The Play-In Stage of the Dota 2 Riyadh Masters 2024 is done. The eight teams that hurdled the challenge now face against eight other teams with the Group Stage. Matches start on July 10 and to run until July 14.
The sixteen teams in the Group Stage are to be divided into two groups. There's going to be single round-robin with all matches being Bo2. Then the top four teams of each group move forward to the upper bracket of the playoffs. The teams that placed 5th and 6th advance to the lower bracket. The remaining teams are eliminated.
If you're excited, here's the groupings for the next stage:
- Group A
- Aurora Aurora
- Blacklist International
- Gaimin Gladiators
- HEROIC
- LGD Gaming
- OG
- Team Falcons
- Team Spirit
- Group B
- beastcoast
- BetBoom Team
- Entity
- MOUZ
- PSG Quest
- Team Liquid
- Tundra Esports
- WBG.XG
The Tournament
The Riyadh Masters 2024 is the third edition of the Riyadh Masters series. This tournament also serves as the final championship of the second season of the ESL Pro Tour. The prize pool is $5 million with the champion taking home $1.5 million. Teams also get to earn Club Points which can give them the chance to win the Club Championship for an even bigger prize.
What makes this tournament different than the ones done in the past is that all teams get to bring home some amount of the prize pool. Four teams have been eliminated and they at least receive some prize. At 19th-20th place for example are G2 x iG and Azure Ray, with both teams getting $15,000 each. Meanwhile the 17th-18th teams are Virtus.pro and nouns, taking home $25,000 each.
Last Year
This is the third time that the Riyadh Masters has been held. In last year's tournament, it was Team Spirit declared as the champion after beating Team Liquid 3-1. At that time as well, the prize pool was higher and saw Spirit bring home $5 million.
That's not all that was given away. There was also the MVP award with the top four also being given prize money. Other award were Most Creative Fans and Best Team Content.
That said, who do you think is taking home the crown this year?
