The Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association’s rankings need some serious work, especially when it comes to MIBR’s place in them.
Rankings are found across all sports, whether it’s a top ten list of League of Legends mid laners or the best teams in the National Football League. But rankings in CSGO are more meaningful. They determine which teams get invited to some of the worlds biggest tournaments, which teams have to fight through lengthy qualifiers, and which teams get left behind without a chance to compete. At this time in CSGO esports, several competing rankings exist, and all of them use different criteria to determine which teams place where. But the CSPPA rankings, which are considered when inviting teams to tournaments including FLASHPOINT, have some serious issues.
MIBR has plummeted from other rankings over the course of several months and has found itself embroiled in controversy as they’ve headed straight for the bottom. HLTV’s rankings, considered by many to be the authoritative source for CSGO rankings, currently has MIBR ranked 21st in the world. Other rankings, like Valve’s own regional rankings, currently have them missing out on CSGO’s next Major tournament altogether. But for some reason, the CSPPA’s rankings have them ranked eighth in the world. They’re currently placed above such names as Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Complexity.
While the CSPPA boasts that these rankings were sent to “multiple teams” and several tournament organizers for review, it’s important to note that MIBR’s performance has been nothing short of disastrous over the past several months. Over the course of several tournaments, MIBR has failed to place any higher than fifth. They’ve lost against competition they previously stomped, included relatively unknown teams Wislka Krakow, PACT, and Galaxy Racer. They’ve also lost to teams that historically are beneath their caliber, including forZe, MAD Lions, and twice to Copenhagen Flames.
While MIBR’s players, including leader Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, have defended the team to the point of harassment of the team’s critics, the CSPPA has still included the team in its top ten. Poor sportsmanship isn’t a reason to rank a team lower than it should be, but losing as often as FalleN and company have to lesser teams should. Yet for some reason, MIBR continues to hold its top ten spot in the CSPPA rankings while keeping more recently accomplished teams ranked behind them.
MIBR’s last 13 games:
At the end of the day, fans deserve to know why MIBR is still ranked so high on the CSPPA’s rankings. The teams below them, whose tournament lives can depend on these rankings, deserve to know as well. These calls will only get louder as time goes on, and unless MIBR turns a corner soon, those calls have to potential to become a riot.
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