We have updated our Global Team Ranking—powered by EGB.com—for March 2017.

After our February's ranking post, it's now time for the March sum up. Astralis won IEM Katowice, the most important tournament of the month, although it has already been counted as a part of our previous ranking.

FaZe secured the second place in Katowice, which helped them keep their fourth place, and will now continue to battle for a better place in our ranking. Above them are, besides the latest IEM winners, SK and Virtus.pro, who will fight for a rank up during this month.



Astralis are more than 200 points ahead



SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals are set to start tomorrow with a $300,000 prize pool as it is the biggest tournament of April. From the 16 attendees, only UYA and MVP Project aren't ranked in our top 30 teams.

One of the main stories of March's ranking is HellRaisers achieving the #15 place over G2. During this month, besides their league games, the French team only won the StarSeries' qualifier, which means they will have a chance to surpass teams like mousesports and OpTic in Kiev.

April will also have, among others, Copenhagen Games 2017 – BIG and NRG will be present – and cs_summit 2017 – where all the confirmed teams are ranked in our top 30.

Here's a summary of our ranking for new readers:

Our team ranking is based on teams' achievements over the past year (with severe decay in points throughout each month), recent form over the last 2 months, and performance at offline events in the last 3 months. Each team is required to have a three-man core in order to retain their points and online results are included but have minimal effect (only affecting 'Form') at the top of the table and mainly serve to put new teams on the map.

Here is the current top 30 table as of April 3rd, 2017, which goes more in-depth into the way points are distributed – or you can check our special page where you will be able to find the latest, weekly version of our ranking. You can see the lineup for each team by hovering over their name in the table.

Please note that the +/- gain on this table differs from our weekly rankings page, and is in relation to the ranking update of February 6th, 2017.

Top 30 Team Ranking Powered by EGB.com

Rank Team Achievements Form LANs Total points +/- 1. Astralis 500 200 300 1000 - 2. Virtus.pro 379 163 215 757 - 3. SK 302 182 134 618 - 4. FaZe 222 107 194 523 - 5. North 213 148 115 476 - 6. Natus Vincere 184 141 97 422 - 7. Immortals 85 162 96 343 - 8. Heroic 71 94 86 251 +1 9. Gambit 102 54 92 248 -1 10. Cloud9 111 111 25 247 +3 11. fnatic 86 105 46 237 +1 12. NiP 138 71 15 224 -2 13. OpTic 144 60 12 216 -2 14. mousesports 78 94 20 192 - 15. HellRaisers 21 136 18 175 +8 16. G2 61 58 14 133 -1 17. Kinguin 27 48 21 96 -1 18. Space Soldiers 9 70 3 82 +4 19. BIG 8 57 15 80 +1 20. Liquid 30 45 4 79 -3 21. Envy 0 75 0 75 +7 22. GODSENT 26 34 10 70 -3 23. FlipSid3 26 26 16 68 -5 24. CLG 2 63 1 66 +12 25. Vega Squadron 7 46 9 62 +6 26. Epsilon 9 51 1 61 -5 27. Renegades 12 47 1 60 +2 28. Luminosity 0 60 0 60 +7 29. NRG 0 60 0 60 +22 30. iGame.com 6 52 2 60 -6





*Hover over each team name for the full lineup.

Here's an explanation on the top 15 teams' history during March.

1. Astralis

Xyp9x's team has been placed first in our rankings since December. Last month, he won HLTV's MVP award after an amazing performance in Katowice. Astralis had a quiet month when it comes to tournaments since there haven't been no tournaments other than IEM Katowice.





Xyp9x holding his HLTV MVP by ZOWIE award



However, they have played five different best-of-two ESL Pro League Season 5 Europe matches that count in our rankings. The Danes tied with both North and FaZe, won against Heroic and Kinguin but lost versus Virtus.pro.

Tomorrow, Astralis will play their first match of SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals against CLG, where they will continue to pursue the "#1 spot in the world for as long as possible".

2. Virtus.pro

Since IEM Katowice was part of last month's ranking, where the Poles failed to get through the group stage, the biggest task Virtus.pro had during April was the game against Space Soldiers. Counting in the ECS Season 3 EU Promotion match, NEO's squad secured a place in the league after a 3-1 victory.



Virtus.pro want to lift yet another trophy



As for their online matches, they lost one map to fnatic and 0-2 versus HellRaisers. Against Astralis and mousesports they have won 2-0, which means Virtus.pro had a 5-3 map record in their March's ESL Pro League Season 5 Europe games that count in our ranking system.

TaZ and his teammates will face MVP Project tomorrow in their first match in Kiev, where they will play April's most important event.

3. SK

The Brazilian team failed to get through IEM Katowice's group stage back in the beggining of March. Since then, SK only conceded two out of ten maps in ESL Pro League Season 5 North America – one against both Renegades and OpTic.



FalleN will have all eyes on him



However, as mentioned in our key storylines of StarSeries S3 Finals article, FalleN's team is searching "for the right playstyle" and April might be a crucial month to do so.

Tomorrow in Kiev, SK will play against TYLOO in their first best-of-one match of the Swiss Stage system. During April, the Brazilian team will also participate in cs_summit 2017.

4. FaZe

These five men have been gaining some form recently. After NiKo's addition, his new team was able to win against the likes of Immortals and fnatic before securing the second place at IEM Katowice.



Is NiKo the player that was missing in FaZe?



In terms of online matches, FaZe's Pro League run in March finished with a 5-5 record. Including a 2-0 win versus NiP and 0-2 defeat against Natus Vincere, karrigan's squad traded maps with fnatic, Astralis and LDLC.

The first tournament FaZe is playing in April is SL i-League StarSeries S3 Finals, which is set to start tomorrow, where their first match will be against HellRaisers.

5. North

aizy's new team placed 5-6th at IEM Katowice back in the beggining of March. Recently, the Danes failed to win their ECS Season 3 Promotion match against fnatic. MSL said in his interview for StarSeries 3 Finals that "it's all about consistency", so that's a factor his team will be working on.



MSL wants to keep celebrating for North



During their online March run, besides their ECS Season 3 Europe run, North won three best-of-two's, tied two and lost one in ESL Pro League Season 5 Europe.

North are just a few points away from sixth place, which means StarSeries S3 Finals will be an important event for the team to prove their value. The Danes will be the first team to play in Kiev as they will face Immortals at 10:00 .

6. Natus Vincere

Based on the matches that are included in our Natus Vincere's form subranking, the CIS-based team only lost two out of eight maps counting for ESL Pro League Season 5 – which includes a comfortable 2-0 win against FaZe.

Although it might seem that s1mple's team is gaining form, they haven't been able to get through the quarter-finals at their last three events. Recently, Andrey "⁠Andi⁠" Prokhorov, their former analyst, took Sergey "⁠starix⁠" Ischuk's place after the veteran was released from the squad.

Natus Vincere's campaign to get back to the top is set to start tomorrow at StarSeries S3 Finals in Kiev.

7. Immortals

Since fnx's addition, the Brazilian team has been getting more consistent. It all started with the qualification for IEM Katowice, which was followed by a 3-4th place in the main event after defeating North in the quarter-finals and losing against FaZe in the semis.



fnx's addition has been a boost to Immortals' quality



In their ESL Pro League games, Immortals only lost two maps – one against Cloud9 and another versus NRG. As for their run at SL i-League S3 North American Qualifier, only Liquid was able to win a single map against the Brazilian side.

Immortals' first match at StarSeries S3 Finals will be against North. During April, HEN1's squad will also play in Austin at DreamHack's next event.

8. Heroic

valde's team was one of the biggest surprises of IEM Katowice. During their run, they managed to get the first place in Group A against the likes of SK, Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere and others. Although they went directly to the semi-finals, they weren't able to win against Astralis but had the 3-4th place assured.

Since then, Heroic failed to qualify for SL i-League StarSeries S3 Finals after losing 1-2 against GODSENT. They also had two losses and three ties in ESL Pro League Season 5 during March, but the team has a chance to prove their value at the end of April at DreamHack Open Austin.

9. Gambit

Gambit's rise to the top 10 was faster than expected. During March, Zeus's squad failed to qualify for ECS Season 3 after placing third in its Development League.





Zeus will have a chance to commemorate in his home soil



The CIS-based team seems to be ready to continue with their rank-up as they will be present tomorrow at SL i-League StarSeries S3 and later this month at cs_summit and DreamHack Open Austin.

10. Cloud9

The North American team placed 9-10th at IEM Katowice and failed to qualify for SL i-League StarSeries S3 Finals. Despite not getting through IEM's group stage, Cloud9 was able to win against SK in their first Katowice match.

Stewie2K's team won iBUYPOWER Invitational Spring against OpTic last night and have three ties, two wins and two losses in ESL Pro League Season 5 since IEM Katowice. During April, the North American will play at cs_summit and DreamHack Open Austin.

11. fnatic

Although fnatic has been going through some changes and difficulties, olofmeister's squad managed to qualify for StarLadder's third edition and to secure a place in ECS Season 3 after winning 3-1 against North in the promotion match.



fnatic want to get back to their 2016 form



During April, besides their online matches, SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals is the only event that fnatic are confirmed at, which might come as a great opportunity for the Swedes to continue to improve.

12. NiP

GeT_RiGhT's team had a slow month. Besides their IEM Katowice run, where they placed 9-10th, the Swedish team has only been playing in ESL Pro League Season 5. In five best-of-two matches, NiP won three, tied one and lost another.

NiP recently changed Jacob "⁠pyth⁠" Mourujärvi for draken, which means Kiev will be the LAN debut for the new roster. Following StarSeries S3 Finals, which is set to start tomorrow, the team will be at cs_summit in Los Angeles from 19-23rd April.

13. OpTic

Recently, Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin stepped down from OpTic a few days after Luis "⁠peacemaker⁠" Tadeu did as well. Yesterday, the North American squad finished second in iBUYPOWER Invitational after losing 1-2 in the finals.

During March, mixwell's team failed to qualify for SL i-League StarSeries S3 Finals. This month, OpTic will be present at cs_summit from 19-23rd April.

14. mousesports

mousesports latest official tournament in March was DreamHack Open Austin European qualifier, where they lost 1-2 against HellRaisers in the semi-finals. As for their ESL Pro League Season 5 Europe matches, the team has tied two games, lost one against Virtus.pro and won another versus North.

15. HellRaisers

ANGE1's team surpassed G2 at the #15 ranking spot after qualifying for SL i-League StarSeries S3 Finals against Envy. More recently, the team has assured their place at DreamHack Open Austin after winning 2-0 versus Vega Squadron. In terms of online leagues, HellRaisers had three ties and two wins in ESL Pro League Season 5 Europe during March.