HLTV published its weekly Counter-Strike world ranking on 31 August 2026, and the top nine did not move a single place. The only change inside the top 10 is Aurora climbing one spot to #10 while FaZe drop two to #12. Spirit stay #1 on 998 points, unchanged from the previous week's list — and none of it yet reflects the BLAST Open Porto playoffs, which run 4–6 September.
The top 10 on 31 August 2026
| # | Team | HLTV points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spirit | 998 |
| 2 | Falcons | 769 |
| 3 | FURIA | 658 |
| 4 | Vitality | 605 |
| 5 | MOUZ | 499 |
| 6 | FUT | 469 |
| 7 | Legacy | 376 |
| 8 | Natus Vincere | 359 |
| 9 | G2 | 347 |
| 10 | Aurora | 314 |
Aurora — XANTARES, woxic, Jimpphat, kyxsan and Wicadia — sit on 314 points, one fewer than the 315 they carried a week ago. That is the detail worth sitting with: they did not climb by gaining, they climbed by losing less than the team above them. FaZe were #10 on 316 points on 24 August and are now #12 on 269, a 47-point drop that also let 9z slide past them into #11 on the same 269-point total.
The pattern repeats across the whole upper table. Comparing the 24 August and 31 August lists, only two teams in the top 10 actually added points: Falcons went from 754 to 769, and G2 from 335 to 347. Everyone else fell or held flat. Spirit stayed exactly level at 998. FURIA lost seven (665 to 658), Vitality eight (613 to 605), MOUZ 13 (512 to 499), FUT 30 (499 to 469), NAVI 30 (389 to 359), and Legacy the most of any top-10 side at 48 (424 to 376).
A ranking where almost everybody's number goes down and almost nobody's position changes is what a quiet competitive week looks like in HLTV's model, which weights recent results on a rolling basis. The one structural consequence is the top-10 cutoff, and that is exactly where the change landed.
The biggest movers outside the top 10
The sharper swings are further down the list, and they are where the tier-two picture is actually shifting.
- Nuclear TigeRES are the week's biggest climber inside the top 60, up 11 places to #54 on 24 points.
- Inner Circle jumped 10 spots to #24 on 83 points.
- M80 gained seven to reach #31 on 65 points, having beaten Natus Vincere at BLAST Open Porto on 26 August before being knocked out themselves.
- B8 added two places to sit #15 on 171 points, up from #17 and 187 points a week earlier.
Going the other way: Alliance fell nine to #36, TYLOO dropped eight to #34, and Nemesis lost seven to land at #44. Further down the table, Jam debut on the ranking as a new team at #64 with 17 points.
For anyone tracking the veterans, s1mple's BC.Game are #49 on 29 points, down one place on the week.
HLTV's list and Valve's list do not agree
There are two rankings that matter in Counter-Strike 2, and right now they tell noticeably different stories. The Valve global ranking — the standings that feed VRS-based invitations to third-party "Ranked" events such as BLAST Open Porto itself — had Spirit on 2,018 points at the top when checked on 1 September, with MOUZ second on 1,911 despite sitting only fifth on HLTV's list. Falcons were third on 1,898, FUT fourth on 1,859, Vitality fifth on 1,844, Legacy sixth on 1,808 and FURIA seventh on 1,800.
So FURIA are third in the world by HLTV's reckoning and seventh by Valve's; MOUZ are fifth and second. The gap is a formula difference, not a contradiction: Valve's standings weight a longer horizon and factor in prize money from events that are still running, which is why that ranking moves during a tournament while HLTV's stays fixed between Monday updates. Valve's own page carries a beta label and a note that it includes results from unfinished events, so the exact point totals shift throughout the day.
FaZe sit #11 on Valve's list on 1,632 points and Aurora #12 on 1,598 — the reverse of the order the two clubs now occupy on HLTV.
What changes it next
Nothing on this list accounts for the BLAST Open Porto playoffs. Six teams travel to the Super Bock Arena in Porto for 4–6 September, with Spirit and MOUZ holding semi-final byes and FURIA, G2, Falcons and Vitality starting in the quarter-finals. All six are inside the current top 10, and a run to the trophy carries enough weight on both lists that the 7 September ranking is likely to look considerably less static than this one.
Why did FaZe drop out of the top 10? FaZe lost 47 HLTV points on the week, falling from 316 to 269. Aurora and 9z both overtook them without adding points of their own.
Are the HLTV ranking and the Valve ranking the same thing? No. They are separate systems with different formulas. HLTV's world ranking updates weekly on Mondays; Valve's global ranking updates continuously and is the one tied to VRS invitations.
Who is the #1 CS2 team right now? Spirit, on both lists — 998 points on HLTV's 31 August ranking and 2,018 on Valve's standings as of 1 September.
Sources: HLTV world ranking (31 and 24 August 2026) and HLTV's Valve global ranking page, both retrieved 1 September 2026.
