SumaiL & Just Error jump into top 10 rankings, Team Liquid slips

The grind of Dota 2 events without the Dota Pro Circuit continues on. Realms Collide in the Americas, Epic League in Europe, and China’s one-two punch of China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 2 and CDA-FDC Professional Championship Season 2 have been giving fans a lot of action to keep up with. 

That wave of events has also made for some big shifts in the rankings over the last two weeks. Here’s how things stand today:

Catch up on the Dota 2 team rankings:

• Here’s how the rankings work
• The previous edition of the Dota 2 team rankings

KuroKy’s return sparks Team Nigma return

Team Nigma has been dancing around outside the top 10 for a while now. Though the team has generally played well, the uncertainty has stemmed from Nigma coach and substitute hard support Roman “rmN-” Paley. With the start of Epic League, the legendary Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi has returned and Nigma enjoys a big rankings bump up as a result.

Nigma is 1-1 since KuroKy’s return, losing to mudgolems while defeating OG. The team is a known commodity at this point and will likely hang around this spot in the coming months.

SumaiL’s Just Error debuts in the top 10

Though Chinese team Elephant has attracted fan attention after bringing together some of the region’s best players, the CIS region has seen an all-star team of its own come together. That team is Just Error, which brings together three members of the five-time major-winning Virtus.pro roster, as well as former Evil Geniuses and OG star Syed “SumaiL” Hassan. 

The team is 2-2 since coming together, qualifying for Epic League and starting its group stage run with losses to Natus Vincere and mudgolems while defeating Team Liquid. The team has looked strong against stiff competition and the previous success of some of its members puts them in a strong position moving forward. 

Weak Epic League start sees Team Liquid slide down

Team Liquid was the star of the show on the last installment of the rankings, riding high off its first-place finish in ESL One Germany. The gains the team made with that victory have mostly evaporated in the two weeks since.

An underwhelming performance in Dota Summit 13 EU followed by an 0-3 start in Epic League has seen Team Liquid dip in the rankings in a big way. Liquid previously hovered closer to the periphery of the top 10 of the team rankings. A rebound in Epic League might be able to fix that to some degree, but given how Liquid has actually been losing to some of the weaker teams in the event, that feels like a longshot.