Riyadh Masters play-in stage results

After just two days of competition, Riyadh Masters’ play-in stage is over. The teams that advanced to the group stage are a bit surprising but the fans are probably very happy with these results.

In esports, just as in traditional sports, people follow individuals and teams more than anything. If someone comes along and proves to have exceptional abilities, after a while that person or team will start to gather a fan base. But it’s hard to beat the legends in this department.

A player like Clement “Puppey” Ivanov, who’s been around since day 1 and played in four Grand Finals of The International, cannot be compared with any player who started to win tournaments this year or even a few years ago.

Sebastien “Ceb” Debs is in the same category as Puppey, and his insights were probably instrumental in OG’s victory against Entity. What’s strange is that OG finished group B with a record of 1 W – 1 D – 3 L and were expected to get crushed by Entity. But in the end, they won the match 2-0.

Secret won 2-1 against Execration after being a game behind. Puppey’s vast experience helped him a lot here, and he managed to win games 2 and 3 in a very similar way.

OMG WE DID IT #RiyadhMasters pic.twitter.com/oC5byJeWw0

— OG (@OGesports) July 20, 2023

Complete play-in results

The teams that played the best in this first stage of Riyadh Masters 2023 were Team Aster, Team Liquid, Quest Esports, and Xtreme Gaming. All four of them advanced to the group stage directly, without having to go through the Decider matches.

In the case of Aster and Quest, what we saw was very impressive. If these two teams can continue to play as they did against their play-in stage opponents, they will likely finish in the top eight.

One of the reasons why Aster’s results have gotten so much better since their last tournament is that the team decided to make a roster change several weeks ago. Ye “BoBoKa” Zhibiao was replaced by one of the best position 4 players in the history of the game, Hu “Kaka” Liangzhi.

In the Decider matches, TSM crushed beastcoast (2-0), OG defeated Entity (2-0), 9Pandas survived the CIS derby against Virtus.pro (2-1), and Team Secret were successful against Execration (2-1).

Given the 16 teams that will take part in the group stage of Riyadh Masters 2023, the tournament feels a lot like The International.

Header: Saudi Esports Federation