Nouns, Unjustified jump up in Dust2.us’ November 2023 rankings

Dust2.us is back with our top 10 ranking for the month of October! This time around, 23 panelists including players, coaches, journalists, and talent all gave their impressions on the state of the NA scene a month into the release of Counter-Strike 2. While NA's most dominant teams have maintained their spots in the top five, there has been important movement across the top ten, with two new teams doing the upper levels of NA CS.

With that, here is the ground rules for how our power ranking will function for transparency:

Our team rankings are determined based on a series of measurements where each team is allocated points dependent on where they rank compared to their peers. This measurement is determined by the opinion of our panel, teams' relative HLTV ranking compared to other NA teams, and teams' tier of play. A team garners a higher tier depending on how frequently they compete internationally and in what division they play in during domestic competitions (ECL, Advanced, etc.). For the sake of our power ranking, we consider a team to be NA if they either have 3+ NA players and/or they spend a significant amount of their time competing in North America.

#1 Complexity (JT, floppy, Grim, hallzerk, EliGE, Coach: T.c) (—)

Complexity taking the number one spot once again should not come as any surprise. Considering they ended September as the undisputed kings of NA, and have since won the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 Americas and placed second at IEM Sydney 2023, the gulf between Complexity and the rest of the NA scene is currently wider than it has ever been. As long as Complexity continue on their current trajectory it may be a long time before we see any other team even come close to usurping their position.

October Events: BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 Americas, IEM Sydney 2023, Thunderpick World Championship 2023

#2 Nouns (Bwills, nosraC, cJ, MarKE, cynic, Coach: SEMPHIS) (+2)

Nouns have clinched the number two spot in this month's rankings, owing in large part to a dominant month of performances in ESL Challenger League Season 46 and the ESL Challenger Jönköping qualifier, which notably saw them beat Evil Geniuses three times. As such, it was only fair for Carson "nosraC" O'Reilly and co. to supplant their position on the rankings.

With a LAN appearance in Jönköping on the cards for Nouns in November, it will be interesting to see if they can become the second NA team to take the fight to EU teams on LAN in CS2.

October Events: ESL Challenger League S46, Thunderpick World Championship 2023

#3 M80 (Swisher, reck, WolfY, malbsMd, maNkz, Coach: dephh) (—)

M80 have maintained their position as the third best team in North America despite a relatively quiet October. However, with wins over Nexus and Anonymo in CCT East Europe Series #3 and an extended bootcamp in Europe, our panel is likely feeling bullish about a team with a lot of potential that just hasn't quite been realized yet. Like Nouns, it will be interesting to see M80's development once they return to North America after an enriching stay on the other side of the pond.

October Events: CCT East Europe Series 3, Thunderpick World Championship 2023

#4 Evil Geniuses (autimatic, Walco, Jeorge, junior, HexT, Coach: Axed) (-2)

While Evil Geniuses are still a top domestic team, their tumble in the rankings is justifiable when considering their failure to qualify to ESL Challenger Jönköping while also being handed three losses to Nouns this month. With the team also taking a close 2-0 loss to Unjustified in ECL, EG are really going to have to buckle down and find wins in November if they want to climb past M80 and Nouns.

October Events: BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 Americas, ESL Challenger League S46

#5 Forsaken (stanislaw, cxzi, wiz, Infinite, JBa, Coach: Warden) (—)

Forsaken have maintained their position in fifth place, likely riding on their prestige rather than results this month. As a squad stuck waiting until 2024 to debut in ECL, the team only played a handful of matches, besting Wildcard twice, but losing to EG, Nouns, and Liquid. Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz's troops can be happy, but they are likely hunger for a higher position.

October Events: BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 Americas, ESEA Advanced Season 46

#6 Wildcard (Cryptic, freshie, brett, SLIGHT, d4rty, Coach: horvy) (—)

Wildcard have also held onto their position in sixth place after spending most of the month in Europe. While their run at Thunderpick World Championship 2023 was largely uneventful, Wildcard did get some good wins over smaller European teams in United21 Season 7. As the least experienced team of the quartet to head to Europe, even if they did not achieve great things abroad, the benefits of EU scrims and officials should pay dividends. Despite their sole NA win this month coming against Badass, it is clear they are held in high regard as upcomers.

October Events: Thunderpick World Championship 2023, ESL Challenger League S46, United21 Season 7

#7 Party Astronauts (PwnAlone, ben1337, chop, spek, Grizz, Coach: Viathan) (—)

Strangely, among all teams in the ranking with the exception of Complexity, the panel was most unanimous in their assessment of Party Astronauts' place in the scene. Fifteen members of the panel chose Party Astronauts as the seventh best team in North America. In trying to make sense of this assessment, it likely comes down to PA being capable of moments of brilliance, like their 2-0 win over Imperial and their extremely close loss to Liquid in BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 Americas. However, the reason why they aren't higher is due to being inconsistent and incapable of besting teams like Nouns and Evil Geniuses.

#8 Unjustified (Cyrix, Seb, Lake, Wolffe, arcade) (NEW)

While Unjustified only played ECL this month, they did great amazing things in the league. The relatively new formation picked up a number of high-profile scalps, besting EG 2-0 and Party Astronauts 2-1, while also taking a map of Nouns. With a 6-3 record in ECL, this new squad have done a great job to establish themselves in the upper echelons of the league, and look poised to cause some damage when playoffs come around.

October Events: BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 Americas, ESL Challenger League S46

#9 Badass (snav, Fr3nk1e, dare, shane, consti, Coach: JQT) (—)

Despite changing two, Badass held onto their position as the ninth best team in North America. This likely comes down to the fact that Badass beat the teams they are expected to be — Rocket, Reason, and Mythic — while struggling to best teams like Wildcard. The only outlier in this assessment is their 2-1 loss to Bad News Bears, however that can be explained away by the mass level of experience BNB has. As such, if Badass can keep their eye on the ball they should be able to hold onto their spot in the top ten.

October Events: ESL Challenger League S46

#10 FLUFFY AIMERS (Peeping, sacrifice, LEARSI, Jason, dea) (NEW)

Alongside Unjustified, FLUFFY AIMERS are newcomers to the top ten in North America. Despite a relatively uneventful October, FLUFFY AIMERS beat the teams they needed to beat and looked fairly confident doing it. Likewise, with an impressive player like Deni "dea" Ediev in their ranks, FA are in a good position to break away from the pack of mid-table ECL teams and try to cement themselves as worthy contender in NA.

October Events: ESL Challenger League S46