After two days of intense Dota 2 action, four teams have been eliminated from the Riyadh Masters while eight made it through to the group stages.
The Riyadh Masters is a tournament no team wants to miss out on, owing to its $15 million prize pool. Twelve teams made it to the play-ins of the event, which is a prelude to the main tournament. Of the twelve, only eight would make it through, meaning four teams would see their dreams shattered before the group stages.
The play-ins were a quick affair, with the two six team groups being played out in little over a day. The results of the play-in groups were as below.
Team Aster, Team Liquid, Quest Esports and Xtreme Gaming secured their ticket to the main tournament without any hassles. The bottom four had to go through a best-of-three elimination game against a team from the other group.
Elimination Games
TSM vs beastcoast – TSM won 2-0
OG vs Entity – OG won 2-0
Team Secret vs Execration – Team Secret won 2-1
9Pandas vs Virtus.pro – 9Pandas won 2-1
The first two elimination series ended in two games, although beastcoast did give TSM a run for their money in the second game. Series 3 and 4 went the distance, with Secret and 9Pandas coming out on top. Team Secret were demolishing Execration in the first game, but some high risk high reward plays from the Southeast Asian team earned them a comeback and the first game. But in the long run, Secret turned out to be too strong for them. 9Pandas lost the first game to Virtus.pro as well, but in the end, experience won out in the series.
So along with the first four teams, TSM, OG, Team Secret and 9Pandas will be displaying their talents in the Riyadh Masters group stages against some of the best Dota 2 teams in the world. What these teams have going for them is momentum. In the TI12 Last Chance Qualifier, Team Secret and Team Liquid prevailed and both teams ended up making the top 3 in Singapore, never taking their foot off the gas pedal. The directly qualified teams better watch out, as history could easily repeat itself at the Riyadh Masters.
The group stages of the main tournament will begin on 21st of June at 11:00 am CEST and will end on the 24th of June, after which the playoffs will commence.
