Dust2.us Top 10: Ghost takes up residence in the top three

The Dust2.us Top 10 rankings of North American-cored teams returns for the month of October. 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: StarSeries i-League Season 6, EPICENTER Moscow, the EPICENTER Wild Card qualifier, and WESG Canada Regional Finals. In addition to the LAN events, the first open qualifier for the IEM Katowice Americas Minor, MDL Season 28, Gfinity Spring Series, ECS Season 6, EPL Season 8, and DreamHack Open Atlanta and Open Winter qualifiers all played out online.

The full Top 10 ranking can be found over on the Top 10 page, here.

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

Liquid remain uncontested as the best team in North America, although their streak of 2nd place finishes and lack of tournament wins continues with a 3-4th place finish at EPICENTER Moscow. Dominant 2-0 wins over AVANGAR and Swole Patrol in the group stage saw Liquid go up against FaZe in the semifinals, where they fell short to the eventual tournament winners.

Both ESL Pro League Season 8 and ECS Season 6 have gone well for Liquid, sitting second to NRG in ECS with an 11-5 record and in fourth for EPL. Issues with Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken's health saw the team's coach, Wilton "zews" Prado, stand-in for the player during a few matches, resulting in a few more losses for the squad than they would have liked. They remain in contention for a spot at the LAN finals for both leagues, with just two matches remaining against Renegades for ECS and four for EPL against compLexity and Ghost.

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 #7

NRG impressed at the start of the month with a 3-4th placing at StarSeries i-League Season 6, picking up wins over Vega Squadron, North, and Fragsters in the group stage before eliminating North 2-0 in the quarterfinals. Although NRG managed a comeback against Vega Squadron in the first map of the semifinals, they were unable to edge out the win and fell 1-2 to the CIS side.

After returning from StarSeries, NRG began racking up wins in both ECS and EPL, initially only splitting series with Luminosity and Liquid for EPL before falling 0-2 to MIBR in both leagues. A much needed 2-0 win in ECS over Liquid was their saving grace as the aforementioned stand-in situation saw Liquid field zews instead of Twistzz, allowing NRG to further edge their way up the leaderboard. A slip-up in ECS against Rogue saw the team split their matchup 1-1, with NRG later going on to drop both of their matches against compLexity.

Despite the losses, NRG currently top the leaderboard in ECS with an 11-5 record and their final matchup seeing them take on the 10th place Spacestation roster. With a spot at the LAN in Arlington all but assured, NRG's attention now turns towards their two upcoming LANs in cs_summit 3 and IEM Chicago, as well as their final matchups against Renegades and Cloud9 in EPL as they aim for a slot at the LAN finals.

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.  Ghost - 568 points (+175) / HLTV #25

An impressive debut in EPL for Joshua "steel" Nissan's crew sees the team rocket up to the top three in our standings, ousting compLexity and Cloud9 from the top of the board despite the team's lack of LAN attendances this month. Impressive 2-0 wins over MIBR, NRG, Renegades, and Luminosity as well as 1-1 splits with eUnited and compLexity saw Ghost become one of the first two NA EPL teams to qualify for the LAN finals, joining MIBR on the road to Odense. 

The Canadian core of the team also attended WESG Canada Regional Finals, where dominant 2-0 wins in both their matchups saw the team nab a spot at the WESG Grand Finals later in the year along with a nifty $15,000 prize. Ghost are also set to play in cs_summit 3, which kicked off earlier today.

Ghost's current roster is:

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

4.  compLexity - 525 points (-54) / HLTV #13

compLexity slip out of the top three as a lackluster showing at StarSeries saw the team fall 0-3 in the Swiss group stage to Gambit, Renegades, and BIG. Their online results have also been middling, splitting series in both ECS and EPL with Liquid, Cloud9, Envy, Ghost, and Rogue. 

With ten matches left to play for ECS and six for EPL, there is still a chance for compLexity to edge out a spot in one of the LAN finals. Their odds to make it to ECS in Arlington are slim as only the top four teams make it through, and their remaining matches will see them face eUnited, MIBR, Rogue, and Renegades.

While they currently sit in sixth place for EPL, just narrowly edging out a spot in the finals, two of their remaining three matchups will see them face Liquid and MIBR. With eUnited currently tied with compLexity for points and the head-to-head in the favor of eUnited, compLexity's final matches for EPL will be crucial in clinching a spot in Odense.

compLexity's current roster is:

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

5.  Cloud9 - 471 points (-22) / HLTV #29

Cloud9's roster woes continued this month with the announcement that Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham would be stepping down from the starting roster. A number of split series in both EPL and ECS leaves Cloud9 as an unlikely candidiate for either LAN finals, with their final matches for EPL pitting them up against NRG and Ghost. They currently sit in fourth for ECS, but having played out all their games for the league, have no way of assuring their place at the LAN.

The team's focus now turns to BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, which they will attend with Frenchmen Fabien "kioSHiMa" Fiey as a stand-in, and upcoming online qualifiers as they look to stabilize with a new fifth man.

Cloud9's current roster is:

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

6.  eUnited - 332 points (-22) / HLTV #35

Struggling to find consistent results, eUnited made a roster change this month by bringing in former compLexity and Cloud9 in-game leader Pujan "FNS" Mehta to replace their long-tenured AWPer Brandon "Ace" Winn. A report earlier today by us here at Dust2.us also sees Skyler "Relyks" Weaver on his way out of the team, set to be replaced by Austin "Cooper-" Abadir after IEM Chicago and DreamHack Open Atlanta.

eUnited managed to qualify for DreamHack Open Atlanta by taking down FURIA and Spacestation just before Ace's departure, but were unable to mirror the result a week later against INTZ in the DreamHack Open Winter qualifier as they were forced to field Mitch "mitch" Semago in place of star fragger Kaleb "moose" Jayne due to the latter player's attendance at WESG Canada Finals. 

eUnited are out contention for ECS Season 6 Finals, but may still be able to edge out a spot at the ESL Pro League Finals should they win the remainder of their matches. They are also set to make their LAN debut with FNS in November, attending IEM Chicago before heading over to Atlanta for DreamHack Open. 

eUnited's current roster is:

• Kaleb "moose" Jayne
• Will "dazzLe" Loafman
• Skyler "Relyks" Weaver
• Michael "dapr" Gulino
• Pujan "FNS" Mehta
• Jared "osorandom" Hartman (Coach)

7.  Rogue - 321 points (-22) / HLTV #36

Similarly middling results in both EPL and ECS with Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend led Rogue to make changes of their own towards the end of this month, bringing in former North in-game leader Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen to replace their German. The team was able to prevail over TeamOne in their debut with MSL for the DreamHack Open Winter qualifier, but fell to the eventual champions Bravado in the semifinals. 

Rogue's online performance for ESL Pro League leaves them firmly out of contention for the LAN finals with just one matchup against INTZ remaining. This final bout will prove crucial as the team currently sits in ninth place for the league, just above relegation tournament territory and just above INTZ, who are tenth on the leaderboard.

To have a chance at qualifying for ECS Finals, Rogue would have to win out their remaining matches in the season, including a double-header against MIBR, and rely on both compLexity failing to garner more than 15 points and MIBR losing their remaining matches. 

Rogue's current roster is:

• Daniel "vice" Kim
• Spencer "Hiko" Martin
• Hunter "SicK" Mims
• Ricardo "Rickeh" Mulholland
•  Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen

8.  Swole Patrol - 164 points (+21) / HLTV #34

Swole Patrol continue to dominate MDL as they remain undefeated in league, having played and won eight matches. Their international foray at EPICENTER Moscow saw them fall to HellRaisers in their opening matchup for the Wild Card qualifier before going on to prevail over 5Power and Virtus.pro to clinch a spot at the main event. Although they were unable to pick up a map win in their two group stage matchups, a close 14-16 loss to NiP on Nuke showed the team's potential to grow with more international experience over time.

With Swole Patrol's return to North America, a number of MDL matches await as they look to work their way into ESL Pro League Season 9. The team is also slated to make their way to Los Angeles in November for WESG USA Regional Finals with Leonardo "Laski" Arroyo in place of Edgar "MarKE" Jimenez.

The team is also on the hunt for a fifth player to close out the season as Cooper- is in talks with eUnited, leaving the team just three days to find a new addition with the MDL roster lock date looming on November 4th.

Swole Patrol's current roster is:

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

9. Envy - 54 points (-44) / HLTV #132

Envy's return to CS:GO has been less than spectacular, seeing the team initially go 0-12 in EPL with their new roster. They finally managed to nab their first two wins on October 30th, picking up back-to-back wins over Cloud9; unfortunately, the victories were nothing to boast about as four of the five Cloud9 members were in Europe playing with 150 ping. Although they managed to split their series with eUnited on Halloween, they are still haunted by their lackluster start and only have two matchups against Renegades and Luminosity remaining.

Envy currently sit in last place in EPL, set to be auto-relegated from the league should they be unable to secure any more wins. Their results throughout the season forced a change in the lineup, leading to the benching of Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen and the team bringing on Matt "Pollo" Wilson for their remaining matches. Their matchup later today against Luminosity will be the most crucial as the Brazilian team sit just above them in 11th place, which at the least will allow them to play an upcoming MDL team for relegation.

EnVyUs' current roster is:

• Taylor "Drone" Johnson
• Stephen "reltuC" Cutler
•  Josh "jdm64" Marzano
• Noah "Nifty" Francis
• Matt "Pollo" Wilson (Stand-in)
• Zachary "Eley" Stauffer (Coach)
• Taylor "Tailored" Broomall (Analyst)
• Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen (Inactive)

10.  Singularity - 50 points (-) / HLTV #49

The recently signed Singularity roster also continue to post results in MDL, working their way to the top of the standings during Swole Patrol's absence. Narrow losses to VAULT, Bravado, and Vireo.pro this month dealt the roster a few losses, but dominant wins over the rest of their opponents — with the exception of oNe — allows them to maintain a firm lead at the top end of MDL.

Singularity also redeemed their 13-16 MDL loss to Bravado by defeating the South Africans 2-0 in the semifinals of the first IEM Katowice Americas Minor open qualifier, granting themselves a spot in the closed qualifier in December. The team will also meet Swole Patrol in the WESG USA Regional Finals in November as they fight for the sole qualification spot.

Singularity'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 Singularity sit Spacestation with 29 points, while cantwinalan are now contested for 12th place by Mythic, who have had a solid MDL season thus far, and also qualified for the IEM Katowice Closed Qualifier.

November is slated to be the most busy month of the second half of 2018 as a number of premier events are scheduled, including: cs_summit 3, BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, IEM Chicago, DreamHack Open Atlanta, Toyota Masters Bangkok, ECS Season 6 Finals, WESG USA Regional Finals, and SuperNova CS:GO Malta.

A number of online qualifiers for various events will also take place, with the most notable being the two remaining IEM Katowice Americas Minor open qualifiers. The playoffs for MDL Season 29 and the PLG Grand Slam qualifier will also play out this month.