season 6 and EPICENTER Moscow. A number of online games will also take place over the month, including MDL, ECS, and EPL matches and the playoffs for WESG.