Playoffs Set; Shopify Rebellion and OG among the eliminated teams at Riyadh Masters

The Riyadh Masters playoffs are set as the group stage ended with the elimination of four teams; OG, Shopify Rebellion, Xtreme Gaming, and TSM. 

Last week, 20 teams headed to Riyadh Masters in Saudia Arabia to fight for the lion's share of the $15 million prize pool. Four teams were eliminated after the play-ins; eight advanced to join the eight invited teams. 

• Read Four teams eliminated from the Riyadh Masters after the play-ins; eight advance

Now another four teams have been knocked out. 

After four days of group stage play, both groups were forced into tie-breakers to determine the final eliminations and playoff seeds. 

Group A

Quest Esports continues to carve a space for themselves among the Dota 2 elite this year. Although they narrowly missed getting a TI invite, they still ended Bali Major in an impressive fourth place and now took the top seed in their group at Riyadh Masters. 

PSG.LGD seemed to hiccup and sputter but were able to keep themselves alive to secure a place in the (lower brackets) playoffs, despite the loss to 9Pandas in the tie-breakers. 

However, OG and Xtreme Gaming weren't so lucky. OG just never seemed to be able to get on solid footing and didn't even secure a single series win. Xtreme Gaming did manage to seize a series win against PSG.LGD, but they lost too many others along the way. 

Neither team have an invite to The International and will need to rethink their strategy or even roster before the brutal regional qualifiers. This year China has been given only one slot and while WEU has two, the competition is just way too hot.

• Read Riyadh Masters; TI testing grounds for most Play-In Seed teams

Group B

After a perfect 4-0 start to the Group Stage, BetBoom continued their dominance before getting overwhelmed by Team Secret, who made an incredible turnaround following a 0-4 start on day one of the Group Stage.

In the end, BetBoom finished in the first place of the group and Secret avoided elimination. 

Tundra Esports  (whose struggles might be related to another mid-event departure of  Martin "Saksa" Sazdov due to mental health issues) also avoided elimination in the tie-breakers, defeating both TSM and Shopify Rebellion —both of whom bid farewell to the event. 

• Read Mental Health in esports; Should orgs or developers be more involved?

The action continues tomorrow, Tuesday, July 25th with the upper bracket matches in the playoffs. 

• Quest EsportsvsTalon Esports 10:00 CEST
• Team LiquidvsGaimin Gladiators 13:35 CEST
• Team SpiritvsTeam Aster 17:05 CEST
• BetBoom Teamvs9Pandas 20:40 CEST 

Riyadh Masters Playoffs July 26-30

• Double-elimination bracket
• All matches except Grand Final are Bo3
• Grand Final is Bo5

Riyadh Masters 2023 prize pool distribution:

• 1st place: $5,000,000
• 2nd place: $2,500,000
• 3rd place: $1,700,000
• 4th place: $1,200,000
• 5th-6th place: $800,000
• 7th-8th place: $500,000
• 9th-12th place: $300,000
• 13th-14th place: $200,000 OG / TSM
• 15th-16th place: $100,000 Shopify Rebellion / Xtreme Gaming
• 17th-18th place: $50,000 beastcoast / Entity
• 19th-20th place: $50,000 Execration / Virtus.pro