The Bucharest champions lead HLTV’s ranking, but Valve’s standings still have them third, and NAVI beat them 2-0 only nine days ago.
FURIA are the best team in the world, according to HLTV’s ranking published on Monday, and their first test as No. 1 is NAVI in the Group A upper bracket semi-final at IEM Beijing 2026 at . The winner is through to the playoffs. The loser drops into the lower bracket, one defeat from going home.
FURIA climbed two places to first on 944 points after their Bucharest title, their second trophy in two weeks, and pushed Team Vitality and Team Spirit down to second and third.
| HLTV | Team | Points | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  FURIA | 944 | +2 |
| 2 |  Vitality | 897 | 0 |
| 3 |  Spirit | 818 | -2 |
| 4 |  MOUZ | 777 | 0 |
| 5 |  Aurora | 588 | 0 |
First on HLTV, third for Valve
The two rankings do not agree. In Valve’s official VRS update from the same day, the one used for Major and tournament invites, FURIA are third on 1,912 points, behind MOUZ (1,960) and Vitality (1,922). HLTV’s ranking puts heavy weight on form over the last two months, where FURIA have won two events, while the VRS also counts a full year of results and who those wins came against. NAVI are 13th in Valve’s standings.
| VRS | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MOUZ | 1,960 |
| 2 | Vitality | 1,922 |
| 3 | FURIA | 1,912 |
| 4 | Aurora | 1,860 |
| 5 | Spirit | 1,842 |
Neither team has anything left to win for Singapore. FURIA start the Major in Stage 3 and NAVI in Stage 2, as we listed in every team at the PGL Major Singapore.
Two players sick and four hours of sleep
FURIA reached their hotel in Beijing at 2:00 local time on Monday and played FaZe Clan the same afternoon. Before the match, Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis told ESL’s broadcast the team had stayed awake until 4:00 and slept four hours before media and prep. He also explained why the team now scrims on match days, after avoiding it earlier in the season to keep from burning out.
Now any match day we have, we try to play, if we have an opportunity, if we have time, we try to play scrims, because we don’t have any other time where we can actually change our game or improve something.
They still found a way past FaZe, 2-1, after losing Ancient 13-11 from an 11-2 lead. AWPer Danil “molodoy” Golubenko gave the reason after the series: “We are two guys sick and we just travel today.” He said the team “a little bit tilt” once FaZe started coming back on Ancient.
FURIA2-1
FaZeStatsAncient 11-13, Dust2 13-5, Cache 13-4
jcobbb
JBOEN
NeityuYEKINDAR also has a second award this week. HLTV’s readers voted him Community Player of the Month for October with 54.6% of the votes, ahead of teammate Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato on 21.6% and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut on 19.5%. He was MVP in Bucharest, the first MVP medal of his career.
NAVI already have the answer
FURIA have won their last six series, and NAVI are one of the two teams who beat them before that run. In the Bucharest Swiss stage on 25 October, NAVI won 2-0, 13-10 on Ancient and 13-5 on FURIA’s own Dust2 pick, and Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo finished the series 15-33. We covered that match here.
| Date | Event | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 25 October 2026 | PGL Masters Bucharest |  NAVI 2-0 |
| 14 April 2026 | IEM Rio | FURIA 2-1 |
| 2 February 2026 | IEM Kraków | FURIA 2-1 |
| December 2025 | StarLadder Budapest Major | NAVI 2-1 |
NAVI arrive in form too. They swept Team Falcons on Monday, 13-5 on Ancient and 13-11 on Mirage, with Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov at 38-19 and 96.8 ADR over the two maps.
NAVI2-0
FalconsStatsAncient 13-5, Mirage 13-11
makazze
FURIA have a reason to like this time of year. A year ago they beat NAVI 3-2 in the Thunderpick World Championship final and then won IEM Chengdu, sweeping Vitality 3-0 in the final. YEKINDAR said FalleN now jokes that he will “un-retire himself every year in October” because these are the team’s best months.
The winner of FURIA against NAVI meets the winner of The MongolZ against HEROIC in the Group A upper bracket final, with a direct place in the semi-finals for the group winner.
