Things are heating up in Mountain Dew League after another two weeks of competition. Teams have now had the chance to showcase their skill on two more commonly played maps: Mirage and Cobblestone. Admittedly, I was not clear enough in my last edition that the five teams I chose to write about do not represent a top-to-bottom ranking list; but rather, that these power rankings are meant to examine trends that unfold in MDL throughout the season. In other words, just because a team is not included does not mean I think every team on the list is ranked above or below that team. Thank you for the feedback and I do encourage discussion!

▲ 1. Rise Nation (Jonji, Ace, vSa, dazzLe, moose)

Rise Nation hit the ground running hot off their CEVO Main Season 12 championship, amassing a 7–1 record. Most recently Rise was able to take down the hot roster of Pnda Gaming on Cobble, as well as finding themselves a solid win over subtLe by a score of 16–4 on Mirage. Once again, Moose lead the way for his team on several occasions as expected. Moose is a player that much like Yayster of Ex-Synthetik, can be a high-fragging force for his team map after map. Look out for Rise Nation to be a contender to take the title this MDL season, as they gear up for a tough test over the next two weeks facing the likes of Otter eSports, EANIX, and Miami Flamingos.

▲ 2. Miami Flamingos (Tutehen, Guishorro, Tomi, MarKE, JonY BoY)

The Cinderella story continues for this Argentinian mix team. Most recently acquiring MarKE from NRG, Miami has been a force to be reckoned with in MDL. Watching their matches one can see the time and effort put in by this group, as their strategic play is without a doubt in the upper echelon of Premier CS:GO. Often teams that qualify to play in Pro League need a sometimes lengthy adjustment period; however, the level of strategy that Miami employs would alleviate that transition should they be the victors this season. Now on a six game winning streak after a rough start to the season, Miami will look to continue their winning ways into Train and Inferno — two maps they have shown proficiency on in the past.

▲ 3. District 7 (effys, gMd, PL1, Subroza, vEz)

Now calling themselves District 7, this all-Canadian Esports organization have stumbled in their last two maps, but are making strides towards tightening up their play and structure. The addition of Stronglegs as their new coach has provided the team with some insight into how they can improve long-term and play more as a cohesive unit. The team is packed full of individual talent, but they have fairly obviously struggled against teams that can enforce structure and teamwork against them and as such are trying to take the steps they can to improve in that department. Their toughest test in the coming weeks will be Ronin, with Cache and Train on the horizon.

▼ 4. Down to Frag (ben1337, crashies, oSee, phantom, Orbit)

DTF came out with a hot 3–0 surprise start to the season, but have since fallen hard into a five game losing streak. Not much has gone right for this team, losing both to MDL’s best in teams like Otter eSports but also their main competition middle-of-the-pack teams like subtLe. Now much like FlipSid3 Academy this team is struggling across the board, in many games not having a single player break 10-RWS. DTF will need to stop the bleeding soon if they want to salvage a chance at moving on to playoffs.

▼ 5. The Foundation (Jmoh, kaboose, dee, haptiiC, maL)

It’s been nothing short of a rollercoaster of a season for The Foundation so far, now owning a 3–6 record (one of those wins being a FFW over the now dead team xoxo). The leadership and experience that kaboose brings to the team doesn’t appear to have had enough of an impact thus far in this season. The only teams they’ve been able to beat are Flipsid3, and the two dead teams in the division. It is hard to say whether or not they can come back from this, but many certainly expected more from this lineup prior to the commencement of this season of MDL.