Brazil leads Dust2.us’ August 2023 rankings

To provide a transparent summary of the ranking process, here is a breakdown of the Dust2 Ranking process:

Our team rankings are chosen based on a series of measurements where each team is allocated points dependent on where they rank compared to their peers. This point-based system puts all domestic and international results, HLTV ranking, the tier of play, and coaches polling into consideration. While we include the HLTV rankings to some degree, more weight is given to the select number of coaches within the scene that are ranking the teams due to their accurate ability in judging play outside of the regional matches.

#1 FURIA (arT, yuurih, KSCERATO, FalleN, chelo) (-)

FURIA didn’t look very good in their debut with the new duo inside of the IEM Cologne Play-ins, but that wasn't enough for them to relinquish their handle of the NA throne. Despite the misstep, the team is still young in its inception and has plenty of time to operate before the alarm bells start to ring.

August Events: Gamers8, ESL Pro League S18

#2 Imperial (boltz, VINI, JOTA, HEN1, felps) (+4)

Although the new-look Imperial also did not qualify for Cologne, they looked much better than some would have anticipated following the creation of the lineup. Two strong map wins over Grayhound and a razor-thin loss to a solid NIP lineup marked a debut worth building around for the Imperial squad as they climb up the ladder this month.

August Events: ESL Pro League S18

#3 Complexity (JT, floppy, Grim, hallzerk, EliGE) (-1)

Complexity have flat out looked bad since debuting with Jonathan "EliGE" Jablanowski with an overall map record of 3-10, a metric even less impressive when two of those wins came in their first series. Like FURIA's lineup, Complexity has the luxury of leaning on growing pains as a major cause for the issues, but they are a lot closer to ringing the alarm bells than their Brazilian counterpart after two poor events.

August Events: ESL Pro League S18

#4 Evil Geniuses (autimatic, Walco, junior, Jeorge, HexTi) (+1)

After some competitive losses inside of BLAST competition, EG took wins off ARCRED and MIBR at the CCT North Europe Series to give the team some positives to build around, something that EG could use. A hectic offseason did well to keep the eyes off EG, something that could be of great benefit to the lineup as they look to build a winning team.

August Events: ESL Pro League S18

#5 MIBR (exit, brnz4n, insani, saffee, drop) (-1)

MIBR played two series in July, defeating IKLA before losing to EG in CCT competition.

August Events: Gamers8, ESL Pro League S18

#6 Nouns (bwills, nosraC, cJ, MarKE, stamina) (+1)

Nouns made a brief appearance in August as well, with just two series played inside the Thunderpick NA Qualifiers, beating Rocket before losing to Wildcard.

August Events: CCT Online Finals 2, ESL Challenger League S46

#7 9z (max, dgt, dav1deus, try, buda) (+3)

9z was perhaps the most active on the list, playing in four different events and winning three of them in July. After losing to Virtus.Pro to start the month, they ripped off a BO1 and eight-straight BO3 series wins against Brazilian and South American competition.

August Events: TG Masters, ESL Pro League S18

#8 00 NATION (coldzera, dumau, latto, nqz) (-1)

00 NATION saw a fair bit of competition, making top four at both events played on the month. A win over Fluxo headlined the month but was thwarted by fellow top-ten team 9z at the Pro League qualifier.

August Events: TG Masters

#9 M80 (malbsMd, WolfY, Swisher, reck, maNkz) (NEW)

M80's first month was quite a success, as the team qualified for the Thunderpick World Championship with their star riflers Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa and Michael "Swisher" Schmid both on fire together. This lineup has given fans much to look forward to as they expect to only improve.

August Events: None

#10 Wildcard (brett, Cryptic, freshie, SLIGHT, d4rty) (+3)

Wildcard proved themselves to be a legitimate team during July, peaking at the absolute best times with first-place showings at both the Thunderpick NA qualifiers and the ESEA Pre-Season Summer Circuit, with wins over notable teams like Nouns and M80.

August Events: ESL Challenger League S46