Riyadh Masters 2023 day 1 results

Day 1 of Riyadh Masters 2023 featured numerous matches and many of them were quite exciting. In both groups, the favorites dominated the opposition.

Despite suffering from a huge handicap, Quest Esports proved that they’re capable of winning even against the world’s best Dota 2 teams. The departure of Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf just days before the start of the tournament looked really bad from the outside, but it seems that the team’s playstyle is strong enough to work even without him.

Group A results

In group A of Riyadh Masters’ play-in stage, Team Aster and Team Liquid found a lot of success in their first four matches. Both teams ended day 1 with a record of 3 W – 1 D – 0 L. On the second day, they will finally meet each other.

However, the result of the match won’t change anything because the 3^rd place competitor is Entity, and they obtained only 4 points in their first 4 matches.

It’s good to see that Sumail “Sumail” Hassan is finally doing well with his new team. Of course, the real test will start in the group stage. But even a top 16 result is better than getting eliminated early.

Based on everything we’ve seen from Aster in recent months, they will most likely finish somewhere between 7^th and 12^th.

Barely slide through for a win in that last one 🫠😅

But in the end, we are a dominant 7-1 after day one #RiyadhMasters pic.twitter.com/WNNikR3Old

— Team Liquid (@TeamLiquid) July 19, 2023

For Team Liquid, the situation looks a bit better. The Europeans are likely to finish the tournament in the top 6.

The weakest teams in group A have been Execration (1 point) and Virtus.pro (1 point). Entity and TSM currently have 4.

Group B results

In group B, Quest Esports finished day 1 with a record of 3 W – 0 D – 1 L. For 9Pandas and Xtreme Gaming, things worked out pretty well, but they will need to get a good result in their last match. Right now, their records are identical: 2 W – 1 D – 1 L.

The weakest teams in the group have been OG (3 points), Team Secret (3 points) and beastcoast (2 points). In OG and Secret’s case, everyone expected them to struggle. But beastcoast were supposed to do much better than they did.

Because of these results, the South American team will likely end up facing Entity in the Decider match, which might get them eliminated from the tournament before the group stage begins.

Header: Saudi Esports Federation