Over the past few years, Esports has risen from the ground to the sky. The professional gaming scene has covered the whole world and almost every region is now participating in several professional games. Every international esports team is great and successful in its own way. However, it is hard to determine which team is the greatest and doing the most in the scene. Winning tournaments and seeking the greatest prizes is the only way to remain in the biggest esports charts.
In order to gain Tier 1 status, a team must have the most famous superstars as well as a big-name sponsoring its back. If you have never followed esports actively and do not know which name or team to follow, you can look at the ranking we have made for some of the biggest International esports teams. The rankings are solely based on a team’s competitive history and performance during the tournaments. Following is the list of the top 10 international esports teams of all time.
Top 10 Esports Teams
- Team Liquid
No other team can match the level of influence and history Team Liquid has made in the professional esports scene. The organisation began to exist in the early 2000s. Later on, Team Liquid also started a StarCraft community website that went live in 2001. In the very beginning, the organisation’s focused on its StarCraft website. However, the team started appearing in the gaming scene when it announced its Dota 2 roster in 2012. As the journey began, Team Liquid failed to bring home, titles and big numbers. The biggest achievement for the team was to finish in the 8th position at The International 3.
Eventually, the team started taking huge strides when it came to Super Smash Bros and SC2. During that time, Team Liquid signed the biggest names in the Super Smash Bros professional scene, like Juan ‘Hungrybox’ DeBeidma and many others.
Later on, Team Liquid also joined the League of Legends professional scene. At first, the team was called cursed to finish fourth in every other tournament it participated in. However, currently, Team Liquid is one of the biggest names in the North American LCS region of League of Legends. The team won the Summer and the Spring Splits after joining the famous superstar Yiliang ‘Doublelift’ Peng.
Team Liquid earned its biggest success in Dota 2. After years of playing and remaining in the professional scene, the organisation signed the deal with a famous Dota veteran Kuro ‘KuroKy’ Takhesomi in 2016. The following year, Team Liquid went on finishing second at two different Major tournaments as well as finishing top 8 in The International 6. The team, later on, signed one of the most famous Dota 2 stars, Amer ‘Miracle-’ Al-Barqawi. The team went on to win The International 7 next year in 2017 to take home a huge $10.8 million prize.
Throughout its existence, Team Liquid has proven to be one of the greatest esports organisations ever to exist.
- Fnatic
Fnatic is one of the most famous United Kingdom-based esports organisations. The name Fnatic came out in 2004. However, it has seen a global increase in it ever since its existence, with appearing in multiple esports games like Dota 2, League of Legends, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as its main domains.
The team has created many records in esports professional history. The team won the first-ever League of Legends World Championship back in 2011 during the first season of the game. The next year, Fnatic failed to qualify for the Championship. However, it bounced back to become one of the biggest teams in the EU LCS. To do so, the team won multiple Splits and major tournaments. Similarly, Fnatic finished in the top 4 places during the Worlds 2013 and 2015. After that, Fnatic’s League of Legends’ journey has seen many ups and downs. The team has dominated multiple Splits and Rift Rivals during these years.
In 2012, Fnatic announced its first Dota 2 official roster. The team began its professional journey by choosing a European roster. However, that did not work out as planned. The underwhelming results forced Fnatic to pick a complete Southeast Asian roster in 2015. The switch paid off and Fnatic ended up finishing in the top 4 at The International 6. Since then, Fnatic has made its name and is considered one of the strongest squads in its region, which is looking for its next TI break.
The team had the biggest blast in CS: GO. The team officially announced its entrance in 2012. However, Fnatic enjoyed its peak time during 2015 and 2016. Fnatic won back-to-back Major titles as well as six-straight LAN tournaments during these years.
Due to heavy success and multiple grand prize victories, Fnatic expanded its roots in multiple other esports games like FIFA, Street Fighter, and Fortnite. According to Forbes, Fnatic holds a huge net worth of $120 million.
- Cloud9
Cloud9 is one of the most famous North American esports organisations that started its official journey in 2013. The former team manager Jack Etienne bought the Quantic Gaming League of Legends team for $15,000 to create Cloud9. Six years later, Cloud9 became one of the most valuable esports organisations out there. According to Forbes, Cloud9 is roughly worth over $150 million.
Cloud9 earned the biggest successes at the League of Legends professional scene. The team has always been considered a giant for the NA LCS. Cloud9 won the Summer finals in 2013 and the Spring finals in 2014. Similarly, Cloud9 won the Rift Rivals during 2017 and 2018. Due to its big name in the region, Cloud9 has always managed to qualify for the Worlds tournament since its existence. The team also finished in the fourth position during the Worlds 2018.
The organization has also proved itself in CS: GO as well. The team became the first-ever North American squad to win a Major Championship in a legendary comeback victory against FazeClan in 2018.
After receiving a huge audience in CS: GO, Cloud9 fielded teams in multiple other esports games. The organisation bought a squad in Overwatch, as well as, Dota 2, Super Smash Bros, Rocket League, Hearthstone, and many others.
- Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses is one of the oldest North American professional esports organisations that was formed in 1999. EG is well known to field multiple players and teams in almost every esports title it has featured. At first, the team started its journey as a famous North American Quake clan. However, the organisation made its first major esports entry in 2008 in Dota 1, then StarCraft: Brood War.
In 2010, EG ramped up in the esports scene by entering StarCraft 2 with the release of the game. In 2011, EG also became very active with its Dota 2 roster. The organisation made many shuffles to its official roster for three years until 2013. EG signed a fresh North American squad for its Dota 2 official team which was captained by Peter ‘PPD’ Dager. The team went on to finish 3rd at The International 4.
In the next year, the departure of two members of EG forced the organisation to hire a 15-year-old Pakistani pub star Syed ‘’SumaiL’ Hassan. The team went on to win The International 5 and a huge prize of $6.6 million. Since then, EG is considered the biggest professional team in the North American region of the game and has finished in the top 3 at TI 6 and TI8.
Besides Dota, Evil Geniuses has been active in multiple other professional esports games. Some of them are Rocket League, Super Smash Bros, Rainbow Six: Siege, and Call of Duty. In 2018 Evil Geniuses also won the World Championship for CoD.
- SK Telecom T1
SK Telecom T1 is without any doubt the greatest League of Legends team. The organisation is now rebranded to T1 Entertainment & Sports. T1 has one of the most powerful LoL superstar squads with the G.O.A.T himself, Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok. During its initial days, the organisation held two different squads with different names. The first squad was acquired in 2012 under the name SKT T1 S. Similarly, the second squad was acquired next year under the name SKT T1 K and had Faker in it. While the organisation announced SKT T1 K as its secondary squad, the team outperformed the primary one by winning the World Championship season 3. The team also became the only squad not to lose a single game in Champions winter 2013 and 2014. Both teams of SKT failed to qualify for the World Championship 2014.
In 2015, SKT decided to create a single team and play under one name. The newly formed squad went on to win the LoL Korean Championship LCK. The team also won the Spring and Summer Splits and the World Championships of 2015. In 2016, SKT won the IEM Season X, the Mid-Season Invitational, and then became the first-ever team to win back-to-back World Championships in a row.
In 2017, the team failed to win the World Championship as it faced defeat against Samsung Galaxy. SKT T1 is also the only organisation that has secured three World Championship titles in League of Legends.
- Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere, also known as Na’Vi is a famous Ukrainian organisation whose name means ‘Born to Win’. The team has enjoyed success at different levels of CS: GO and Dota 2.
Na’Vi became the team that won the first-ever series of Dota 2’s most premium tournament, The International. In 2011, Na’Vi created a professional player, Danil ‘Dendi’ Ishutin, who became the face of the organisation as well as Dota 2 itself. Na’Vi dominated the professional Dota 2 scene during 2011 and 2013. The team secured the first position during 21 different tournaments. Similarly, Na’Vi also finished second in the 2012 and 2013 International.
However, Na’Vi started descending in the game in 2014 when multiple other organisations joined. The team has left a huge name and a face, Dendi, in the game forever that everybody will remember.
In CS: GO, Na’Vi recorded its presence by becoming the first team ever to win three Major Tournaments during one season. Na’Vi continued its success in CS: GO by winning multiple other major titles. In 2016, Na’Vi signed one of the best CSGO players of all time, Oleksandr ‘S1mple’ Kostyliev. Later on, the team went on to win the ESL One: New York and finished second at two different tournaments. Since 2018, Na’Vi has enjoyed a huge rivalry against Team Astralis, as both teams are best at what they do.
Besides CSGO and Dota 2, Na’Vi has shown up in different other games like World of Tanks, League of Legends, Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, and PUBG.
- Astralis
Astralis is a one-game esports professional team that has achieved legendary rank in its domain. The organisation has a very powerful roster in CSGO. The team is considered the strongest in CSGO at the moment. During its era, Astralis has earned 11 tournament victories, the IEM Grand Slam, 2019 IEM Katowice Majors, and back-to-back FACEIT champions.
During this time, Astralis held a powerful 12-0 win streak against the world-class teams. The most famous Astralis superstar, Nicolai ‘Dev1ce’ Reedtz’s mobile AWP style is now a new trend in CSGO to judge the quality of AWPers. Astralis is also the team that redefined the utility usage in the game. This forced their enemies to learn the utility play just to keep up with them.
Astralis has made a huge name in the game and still, the organisation has not stepped-in in any other esports game.
- OG
OG is also a one-game esports professional organisation. However, the team has reached the levels of success that any other organisation would not even dream of. The organisation was formed by the professional Dota 2 players, Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein and Tai ‘Fly’ Aizik in 2015.
In the beginning, OG dominated the professional Dota 2 scene by winning Frankfurt Major in 2015 and then Manila and Boston Majors in 2016. OG also won the Kiev Majors in 2017. The team also became the only team in Dota that defended its Major title.
Before The International 8, the official roster of OG broke and the founder of the organisation, Fly, left for Evil Geniuses. The team had to play with a ragtag roster which every predicted would have an early exit. However, OG made it to the upper bracket and eventually won the tournament to secure over $25 million.
The next year, OG came back to The International with the same line-up. Once again, the team made it to the upper brackets and then met Team Liquid into the finals. The team secured a 3-1 victory over Liquid and won the biggest tournament in esports history ever. OG also made history after winning the TI9 by becoming the only professional Dota 2 team to win two Internationals.
- Virtus Pro
Virtus Pro is a Russian professional esports organisation that was formed in 2003. The organisation is most famous for its massive success in Dota 2 and CSGO. In 2014, the organisation signed a complete Polish roster that would go on to be dubbed as ‘Virtus Plow’. Despite the ups and downs the organization had, the team remained one of the best and most successful teams in CSGO history. Virtus Pro secured multiple high-end tournament victories including the EMS One: Katowice Major in 2014. Virtus Pro also held the record of holding a single squad for the longest time. The team shuffled members last year after bonding the former squad in 2014.
Similarly, for Dota, Virtus Pro has remained active in the professional scene since the Dota 1 times. The team could not gather much success in its early days of Dota 2. However, after the signing of the most famous CIS stars, Virtus Pro became one of the most dominant Dota 2 teams in 2016. The team has won 10 LAN tournaments ever since and still looks for The International title.
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
Ninjas in Pyjamas which is also known as NIP is a professional Swedish organisation that was formed in 2000. The team focused on Counter-Strike 1.6 and made a huge name in it. Despite performing well, NiP disbanded twice during its Counter-Strike 1.6 days- first in 2002, and then in 2007.
In 2012, NiP created a CSGO lineup that came out and started winning everything. The newly formed squad dominated the professional CSGO scene from September 2012 to June 2014. The organisation also held the record of going 87-0 between September 2021 to April 2013, by defeating multiple teams in the LAN tournaments.
In 2014, NiP started declining from its full potential and eventually disappeared from the scene for some time. The team tried making a comeback, but could never reach the same level, it was, once. Ninjas in Pyjamas also deals in other esports games like Dota 2, PUBG, Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, League of Legends, and many others.