Heroic claim #1 spot in global rankings despite defeat

Heroic are a team that could potentially dominate CS:GO. Their roster is formidable and most of what they do is highly effective. But time and time again, they lose in the Grand Final and that may have a negative effect on their morale.

At the recent IEM Rio, Casper “cadiaN” Moller and his teammates defeated 9INE, Ninjas in Pyjamas, FURIA Esports, and Natus Vincere on their way to the Grand Final. But there, in the last match of the tournament, they looked scared. It felt as though they are not ready to win.

This is a team that seems very determined to play in Grand Finals, but doesn’t seem to know what to do once it gets there. There’s simply too much focus on lifting the trophy and too little focus on what needs to be done to win the match.

But regardless of these problems, Heroic’s second place at IEM Rio got them back to the #1 spot in global rankings.

Heroic’s rise to the top

Heroic’s global rank is a direct result of the results they got in their last four tournaments. They finished second at IEM Katowice after losing the Grand Final against G2 Esports. Then they finished fifth-eight at ESL Pro League S17 after getting defeated by Natus Vincere in the quarterfinals.

Next, they did really well in the RMRs for the Paris Major and qualified with a perfect record. And finally, they got another second place at IEM Rio. Meanwhile, all of the teams that defeated them in the final matches of these S-tier tournaments were inconsistent.

G2 beat them at IEM Katowice but did poorly at the next two competitions and did not participate at all at IEM Rio.

Na’Vi beat them at ESL Pro League S17 but played worse at IEM Katowice and IEM Rio. And Vitality, despite winning IEM Rio, finished fifth-sixth at IEM Katowice and fifth-eight at ESL Pro League S17.

We don’t see that often a global leader that hasn’t won a single tournament in the past five months. But in Heroic’s case, their consistency in finishing on the podium has been remarkable. It’s too bad that they can’t seem to win a trophy, but at least they’re always in the spotlight.

Right now, it’s probably just a matter of time until cadiaN solves the last few issues that are holding Heroic back. The problems aren’t even tactical. They’re psychological. His team needs to learn how to ignore the trophy when it’s getting close to it.

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