Group play at the Dota 2 Riyadh Masters in Saudi Arabia ended Sunday, finalizing the field for the playoffs that kick off Tuesday. Team Falcons finished first in Group A, while Tundra Esports finished first in Group B, giving those two squads the most advantageous path forward.
Results Sunday included the Falcons downing Heroic and Entity defeating Team Liquid, with all other best-of-two matches ending in draws.
The outcome of those results is that Team Falcons, Team Spirit, Gaimin Gladiators and OG finished at the top of Group A (in that order), while Tundra Esports, Entity, Team Liquid and WBG.XG finished in the top four slots of Group B.
The top four teams in each group move on to the playoffs’ upper bracket, with the fifth- and sixth-place teams in each group entering the playoffs’ lower bracket.
The lower bracket is comprised of Aurora, LGD Gaming, PSG Quest and BetBoom Team.
HEROIC, Blacklist International, beastcoast and MOUZ were all eliminated.
The $5 million Dota 2 event, part of the Esports World Cup, began with 20 teams, with four eliminated prior to the start of group play.
The group stage ran through Sunday, with all matches best-of-two. Teams competed in two round-robin groups of eight.
The double-elimination playoffs run Tuesday through July 21. All playoff matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final.
The winning team will earn $1.5 million and 1,000 Esports World Cup team points, while the runner-up will receive $800,000 and 600 Esports World Cup team points.
Team Falcons wrapped up its playoff positioning Sunday by defeating HEROIC in 22 minutes on green and in 30 minutes on red.
Oliver “skiter” Lepko and Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf combined to average 17 kills against one death with 14.5 assists to boot.
Meanwhile, Entity finished second in Group B by dumping Liquid in 36 minutes on green and 45 minutes on green. They were paced by Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov who recorded averages of 12.5 kills, 2.5 deaths and 6.5 assists.
Sunday’s draws were between Aurora-Gaimin Gladiators, LGD Gaming-OG, Blacklist International-Team Spirit, Tundra Esports-BetBoom Team, WBG.XG-beastcoast and MOUZ-PSG Quest.
The playoffs begin Tuesday with the following matches:
Upper bracket:
Team Falcons vs. WBG.XG
Entity vs. Gaimin Gladiators
Team Spirit vs. Team Liquid
Tundra Esports vs. OG
The losers of those matches will drop down to the lower bracket to face the fifth- and sixth-place teams from group play.
Dota 2 Riyadh Masters final group standings (overall W-L-T record, maps record):
Group A
1. Team Falcons, 4-2-1, 9-5
2. Team Spirit, 1-0-6, 8-6
3. Gaimin Gladiators, 2-1-4, 8-6
4. OG, 1-0-6, 8-6
5. Aurora, 1-1-5, 7-7
6. LGD Gaming, 0-1-6, 6-8
7. HEROIC, 1-3-3, 5-9
8. Blacklist International, 0-2-5, 5-9
Group B
1. Tundra Esports, 4-0-3, 11-3
2. Entity, 5-1-1, 11-3
3. Team Liquid, 3-1-3, 9-5
4. WBG.XG, 2-1-4, 8-6
5. PSG Quest, 0-1-6, 6-8
6. BetBoom Team, 1-3-3, 5-9
7. beastcoast, 1-4-2, 4-10
8. MOUZ, 0-5-2, 2-12
Dota 2 Riyadh Masters prize pool (money, Esports World Cup team points):
1. $1.5 million, 1,000 points
2. $800,000, 600
3. $600,000, 350
4. $400,000, 200
5-6. $300,000, 90
7-8. $200,000, 30
9-12. $100,000
13-14. $70,000 — HEROIC, beastcoast
15-16. $40,000 — Blacklist International, MOUZ
17-18. $25,000 — Virtus.pro, nouns
19-20. $15,000 — G2 x iG, Azure Ray
–Field Level Media
