Riyadh Masters 2023 Preview: Is the Riyadh Masters an alternative to The International?

The much-anticipated LAN tournament Riyadh Masters 2023 Long Championship will take place today. 20 European organisations will gather in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, to compete for the title of champion and an impressive prize pool of $15,000,000. Ahead of us awaits The International with heated battles, exciting drama, as well as potential scenarios and surprises.

In this article you will learn about how the format of the Riyadh Masters 2023 looks like, what place it occupies in the ESL Pro Tour Dota 2 2023 system, which of the participants of the Play-In stage has the best chance of reaching the group stage, which of the teams coming to Saudi Arabia is the favourite, as well as why The International will most likely not be named the champion in this case.

The complex tournament format and the peculiarities of the ESL Pro Tour Dota 2 2023 system

The Riyadh Masters 2023 Championship is organised by the Saudi Esports Federation and will take place in several stages. First, 12 teams will play in the Play-In stage, where they will be divided into two groups. There they will face bo2 matches. The participants who finished in the top 2 places in each group will go straight to the group stage of the championship. The remaining teams will play bo3 matches, with the winner advancing to the group stage and the loser leaving the tournament.

The group stage of Riyadh Masters 2023 is presented in the form of the usual two groups of 8 teams in Single Round-Robin format with bo2 matches. The top-4 teams in their group will qualify for the top set of play-offs, the 5th-6th places will go to the bottom set and the rest will finish their participation in the event. The playoffs will be played in a Double-Elimination grid with bo3 matches and bo5 grand finals.

As part of the ESL Pro Tour Dota 2 2023 tournament series, the Riyadh Masters 2023 Championship is the logical conclusion of the trilogy of tournaments, the previous parts of which were DreamLeague Season 19 and DreamLeague Season 20. Teams got into the Play-In stage thanks to the regional EPT Ranking, based on Elo. Teams that performed well at previous tournaments in the series were invited directly to the group stage.

Which teams will qualify for the Play-In stage?

Of all the participants in Group A of the Play-In stage, Team Liquid and Team Aster stand out. They are the main candidates for the top-2 and the group stage, as the teams are having a good season, and the level of play looks more favourable than their opponents. Also Execration and Entity have a good chance to qualify for the next stage through Decider matches.

In Group B there was a certain change in the balance of power, about which we will talk a little later. Xtreme Gaming and 9Pandas are obvious contenders for places in the top-2. In Decider fights are going to be serious competition, but we will single out OG, in whose ranks Ceb has recently returned, and beastcoast.

Riyadh Masters 2023 favourites: any surprises?

If we're talking about favourites, we used to be able to identify five teams that had a chance of taking high places in the standings. Due to the recent changes, there are now four of them. Quest Esports, who recently sensationally took the fourth place at Bali Major 2023, have dropped out of the list of favourites. The reason is that the team failed to reach an agreement with Nigma Galaxy to extend the lease of ATF, which significantly strengthened the team. Now it is unknown how well Kazakh Malik from Natus Vincere will be able to replace him, and how the game of Quest Esports will change after that.

Tundra Esports, the reigning world champions, can be counted among the favourites. The team is now the third strongest in the world, as they took bronze at the recent Bali Major 2023, Ledgeiv Team Liquid in the final of the lower grid. The team's results also include a win at DPC WEU 2023 Tour 3: Division I and a fourth place finish at DreamLeague Season 19.

9Pandas can be confidently called one of the strongest teams in Eastern Europe. The team confidently imposes competition to the top representatives of the world esports. Third place at ESL One Berlin Major 2023 and 5th-6th place at Bali Major 2023 confirm this statement.

This year's list of contenders for victory at a major international tournament is impossible to imagine without Team Liquid. The Western European team is having a great season, earning decent prize money. But the nuance is that Insania and his teammates can not move from the second place. They have finished second at events such as Lima Major 2023, DreamLeague Season 19, ESL One Berlin Major 2023 and the recent Bali Major 2023. Yes, it's a decent result that demonstrates that the team can beat just about anyone on the stage. But constantly standing in Team Liquid's way is their personal nemesis, their kryptonite - the Gaimin Gladiators collective.

Gaimin Gladiators is an unquestioned championship contender

The year 2023 has already become the year of Gaimin Gladiators. Such a dominance on the professional Dota 2 scene, which is demonstrated by the players of this team has never been, perhaps, in the history of this esports discipline. Even OG in its time could not mark such a number of victories at international events in one year.

This year Gaimin Gladiators team won all 5 out of 5 possible big international tournaments, namely Lima Major 2023, DreamLeague Season 19, ESL One Berlin Major 2023, DreamLeague Season 20 and Bali Major 2023. Collectively, the team has already earned over $1,200,000 in prize money. Considering the history of grand finals at the aforementioned tournaments, the only ones who have a chance to unseat the strongest team of this year are Team Liquid. In the meantime, the Gaimin Gladiators can be safely named as the undisputed contender for the Riyadh Masters 2023 title and the $5,000,000 grand prize.

Conclusion

Riyadh Masters 2023 has every chance to be an alternative to The International 2023 this year. The tournament has everything it needs for that: a top line-up of participants, a huge prize pool, because it's unclear how it will be funded and how big the prize pool will be at TI with the cancellation of Battle Pass, and a generous organiser. Fans of esports and Dota 2 in particular should not miss the main event of the summer, and possibly the whole 2023 year, in their favourite discipline. And on our website you can read betting tips for all matches of Riyadh Masters 2023 in the corresponding section.