Riyadh Masters 2024 Play-In Groups Revealed

The two play-in groups of Riyadh Masters 2024 have finally been revealed. The eight directly invited teams will not need to compete in this stage. But the remaining 12 teams do. Eight of them will advance to the group stage, so for the likes of LGD Gaming and HEROIC it shouldn’t be that difficult to avoid elimination.

The 12 teams are divided into two groups of eight. In each group, the bottom team gets eliminated directly. The teams who finish 5^th and 4^th will need to compete in a decider match against the 4^th and 5^th teams from the other group.

Play-In Group A

Group A of the play-in stage features these six teams:

Beastcoast
Blacklist International
Entity
G2.iG
LGD Gaming
Virtus.pro

The biggest favorites here are G2.iG, LGD Gaming, and Entity. The first two of these teams are from China and have players with vast experience. The third is from Western Europe and won not just the Riyadh Masters Qualifier but also The International 13 Qualifier.

Without a doubt, this roster is a very capable one and might even win the whole group. A top-three result would be sufficient to guarantee their spot in the group stage.

For Virtus.pro and Blacklist International, the situation looks bleak. Both teams failed in the regional qualifiers for The International 2024. Given that the teams they had to play against in those qualifiers are much weaker than their Riyadh Masters opponents, it’s hard to be optimistic about their chances.

Beastcoast, on the other hand, finished 2^nd in the South American Qualifier for TI13. They were also 2^nd in the Riyadh Masters Qualifier. Both times, they lost against BOOM Esports.

A year’s worth of Dota 2 all comes down to this.

20 incredible teams, $5,000,000 on the line & 3 weeks of thrilling action 🔥#RiyadhMasters starts next Thursday – don’t miss it! pic.twitter.com/KMexS9jBMk

— Esports World Cup (@EWC_EN) June 29, 2024

Play-In Group B

Group B of the play-in stage features these teams:

Aurora
Azure Ray
HEROIC
MOUZ
Nouns
PSG Quest

The teams in this group are much closer to each other in terms of strength, so it is much harder to predict who will finish in the top-three. In principle, if Azure Ray, HEROIC, and PSG Quest play their usual game, they should be the winners. But Nouns are very strong at the moment and could easily cause an upset.

Fly and his crew defeated Shopify Rebellion twice in recent months and as a result, they qualified not just for Riyadh Masters but also for The International 13. This level of perseverance could lead to a good performance even against opponents who are theoretically stronger than them.

In Dota 2, a lot depends on strategy and hard work. With Fly leading the squad, nouns have a good chance to impress us.

Header: ESL, Esports World Cup Foundation