In the wake of several highly competitive LAN events Cadred once again brings you the “official” top ten of the Counter-Strike: Source scene. 1 Birmingham Salvo 320 points 2 Reason Gaming 1 264 points 3 xoxo 1 254 points 4 Verygames 1 204 points 5 London MiNT 1 178 points 6 mTw 2 154 points 7 Crack! Clan 3 112 points 8 RedLine 56 points 9 fm! Toxic 50 points 10 Zo0 2 46 points

We’ve yet again seen several competitive LAN’s over the past few weeks and months, but their relevance to the rankings is hard to judge. No one team inside the top ten has been to every single event. Number three in the rankings is still yet to play number one. Yet taking all this into account, we’ve asked some of the premier experts in the scene and compiled what is the best ranking possible.

Salvo once again remain the undisputed kings of Europe and the team that seem to be their biggest rivals at the moment, Reason Gaming, move up to the number two spot. Xoxo [formerly magnitude] slip in the wake of an mTw upset; they climb to number six. New teams this month include the controversial Fragmasters TOXIC and the brand new RedLine , not a word I’d ever expect to use in a feature article.

How it Works

The voting system is quite simple; I approached someone from the Counter-Strike: Source scene, be it a top player from one of the teams seen above or a journalist like myself, I then asked each of these people to name their top ten teams, in order. Teams are awarded 10 points for first place, right down, 9 points for second place all the way down to a single point for tenth.

The Teams

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Birmingham Salvo

If you had voted Birmingham Salvo anywhere else than number one this month I promptly discarded your vote and sent a team of assassins to your last known whereabouts, luckily for the voters everyone had enough sense to award the best team in Europe with err.... the title of the best team in Europe.

This team came to PC Gamer showdown with little to no recent practice, yet still went undefeated knocking down local CGS rivals London Mint and once again edging out Reason Gaming for the first place title. Barring a colossal meltdown of the combined talents I don’t see this domination ending anytime soon. Salvo’s run on Europe is now comparable to the run of fnatic in mid to late 2007, if nothing changes, it will surpass it.

Reason Gaming

Reason Gaming seem sentenced to a lifetime of second best; this is nothing to be sniffed at when the team bashing you into oblivion at every event is Birmingham Salvo. They came far closer to Birmingham Salvo in the final of PC Gamer showdown than they did at i34, a sign perhaps that the gap is narrowing. Online things have not been quite so rosy; ESL recently handed down a perceived excessive two year ban to one of their star players, WT. This rules him out of playing in the ESL Major Series, one of the latest competitions to throw serious money at source.

The bread and butter of this team will always be LAN events though, i35 is very soon and Reason Gaming have to expect to do well in the face of them being the only international team to choose I-series over MaxLAN in France. Anything other than top three would practically be a crime, this team is on form, the desire to win is stronger than ever and now that they have Birmingham Salvo in their sights, they won’t ease up until they surpass them.

xoxo (Formerly Magnitude)

xoxo are another team that seems to be great at second best, at SLAP #16, the LAN everyone expected them to win, they once again lost in the final to the massive underdog, mTw. Placing this team is near impossible, they’re yet to play Reason or Salvo on LAN, something that doesn’t look to change in the next few months with yet another non-appearance at an I-series.

xoxo will be taking on Team Verygames in the Eurokrieg final next week, it’s sure to be a great game.

Team Verygames (formerly Nameless)

Just like xoxo, Team Verygames left their organisation recently, and are also Eurokrieg finalists. Unlike xoxo this team has found an organisation, the backing Verygames are providing seems to be exactly what this team needs to propel themselves up and up. They will be one of the favourites at the upcoming MaxLAN in France.

London Mint

PC Gamer Showdown was a disappointment for London Mint; they went in for the top two placing and ended up third. Yet on the way they pushed their opponents to their limits, creating some intense games. I35 will be another make or break LAN for this team, they have the potential, they have the chemistry, and they just need to make the results count for them. This team remains a firm number two in the UK, ahead of fm! Toxic.

mTw

This team caused the biggest upset in Source in recent weeks by defeating xoxo and winning SLAP #16. They started off with the shakiest of starts by drawing with a young Danish team, yet they would go on to silence all the critics of their LAN play by comprehensively defeating the favourites over 2 maps in the final.

Now that this team has shown that it can perform online as well as LAN I feel they can go so much further. They will be at MaxLAN against an arguably stronger list of teams and there we’ll see how far they can get. If they can be the German team to break out of the introverted German scene and compete internationally on a regular basis they have my full support.

Crack! Clan (formerly Epsilon)

Since winning The Experience little has gone right for this team, and this is reflected in the rankings. Team Verygames poached RpK, one of their strongest players. His replacement, Tac, has a lot to do to prove himself, and has his chance next week at MaxLAN. Here we’ll find out if Crack still reign supreme in France or whether the new backing for Verygames has given them the edge.

RedLine

One of two teams new to our rankings, this team burst onto the scene by winning the aptly named and hosted RedLine Invitational 3, defeating Reason Gaming, n!faculty and French rivals Crack on their way to the title. They will be yet another French team battling it out at MaxLAN. They need to prove that the win in the RedLine IT3 was not a fluke; a solid LAN performance could see them remain in the top ten for some time to come.

fm! Toxic

Fragmasters are the first team here that haven’t won, or come close to winning anything recently. They placed fourth at PC Gamer Showdown, a fair result but one that showed their inability to defeat rivals London Mint again, despite coming so close. With several strong teams recently formed to keep this spot in the top ten Fragmasters are going to have to do a lot more than 9-12th at i35, and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t place top five. They’re doing well in the EPS UK with the absence of both CGS teams, the other British teams seem to be posing them little trouble.

ZoO

Yet another team with a name change between this and the last ranking. The former Logitech.fi caused one of the online upsets of recent times when they defeated Reason Gaming in the Quarter Finals of the Eurokrieg. Without backing this team will struggle to attend any LAN’s beyond Finland. The newly formed Finnish team Bangcock, voted eleventh, will be one to watch out for as the number one team in Finland...

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Outsiders

Bangcock – 34
Attax- 28
Forze - 26