One of the biggest tournaments of the year, ESL One Cologne has just ended and that means an update to our tier rankings with some massive shake-ups from the unexpected results in the Cathedral of Counter-Strike. There is also a bunch of smaller qualifiers and tournaments to take into account.

Tier Rankings compiled by Jamie "PalmtopPitbull" Wert (@PalmtopPitbull on Twitter) and Grady Hooker (@GradyHooker on Twitter).

S-Tier Astralis A-Tier FaZe NaVi mousesports Liquid B-Tier Fnatic MiBR NRG North G2 C-Tier Cloud9 NiP TyLoo Space Sol. HelLRaisers OpTic BIG D-Tier AGO AVANGAR Renegades Heroic LeftOut Red Reserve Gambit Grayhound Rogue compLexity Imperial ENCE Kinguin

Reasons for Selected Teams (Movement or Roster Changes)

North - North has continued to show a resurgence in form over the last few weeks outside of a few minor missteps.

G2 - Does the French scene finally have a team to put it's full weight behind again? We think so. G2 players have shown flashes of their old selves and some great teamwork to earn this spot.

Cloud9 - Cloud9 still does not have a solid 5th in their roster, and still has not shown us anything of note. They need to figure things out quickly before the Major.

BIG - What can we say about this team? They are only a borderline C Tier team, but, their performance at Cologne was nothing short of unbelievable.

AGO - Very poor performance against relavent teams in recent weeks. They need to figure out a way to be more consistent if they want to move back up to C Tier.

ENCE - ENCE has had remarkable performance after remarkable performance at the lower levels, and they even showed up at Cologne to sweep mouz and NiP. They will be a team to watch moving forward.

ENCE - ENCE has had remarkable performance after remarkable performance at the lower levels, and they even showed up at Cologne to sweep mouz and NiP. They will be a team to watch moving forward.

Kinguin - This Polish side has been on an absolute tear recently, and much of that can be credited to the steady veteran leadership of Taz. Only time will tell if they will prove to be a mainstay in these rankings.

Virtus.Pro - Their performances in recent weeks and months paired with the loss of Snax to mouz prompted a vigorous debate at EK. Ultimately we decided that the shambling corpse that is Virtus.Pro must be put to rest from the rankings.

Valiance - They barely earned their spot in the last rankings. In the intervening time since then, they have shown they were not up to keeping it. Maybe next time.

Explanation of Tiers

S-Tier: Teams you expect to win every tournament they are in. They are the current kings of the Counter-Strike scene.

A-Tier: Teams that can be expected to easily beat teams in the tiers below, and may even upset an S-Tier team once in a while. Regularly makes the playoffs.

B-Tier: Teams that; Have shown recent potential or Former A-Tier teams with recent and extended periods of poor play.

C-Tier: Teams that; Have had decent showings at recent international LANs or Teams that may have dropped off recently, but have historically decent placements and can potentially make the playoffs.

D-Tier: Teams that have appeared at a few international LANs recently, likely via qualifiers, but have not shown skill consistently on the level of the other tiers. Rarely make playoffs if they ever have.

These rules are not exact, and they are not hard and fast. There are always exceptions. If there were not, it would become impossible to rank teams due to the nature of the game.