There are a lot of objectively large esports tournaments being held in Saudi Arabia this July and August as part of the Esports World Cup, but even with this being the case, there are only a few that are as big as the Dota 2 Riyadh Masters.
This tournament has a total of $5 million on the line and is seeing 20 teams flocking to Riyadh to fight for their stake in it. After a weekend of action, a bunch of teams have already earned their place in the group stage, four have been eliminated, and some have even been placed into their groups too.
We know for a fact that Group A will include Gaimin Gladiators, OG, Team Falcons, and Team Spirit, and that Group B will see BetBoom Team, Team Liquid, Tundra Esports, and WBG.XG battling it out.
Later today (July 8), we’ll know which of these two groups Entity, Blacklist International, beastcoast, Heroic, PSG Quest, Aurora, Mouz, and LGD Gaming will be attached to, as a group draw will be hosted. However the groups end up looking, Azure Ray, G2 x iG, Virtus.pro, and nouns will be heading home after failing to qualify out of the Play-In Stage.
The Riyadh Masters will conclude on July 21.