Three more fall at Riyadh Masters, Gaimin Gladiators continue lower bracket run

Riyadh Maters 2023 is quickly approaching the final act with only five teams left in the battle for the trophy and a share of the hefty $15,000,000 prize pool.

Friday, July 28 marked the end of the road for the hometown favourites Quest Esports, but also for Team Aster and BetBoom Team, who failed to prevail through lower bracket matches.

Day 10 in Riyadh began with a battle for a top-six finish between the home town team Quest Esports and Gaimin Gladiators, who for the first time this year, are poised to a lower bracket run. Unfortunately, the duel between these two was surrounded by controversy as all five Quest players disconnected from the server at a crucial moment.

Quest EsportsvsGaimin Gladiators

Although the score line shows a clean 2-0 victory for GG, the series was fully action-packed, with both teams coming close to a win. Quest held the networth lead for the first 25 minutes of game one courtesy of a monstrous farm on their carry Terrorblade, but when the time came for a high ground push, the game went to a lengthy pause.

At the 35-minute mark, after Quest took down GG’s tier three tower and the ranged barracks in the mid lane, all five players disconnected from the game. After what around 10 minutes, they were back, but the focus was lost, and GG took full advantage to turn the fight around and march towards the opposite base.

Quest tried to even out the series with big wombo-combos between a Faceless Void, a mid lane Snapfire, an Enigma and a Phoenix, but while they focused on getting all the heroes for the strategy they had in mind, they allowed GG to have some of their most powerful comfort picks and were severely punished for that.

With Quest having to bow out in the top 8, the day continued with 9Pandas taking on Team Aster in a breathtaking battle for survival.

Team Astervs9Pandas

9Pandas came determined to fight for a top 6 secured in Riyadh and forced Aster to fight on their terms. They brought Gleb "kiyotaka" Zyryanov’s heavy artillery against Aster’s Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan. Game one featured an Invoker pick for 9Pandas’ young mid laner, who dominated SumaiL while also providing the mana burn needed to take out from the team fight Aster’s carry Medusa.
Meepo was kiyotaka’s pick for game two, but it was SumaiL’s turn to dismantle him on a Windranger and give Aster another chance at fighting for a top 6 finish.

However, game three featured a Tinker pick for kiyotaka who made the difference in the late game team fights and sent Aster packing.

The day ended with Gaimin Gladiators returning to the stage for a battle with BetBoom Team.

BetBoom TeamvsGaimin Gladiators

What many predicted to be the Riyadh Masters 2023 grand finals, turned out to be just the lower bracket quarterfinals.

BB Team started strong with a flawless game one victory, focusing on making an impossible game for Marcus "Ace" Christensen in the offlane. But, moving forward, much like Quest, they allowed GG to have comfort picks on their cores and while they kept on winning the laning stage, and stayed in an aggressive stance, they weren’t able to capitalise on their lead.

Riyadh Masters 2023 marks another disappointing end for BB Team, who at the start of the competitive year, were seen on paper as the strongest roster formed in the TI11 aftermath. Nonetheless, they head home with a top 6 finish and $800,000 for their effort, which is more than what PSG.LGD and Thunder Awaken earned at TI11 for their top 6 finish in Singapore.

Riyadh Masters 2023 continues today, Saturday, July 29 with two more elimination rounds and the upper bracket finals.