What are the GosuRankings?
The GosuRankings is the most extensive player database in existence for Hearthstone. Fueled by the GosuGamers tournament database which currently spans over more than 570 tournaments and 18,000 matches, the Hearthstone rankings track players’ career-long performance in all tournaments and qualifiers they take part in and appoints them a certain number.
Since May, the rankings are using a proprietary algorithm, specifically designed to reward consistency, a change tailored to the nature of the Hearthstone game and scene. The rankings also take into account the so called “tournament importance” meaning winning the World Championship means more than coming on top of a weekly $100 open cup. Tournament importance is determined through a variety of factors including format, offline/online, prize pool, invitational/partially open/open, having HWC points or not and more.
Below, we take a look at the bigger events that happened in the month of June. To exemplify the ranking importance, we've provisionally tiered them on the scale of "Tier 4" (lowest) to "Tier 1" (highest).
- Note 1: Recent results aren't solely responsible for the final rankings; they merely add to players' lifetime career performances.
- Note 2: Tournament importance varies even within a particular tier (i.e. not all tier 2 events are equal)
- Note 3: Tiers are NOT the official way of determining/naming tournament importance by GosuCrew. These are used so that some basic mechanics of the system are articulated better to our readers.
| Event & prize pool | Tier | Winner | Runner-up |
| HWC Grand Finals • $250,000 | Tier 1 |  Ostkaka |  Hotform |
| Dreamhack Cluj • $25,000 | Tier 1 |  Hanniballz2 |  Faeli |
| SeatStory Cup IV • $20,000 | Tier 2 |  SuperJJ | StanCifka |
| NESO 2015 • $11,000 | ?ier 2 |  Jeanno |  HuLu |
| HS Arena • $5,000 | Tier 3 | Xixo | TwoBiers |
World's top 3
All ranking numbers are as of November 18th. It's possible that rankings have changed at press time.
Although he missed out on the World Championship trophy, stopped only by the eventual champion himself, and had an early exit from SeatStory Cup 4, Thijs “ThijsNL” Molendijk’s insane points pool kept him on top of the rankings. At press time, Thijs is just below the 1,400 points mark but at the peak of his career he held the highest ever record of 1,452, an achievement nobody really came close to challenging. Even after his massive point drops, Thijs is still leading with more than 100 points before the GosuRankings runner-up and unless another tournament upset befalls him, we expect to see him on the top of the rankings at the end of the month as well.
Coming into the twilight of 2015, ThijsNL will also have to undergo the same mentality change he faced earlier this year. More and more tournaments are switching from Conquest to Last Hero Standing – including the $40,000 DreamHack Winter – and Thijs will have to remember how to tackle this format. Fans of his should not be too worried, though: After all, ruling Last Hero Standing was what built his fame in the first place.
Going undefeated through the entire World Championship finals, Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall is the reigning world champion of Hearthstone. Over two weekends, the Na'Vi player accumulated so many points crushing the highest valued tournament in the world that he’s ascended from his position of “that genius Hearthstone player that never won anything big” to one of the most recognized names in the game, even outside his circle of competitive peers.
With every world championship title, however, comes the additional need to prove oneself further, and for Ostkaka the next few months will be of utmost importance. He will get an invite to every possible tournament, and he will have to show that, yes – he is a true championship material, a player who is not only a Hearthstone mastermind but someone who can apply that knowledge to consistently place high. One would think that hoisting the BlizzCon trophy would be enough and that’s correct, but to an extent: The memory of every esport is short, and people are prone to forgetting even the most impressive of achievements.
On third place we have former Luminosity Gaming superstar Stanislav Cifka, who rose through the ranks with remarkable speed. Still a greenhorn in 2014, Cifka’s coming to recognition began with his triumph at DreamHack Bucharest and since then he’s been on metaphorical fire. Three top four finishes at HouseCup #3, WCA EU Pro qualifiers and Abios Invitational. Silver medal from SeatStory Cup IV. And a second major gold following the long marathon of StarLadder Season 1. This year alone, Cifka has accumulated more than $22,000 in winnings and is among the few players to win multiple LAN events.
Today, StanCifka is the hottest free agent on the market and the speculations where he ends up eventually are in abundance. The Czech is a practice partner for the G2 trio but his disinterest in streaming might be a stumbling block for many of the top teams. Whichever scoops the former MtG star, however, will be in position to call itself one of the best in the world.
The GosuRankings automatically track and calculate team rankings for all Hearthstone rosters available in our system. The ranking points you see are calculated based on several factors:
- The team ranking is an average of the individual rankings of its players.
- When averaging, the system only accounts for the active (currently ranked) players on the teams. If a team has 5 players, but 2 of them haven't had a game in two months or haven't had played their 15 "placement" matches, only the remaining 3 will be included in the calculation.
- Teams with less than 2 active players are not ranked.
- The ranking system doesn't account for team's wins/losses as collective in team tournaments like ATLC or NEL, it only feeds on the performances of the team's players. This is done as not all HS teams have the opportunity to participate in the few team leagues available.
If you feel like a team is missing from our database or is not fully updated, drop us an email at radoslav[at]gosugamers.net.
Note: The averaged rankings have been calculated as of November 18th.
| # | Team | Points | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  | Natus Vincere | 1,211 | - |
| 2. |  | Gamers2 | 1,145 | - |
| 3. |  | Team Archon | 1,116 | +2 |
| 4. |  | Dignitas | 1,108 | +4 |
| 5. |  | Cloud 9 | 1,079 | -2 |
| 6. |  | Team Celestial | 1,070 | +1 |
| 7. |  | Team Liquid | 1,068 | -3 |
| 8. |  | Hearthlytics | 1,066 | +1 |
| 9. |  | All Killers | 1,064 | +2 |
| 10. |  | Wayi Spider | 1,059 | +4 |
| 11. |  | YOLO Miracle | 1,051 | -1 |
| 12. |  | ManaSurge | 1,050 | +3 |
| 13. |  | Fade 2 Karma | 1,050 | N/A |
| 14. |  | SK Gaming | 1,038 | +1 |
| 15 |  | ManaLight | 1,050 | N/A |
The world champion. A five-in-a-row invitationals winner. A two-times LAN champion. The combined power of the Natus Vincere trio cannot be contested. If one month ago the yellow jackets were in close competition with G2 for the top spot, today that’s no longer the case. Na'Vi are 70 points ahead of their old rivals and almost 100 ahead of the #3 ranked team in Archon. Their players are bathed in positive competitive consistency. Each of the three members are in the top 15 of the world rankings and the top 7 of their region. The Hearthstone future for Na'Vi is bright to say the least.
G2 Esports, of course, came second, finally having lost the long tug-of-war with Natus Vincere. With Lifecoach losing in the groups of HWC 2015 and Rdu still in the middle of full recovery, the team’s rank is carried by the bright Dutchman even more so than before. So far, G2’s position in the top 2 looks secure but a month of bad tournament results for Thijs can bring everything to ruin, especially when half of G2’s roster is not even close to the 1,100 mark.
Although Archon hasn’t banked a major achievement in a while and lost two of their best players in Xixo and Purple, their roster is in an overall stable position. Three of its four active players in Firebat, Orange and Zalae are in the top 25 of the world. Orange’s departure from the team house is proving to be the right decision and the Swede is showing much better form than he did in the summer and Zalae is slowly climbing up to hold positions worthy of the praises he often receives. If Amaz stops competing - or improve his results - Archon will even come close to contesting the top 2 spot away from G2.
Carried on the shoulders of two-times World Championship finalist Kranich, Dignitas squeezed themselves into the top four. While the success of the Korean was certainly the big push that rocketed Dignitas to the high layers of the rankings, in reality it's been a long journey for the UK-based team before they got here. Blackout and Greensheep making the finals of DH Valencia in July was the moment of ignition. The duo of Brits then continued to accelerate their team, with Blackout finishing top four at Gigacon and Greensheep placing top four at Gfinity Summer II. Even the recently dormant Chakki made an appearance and finished in the semi final round of Esports Arena Invitational, adding to the pool of small victories for Dignitas.
Rounding up the top 5 is Cloud 9. The team has been cutting down players for some time now, letting TidesofTime, Gnimsh and Hafu go, but neither of these three has really contributed to the team’s competitive presence. StrifeCro, Kolento, Massan and Ekop remain the core quartet, three of which are top 50 worldwide with StrifeCro even rocking the #4 NA spot. In short – nothing new on the Cloud 9 front.
Below, you can find the geo rankings for each of the five regions: World, Europe, NA, Asia and China.
