Complexity, M80 jump in HLTV's latest ranking
It was one of the best ESL Pro League events for North America in a while... until it wasn't. M80 shocked everyone with their surprisingly dominant group play run, while Complexity was forced to go to the last-chance stage for their shot in the playoffs. As for Liquid, fans probably expected a bit more out of the squad after their strong showings.
M80 secured consecutive wins over Complexity, fnatic, and Imperial, in that order, while ultimately falling to MIBR in the playoffs. M80's strong wins over decently ranked teams on LAN helps prove that this NA squad has the ability to compete internationally and the slight ranking boost up to 20th in the world shows just that.
As for Complexity, they made it really hard on themselves over the course of their time in Malta. An upset loss against M80 forced them to fight against Danish superteam Astralis, with Alexander "br0" Bro unfortunately suffering a "medical issue" following the event.
Complexity would defeat them, and then their archnemesis MOUZ, only to fall to BIG. That meant they had to replay Astralis and MOUZ, all for the honor of playing Liquid in the playoffs where they would lose and be eliminated. Regardless, the points they earned from beating two relatively strong teams helped push them to 9th in the world from 12th.
One of the teams that many might have forgotten played in ESL Pro League Season 20, since it started almost a month ago, is Wildcard. The NA-based, international roster did not have the same sort of campaign as the aforementioned squads, but their win over KOI and other recent performances have been enough to propel the roster to 30th in the world which is an all-time high for the organization.
Finally, Liquid fell just one place to 8th in the world as Eternal Fire brushed by everyone thanks to their Grand Final appearance performance. Liquid were strong in Pro League with solid wins over ENCE and Virtus.pro, but suffered losses against Vitality and in their elimination match, G2. Fans would have expected more out of this Liquid team after recent performances showed they can hang among the best in the world, but so far, Liquid is in the right step heading into the next Major cycle.
