The World’s Best CS:GO Teams, map by map— November 2017

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, map specific considerations are still too often overlooked by casual observers. To provide a better baseline for these discussions, this article will name and rank the best teams in the world on each specific map. A team’s map prowess will be weighed in accordance with the criteria listed here.

Notes:

This ranking will evaluate the last 100 days of play, from July 27th to November 4th 2017

SK Gaming presents a problem. They have have changed a player which should discount their previous results, but reportedly Felps will play a couple more LANs with SK. For the sake of simplicity, I will count all of SK’s results with both Felps and Boltz in the past 100 days, but only give SK honorable mentions instead of ranks.

Mirage

Courtesy of DreamHack and Adela Sznajder

As I have argued previously, Mirage is an extremely important map in the current competitive landscape with nearly all top-level teams being willing to play it. It also happens to be perhaps the best map of the team many have predicted to rule this era: FaZe. With seven LAN wins on the map in the past 100 days no one can reasonably challenge the mix team’s position at the top, but it does get pretty interesting in the middle. G2 and North are close contenders for the second place spot, but G2 barely edges them out thanks to their better wins and harder schedule. SK, the only team to beat FaZe on Mirage gets an honorable mention here.

1. FaZe

Record: 7–1

Wins: Na’Vi, Astralis, Liquid, North, TyLoo, Gambit, Virtus.Pro

2. G2

Record: 5–0

Wins: Immortals, SK, Renegades, North, Astralis

3. North

Record: 5–3

Wins: Immortals, Kinguin, Fnatic, Heroic, Liquid

Honorable mention: SK

Record: 5–3

Wins: B.O.O.T, Liquid, Virtus.Pro, FaZe, Astralis

Inferno

Courtesy of DreamHack and Adela Sznajder

Alongside Mirage, Inferno is the other ultra-popular and ultra-important map in the current competitive climate. Three parties have a decent claim to the number one spot. Liquid’s 9–2 record looks the best on paper, but those numbers are inflated by wins over weaker competition. Three of those come from SK who have had serious problems on the map while they have also picked ups wins versus Vega Squadron and NRG. FaZe’s sevens wins, including one over Liquid themselves, carries more weight and earns them top billing. G2 own seven wins looks attractive as well, but their lack of a win over a top-4 team and four losses keep them from moving up. Virtus.pro with three wins just barely sneaks into the top-4 thanks to their wins over FaZe and G2.

1.FaZe

Record:7–1

Wins: Na’Vi, Astralis, Liquid, North, TyLoo, Gambit, SK

2. Liquid

Record: 9–2

Wins: SKx3,mousesports, Virtus.pro, Astralis, Vega Squadron, North, NRG

3. G2

Record: 7–4

Wins: EnVyUs, SK, NiP, North, Na’Vi, Astralisx2

4. Virtus.pro

Record:4–4

Wins: Gambit, FaZe, G2. Renegades

Train

Courtesy of DreamHack and Adela Sznajder

Although it has been thoroughly surpassed by Inferno and Mirage now, Train is still one of the more prominent maps currently. With SK out of the running via the rule set of this list, the contest comes down to Astralis, Gambit, and surprisingly mousesports. With 6 wins to the other two’s five, Gambit seems like the obvious choice for the number one spot especially considering two of those wins came over FaZe. However, Gambit only barely get the top spot as FaZe has only played Train versus Gambit and Gambit’s wins over Seed and Singularity hardly impress. Astralis’s versus mousesports also is extremely close, but mouse’s win over Gambit gives them the silver medal. Cloud9 perhaps also could have made this list with a 6–3 record, but the of their strength of their wins isn’t particularly impressive (compLexity, Luminosity, Na’Vi, EnVyUs,Renegades, BIG).

1.Gambit

Record: 6–3

Wins: mousesports, FaZe x2, Seed, Singularity, Virtus.Pro

2. mousesports

Record: 5–3

Wins: Heroic, Gambit, Virtus.pro, Liquid, ALTERNATE aTTaX

3. Astralis

Record: 5–1

Wins: Renegades, Heroic, Fnatic, Liquid, North

Honorable mention: SK

Record: 6–2

Wins: Cloud9x2, Virtus.Prox3, Astralis

Cobblestone

Courtesy of DreamHack and Adela Sznajder

The bedrock brick castle stands solidly in the middle of the pack in terms of popularity, thanks in no small to FaZe and Astralis’s continued disdain for it. North’s six wins on it tops the world over the last 100 days, but SK has been fantastic on Cobblestone this year 17–5 across all rosters, perhaps could have grabbed the number one spot here if it were not for the semi-departure of Felps. mouseports, surprisingly show up in second place with five total wins, while Liquid’s two wins over SK barely put them in the top four. G2 have also been fantastic on Cobblestone this year with a 13–3 record overall, but oddly they have only grabbed two wins and two losses over the past 100 days.

1.North

Record: 6–2

Wins: Gambit, Gale Force, Cloud9, Immortalsx2, Liquid

2. mouseports

Record: 5–3

Wins: Gambitx2, Liquid, Atternate AttaX, LDLC

3. Liquid

Record: 3–4

Wins: SKx2, Team One

Honorable mention: SK

Record: 5–3

Wins: North, Cloud9, G2, EnVyUs, Virtus.Pro

Overpass

Courtesy of DreamHack and Jennika Ojala

Overpass has continued to find some love as a specialty map in the present era, but only three teams stand out on it currently: FaZe, Astralis, and SK. Astralis’s historical record on the map far surpasses anything FaZe or SK can come up with, but in the past 100 days both teams have arguably been better. SK has five wins to Astralis and FaZe’s four, and Astralis has no wins over the other two while FaZe has beaten Astralis and SK has beaten FaZe. Only SK’s player change gives FaZe and Astralis the number one and number two spots respectively.

1.FaZe

Record:4–1

Wins: Cloud9, Liquid, EnVyUs, Astralis

2. Astralis

Record: 4–1

Wins: Na’Vi, Liquid, Fnatic, Cloud9

Honorable mention: SK

Record: 5–0

Wins: Gambit, Liquidx2, Heroic, FaZe

Cache

Courtesy of DreamHack and Adela Sznajder

As covered in a previous article, Cache needs a champion. While it gets some play in best-of-ones it is not particularly loved by anyone. Only two teams have any sort of record that stands out on this map at the moment: FaZe and Virtus.pro. The Polish side has one more win than FaZe, but three additional losses on it as well including one to FaZe themselves. FaZe gets the number one nod accordingly. Renegades also happens to have a 4–1 record on Cache, but that mostly comes from their performance in the Asia Minor.

1.FaZe

Record: 4–0

Wins: VP, Astralis, TyLoo, Gambit

2. Virtus. Pro

Record: 5–3

Wins: mousesports, Gambit, G2, SK, Heroic

Nuke

The layered power plant looks to be about as popular as chernobyl at the moment. It only got 1 play at ESL One New York, three plays at ELEAGUE premier, and three plays at EPICENTER 2017. Looking at the 20 ten team in the world according to HLTV only two teams have more than two wins on the map on LAN in the past 100 days: G2, and mousesports. The non-top-10 mousesports again shows up here with a surprising five wins thanks to success at smaller tournaments, but the can’t take the number over G2 by volume alone. Virtus.pro who was famously great on Nuke in late 2016 and early 2017 has surprisingly only played it three times on LAN since the player break with two wins.

Courtesy of DreamHack and Adela Sznajder

1. G2

Record: 3–1

Wins: Renegades, North, Virtus.pro

2. mousesports

Record: 5–1

Wins: Heroic, Liquid, Vega Squadron, LDLCx2