BLAST Fall Final victory propels Heroic to top spot in the world ranking

Heroic sit atop the world ranking for the first time since LAN play returned in late 2021. The Danes accomplished the feat right after winning the BLAST Premier Fall Final on home soil at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark, where they notched a coveted Big Event title on LAN and can finally leave the maligned ‘onliner’ tag behind. They had fallen short time and time again since the lockdown days, when they topped the ranking in late 2020 with victories from home at ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe, DreamHack Open Fall 2020 and ESL Pro League Season 13.

Heroic made the leap from second place, where they sat behind their Major grand final rivals, Outsiders. Dastan “⁠dastan⁠” Akbayev‘s men were absent from BLAST — a tournament organizer they are not in a partnership with —, but will still fight for the BLAST Premier World Final title in Abu Dhabi, UAE, as they earned an invite by winning IEM Rio.

The BLAST Premier Fall Final win wasn’t Heroic‘s first trophy earned on LAN, they claimed silverware at the Pinnacle Cup Championship in June, but the field at the event in Sweden was not stacked with elite opposition. Hard times came after the summer break, during Jakob “⁠jabbi⁠” Nygaard’s adjustment period to the squad, and poor finishes ensued at IEM Cologne and ESL Pro League Season 16, but the Danes showed they were becoming a force to be reckoned with at IEM Rio.

Heroic are now the fourth team in five weeks to occupy the No. 1 spot in the world ranking. FaZe, Vitality and Outsiders topped the list from the last week of September up to now, a testament to how hard it has become to sit at the peak since the summer break when the two dominant forces, FaZe and Natus Vincere, loosened their grasp at the top.

npl flew with NAVI to the BLAST Fall Final, but didn’t debut

Outsiders, who looked down at their opposition since winning the IEM Rio Major, now slide down to second place in favor of Heroic. Finn “⁠karrigan⁠” Andersen and his men made the biggest leap with a return to form and a silver medal in Copenhagen after shaky results dropped them to eighth place. The top team in the world during the first half of 2022 struggled in their return from the summer break; they showed a lack of grit in the ESL Pro League quarter-finals and put forth a sad display at the Major, which they concluded with a 0-3 flop in the Legends Stage.

Natus Vincere, one of only two top 5 teams to reach the Major playoffs, hold tight in fourth place amid roster gossip. The Ukrainian-majority squad flew to the BLAST Premier Fall Final with Andrii “⁠npl⁠” Kukharskyi from the academy in tow, although the youngster did not get to debut in the team’s shallow 5-6th place run. Liquid round out the top five, jumping up from ninth place after a semi-final finish in the Danish capital.

The BLAST Premier World Final, set to take place on December 14-18 in Abu Dhabi, will be the last event of 2022 to heavily impact the world ranking and the perfect opportunity for teams in hot form to solidify their position going into the off-season. All of the top five teams in the world, along with Vitality, G2 and OG, will be in attendance for the year’s closing event in the Persian Gulf state.