Dust2.us Top 10: Cloud9 and Liquid are the unanimous top teams in North America

In our quest to establish ourselves as the hub of North American Counter-Strike, we naturally must provide a ranking of the teams in North America. Our ranking is based on a composition of scores from a panel of judges. The ranking panel for this month was comprised of:

• 2 Dust2.us staff members
• 3 professional players
• 2 professional coaches
• 1 MDL player
• 1 MDL coach
• 3 personalities/talents

You will notice that teams like SK, Renegades, and Luminosity are not ranked here, and even though they compete in North America, they aren't North American teams in the pure sense.

You can view the full points breakdown per team on the Top 10 page.

1. Cloud9 - 1000 points / HLTV #6

A unanimous decision by our panel grants Cloud9 the top spot in our rankings following IEM Oakland. Despite a crushing defeat by the hands of FaZe Clan, Cloud9 were able to take down Gambit in a best-of-three to progress to the semi-finals. The squad also claimed victory at iBUYPOWER Masters the weekend prior to Oakland, where they took down their rivals from Liquid who debuted with Lucas "steel" Lopes for the first time.

Cloud9 have been bootcamping this past week to prepare for ECS Season 4 Finals after failing to qualify for the ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals. They'll also be competing online in CyberPowerPC's Winter Invitational this weekend for a share of $25,000.

Cloud9's roster consists of:

• Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham
• Jake "Stewie2K" Yip
• Timothy "autimatic" Ta
• Tarik "tarik" Celik
• Will "RUSH" Wierzba
•  Soham "valens" Chowdhury (Coach)

2. Liquid - 900 points / HLTV #10

A suprising last-minute roster change from Liquid saw them head into IEM Oakland fielding steel over Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz. The announcement came just a day before the start of the event, with the players having little time to practice with their new addition.

Narrow wins over Renegades and Gambit in overtime were their only victories in Oakland, and now the roster's famed synergy needs time to redevelop. With many  talents previously praising the squad for their utility usage and strategical variation, it's now left to see how the team will fare without stanislaw as a secondary caller.

Liquid still claim the second spot in our rankings thanks to their previous results; however, the next month of events will be difficult for them as they will only be able to field steel for ECS Season 4 Finals. Roster lock rules prevent Liquid from using steel for ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals or the Major Qualifer (and Major, if they qualify), where they will instead field their coach, Wilton "zews" Prado. 

Liquid's roster consists of:

• Nick "nitr0" Cannella
• Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski
• Josh "jdm64" Marzano
• Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken
• Lucas "steel" Lopes
• Wilton "zews" Prado (Coach)

3. Misfits - 690 points / HLTV #23

Misfits have slowly risen up as a force to be reckoned with as other, smaller North American teams have fallen away. Lackluster performances from CLG, NRG, and the like have given way for Misfits to finally step forward as a contending North American squad.

A suprising performance at the Americas Minor saw the team claim a spot at the Major Qualifier for themselves by taking down CLG and Liquid in best-of-three series. Misfits also qualified for ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals, where they'll look to take on a number of top tier European teams for the first time. 

Misfits' roster currently consists of:

• Sean "seang@res" Gares
• Hunter "SicK" Mims
• Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan
• François "AmaNEk" Delaunay
•  David "devoduvek" Dobrosavljevic

4. NRG - 637.5 points / HLTV #28

NRG, despite failing to make the Americas Minor and falling in the group stages of iBUYPOWER Masters, place fourth on our rankings. Despite a few back-and-forth roster changes, the team still managed to close out the online portion of ESL Pro League Season 6 in fourth place, granting them a spot at the upcoming LAN. With Damian "daps" Steele once again on the roster, the team will now look to replicate their online form in Odense as they face stiffer competition than ever before.

NRG's roster consists of:

• Jacob "FugLy" Medina
• Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte
• Damian "daps" Steele
• Allan "AnJ" Jensen
• Cvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov

5. Unemployed for Christmas (ex-CLG) - 555 points / HLTV #??

The former CLG core's future has been thrown into question as the organization announced their depature from CS:GO on Thursday. This news came in the wake of rumors regarding in-game leader Pujan "FNS" Mehta leaving the team, with Ricky "Rickeh" tweeting soon after the announcement that he was searching for a new squad. 

The remaining trio will be participating in this weekend's CyberPowerPC Winter Invitational, fielding Zack "XotiC" Elshani and Ronnie "ryx" Bylicki in place of FNS and Rickeh. If the core hope to hold on to their position they'll need to find two permanent players to rebuild with — players that can compete on an international level. 

Unemployed for Christmas's roster currently consists of:

• Kenneth "koosta" Suen
• Ethan "nahtE" Arnold
• Stephen "reltuC" Cutler
• Steve "Ryu" Rattacasa (Coach)

6. compLexity - 337.5 points / HLTV #29

Although they fell to Rise Nation in the qualifers for DreamHack Open Winter, compLexity showed improvement at the Americas Minor by eliminating TeamOne and NRG in series play. Though they have yet to contend on an international level, the Alec "Slemmy" White-led team has begun showing signs of progress as the team develops. 

A dismal 11th place finish in Season 6 of North America's Pro League ensures that compLexity won't be in Odense, but the team now has the time to work on their roster as the winter season of matches conclude. Their spot on our rankings could still be compromised by teams competing in the Invitational this weekend, should a team like Splyce upset Cloud9 with a good performance in a series. 

compLexity's roster consists of:

• Rory "dephh" Jackson
• Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker
• Peter "ptr" Gurney 
• Alec "Slemmy" White
• Bradley "ANDROID-X23" Fodor
• Matt "Warden" Dickens (Coach)

7. Splyce - 256.3 points / HLTV #48

Splyce also had a rather dismal Pro League season, finishing in tenth place; however, a best-of-five victory over Ghost Gaming saw them proceed to the Finals stage of ROG Masters 2017, set to take place from December 7th-10th.

A good result there, combined with a chance to upset other North American teams during this weekend's Invitational, could see them overtake compLexity for next month's ranking. Considering that they are one of the few lower-tier North American teams to have matches remaining in the year, Splyce have a good shot to close out the year on a high note.

Splyce's roster consists of:

• Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen
•  Daniel "roca" Gustaferri
• David "DAVEY" Stafford
• Taylor "Drone" Johnson
• Mitch "m1tch" Semago
• Zachary "Eley" Stauffer (Coach)

8. Rise Nation - 170.8 points / HLTV #39

Rise, alongside SoaR, has been one of the few MDL teams to show promise recently. By taking down compLexity in the grand finals of the qualifer for DreamHack Open Winter, Rise secured themselves a spot in Jönköping, Sweden to compete against stiffer competition.

This weekend will see them stand trial against the likes of Gambit, Heroic, and Natus Vincere, testing the unit against a stack of European opposition for the first time since the ESEA MDL Season 25 Global Challenge. 

When they return from Sweden, Rise will look to repeat as CEVO Main champions. Even more importantly, a LAN BO3 between them and fellow rising squad SoaR will decide which team will earn a spot in the next season of ESL Pro League.

Rise Nation's roster consists of:

• Andy "vSa" Xu
• Will "dazzLe" Loafman
• Jonathan "Jonji" Carey
• Kaleb "moose" Jayne
• Brandon "Ace" Winn
• Jared "osorandom" Hartman (Coach)

9. Ghost - 93.8 points / HLTV #75

Ghost has faced roster woes for their entire Pro League Season, seemingly fielding a different roster every time a match of theirs was being played. Recently it was unveiled that former player Jason "neptune" Tran told his team that he was 16, but in reality is 15 — and that one year difference makes the player inelligible to compete in ESL's Pro League.

Seemingly nothing has gone right for the squad as they will be demoted to the MDL for the coming season, and are likely to face relegation from ECS as well. More recently the team's founding member, Phong "bee" Nguyen, stepped down from the squad's active lineup. This leaves Ghost with three players as they head into the winter break. They'll look to close out the season by playing with João "horvy" Horvath and Ricky "floppy" Kemery for this weekend's Invitational, but the roster's future is uncertain from there.

Ghost's roster consists of:

• Connor "CONNOR93" Glover
• Sebastian "seb" Bucki
• Matthew "Wardell" Bowman
• Phong "bee" Nguyen (Manager)

10. Rogue - 87.5 points / HLTV #94

Rogue are also dealing with roster difficulties as they looked to replace Collin "wrath" McSweegan heading into EPL Relegation matches. A lackluster showing during ESL Pro League Season 6 has led to the squad fighting to remain in EPL, and now they face issues with a player just prior to the matches that will determine whether they stay in the league or not. 

Rogue's roster consists of:

• Josh "shinobi" Abastado
• Daniel "vice" Kim
• Spencer "Hiko" Martin
• Casper "cadiaN" Møller
• Garett "Grt" Bambrough (Coach)

Other teams that received nods from our panel are SoaR, Mythic, GX, FRENCH CANADIANS, Torqued.

The events in the next month that will impact December's ranking will be DreamHack Open Winter, ESL Pro League Finals, ROG Masters, ECS Finals, and of course the first Dust2.us Masters! Look forward to our next ranking to be released on New Years Day!