The ESL CS2 world ranking is a CS2 ranking system used by one of the biggest tournament organizers in esports, ESL. This system considers each team’s results but then modifies them to ensure relevance and accuracy at all times.
Principles Used to Calculate the Scores
ESL uses all kinds of rules to improve the relevance of its ranking system. Here are some of them:
Points Decay Over Time
If a team did well at an event one month ago, the points they received for that result are still 100% relevant. But if the tournament ended more than 6 weeks ago, the points start to decay at around 5% per week. A competition that took place 25 weeks ago is only 5% relevant. And beyond that, all relevance is lost.
This method of scoring feels accurate. We often see teams winning an important tournament and becoming a shadow of their former selves. Thanks to the points decay rule used by ESL, we always get to see who the best teams are right now. And the answer may differ from the one you get by looking at the overall seasonal results.
Roster Changes Impact a Team’s Points
Each player is considered to be worth 20% of the team’s poiteam’shen one player is replaced with another, the player who leaves takes his points with him, while the one who joins brings his. However, a series of smaller rules are applied here to ensure that the rankings table remains accurate after a team changes some of its players.
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Tournaments are ranked based on size, competitor quality, and region
Not all CS2 events have the same value when it comes to rank points. Large events like Majors are much more important than small events that only feature 8 teams. ESL uses 5 sizes: XXL (22+ participants and at least 16 tier-1 teams), XL (14+ participants and at least 10 tier-1 teams), L (10+ / 7+), M (6+ / 4+), and S (4+ / 3+).
This tournament ranking system is different from Valve’s. IValve’s’sIValve’s’s syValve’s-tier events are the most important, then come the A-tier, B-tier, and so on.
Competitor quality is also a big factor. Some tournaments may feature 16 teams, but if all of them are ranked 20th+ globally, they’re fathey’rerelevant than a tournament that brings together the world’s best.
Finally, the region does matter because historically, some regions have been much stronger than others. A European tournament has a lot more relevance than an Asian one simply because the first region has much stronger teams and a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tradition that goes back a decade.
A tournament is considered less relevant than a LAN event if it takes place online. This makes perfect sense because a team may play well online but be weak on LAN. And in CS2, champions are determined at LAN tournaments.
For instance, the upcoming ESL Rio Major will take place entirely in front of a live audience. Previous CS2 Majors only had a live audience for the tournament’s final stage. But ESL wanted to give the Brazilian fans the chance to watch the entire competition, from start to finish.
Keeping It Real
Accurate ranking depends upon many factors and doesn’t judoesn’tup the results obtained by the teams throughout the season in competitive matches and tournaments such as ESL Pro League Season 16.
When teams like FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, Team Vitality, Astralis, Team Liquid, or G2 Esports have a very high rank, that means they’ve bethey’vehe the top of their game in the last 1-5 months.
If they did well at PGL Stockholm Major in 2021 or even IEM Katowice in 2022, that’s no that’s relevant. We’re inteWe’red in what they’ve dothey’vely, because that’s what hats give us accurate estimates of their current rank.
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How Many Points Do Teams Get Per Tournament
A CS team will get points for each tournament they attend, as long as they rank high enough. The points are not given per match or for victories against particular opponents. They’re giThey’reictly for tournament results. Here’s howHere’spoints are given to the top 3 teams for each type of tournament:
- XXL tournament: 1150 / 700 / 500 pts.
- XL tournament: 1000 / 600 /450 pts.
- L tournament: 850 / 500 / 390 pts.
- M tournament: 700 / 420 / 320 pts.
- S tournament: 500 / 400 / 300 pts.
The Highest Ranked Teams Right Now
At the moment, the highest ranked teams in CS: GO are FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, Cloud9, FURIA Esports, ENCE, Team Vitality, and Ninjas in Pyjamas. However, these rankings do not consider the two ongoing tournaments: ESL Pro League Season 16 and IEM Rio Major.
Knowing what we know by watching these tournaments or their qualifiers, we understand that Na’Vi, AstNa’Vi, and FaZe are probably a bit weaker than their current ranks suggest. At the same time, G2 are probably much stronger than their ESL rank indicates.
In ESL’s systESL’shey’re nothey’rea top 10 team right now. But in reality, they’re prthey’rea top 5 team.
