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On 5th February, Saudi Arabia’s Esports World Cup announced on Twitter the inclusion of Dota 2 esports during the massive, multi-esports title tournament. Riyadh Masters is now officially a part of the Esports World Cup 2024. With this, Dota 2 becomes the fourth esports title to be featured at the Esports World Cup just behind Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Starcraft II, and Counter-Strike 2. The Esports World Cup is a one-of-a-kind initiative undertaken by Saudi Arabia.
According to an earlier statement from the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, this World Cup competition will be held annually every year in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia starting in the summer of 2024. The tournament has also been promised to have the largest prize pools for the games in esports history.
Dota 2 x Esports World Cup Riyadh 2024
“Dota 2 fans, get ready to be swept off your feet. The #RiyadhMasters is joining the #EsportsWorldCup, and @DOTA2 is about to take the #EWC by storm! Which teams will be chasing glory in the biggest tournament esports has ever seen?” wrote the Esports World Cup Federation on X, officially announcing Dota 2 as a part of the Esports World Cup.
According to the official ESL website, teams will be competing throughout the season to collect EPT points through various ESL-organized tournaments. Notably, only the top 20 teams on the EPT leaderboard will be able to compete in the Riyadh Masters at the Esports World Cup 2024.
The ESL Pro Tour point distribution amongst the ESL tournaments before Riyadh Masters begins is as follows:
DreamLeague Season 21 - 10440 PTS
ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 - 19980 PTS
DreamLeague Season 22 - 18550 PTS
ESL One Birmingham 2024 - 26640 PTS
DreamLeague Season 23 - 26100 PTS
The Riyadh Masters 2024 tournament will feature both open and closed qualifiers for all seven of the qualifier regions (North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa, China, and Southeast Asia) and is slated to kick off sometime around July 2024.
The motivation behind the formation of an esports world cup is Saudi Arabia’s aim to increase the sector's contribution to the Kingdom's gross domestic product by more than SR 50 Billion (~$13.3 Billion USD) by 2030 and create 39,000 new job opportunities.
The Esports World Cup is expected to be the largest global esports event of its kind and will serve as a platform to support the gaming and esports sector and consolidate Saudi Arabia's position as a hub for international esports. It will feature several popular games across various genres and will boast the largest prize pools for winners ever offered in esports history.
The latest buzz in the community is that Riot Games is also reportedly working through the details of the participation of League of Legends in the Esports World Cup 2024 event. It will be interesting to have both League of Legends and Dota 2 as crucial parts of this lucrative tournament.
It should be noted that the specifics of the format of the event have not yet been disclosed and all we know is that organizations will field different esports teams in different tournaments to have a shot at being crowned the winner of the inaugural Esports World Cup.
