In the lead up to the Riyadh Masters 2022, Gamers8 revealed the initial set of participating Dota 2 teams. This tournament is set to take place from 20th to 24th July in a LAN setting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and will feature ten teams, including the best in the world like PSG.LGD and Team Spirit. A total of seven teams will be directly invited, while three others have already advanced through the Gamers Without Borders 2022 event which was held earlier this year. The prize pool of the event will be $4 Million USD. Furthermore, an additional $1 million will be available for donation to “support participating orgs.”
All that we know about the Riyadh Masters 2022 so far
“The time has come! Join us for the Riyadh Masters,” Gamers8 wrote on Twitter as it announced the event's schedule, prize pool, number of teams, and trailer via its Twitter account.
Following this, four of the invited teams were revealed in a series of tweets, with three more yet to be announced. However, Tundra Esports’ support player Martin "Saksa" Sazdov, during a recent post-match winner’s interview stated that they were heading to Saudi Arabia in a week for a LAN event.
PSG.LGD (China)
Team Secret (Western Europe)
Team Spirit (Eastern Europe)
OG (Western Europe)
Tundra Esports (Western Europe)
TBD
TBD
The Gamers Without Borders 2022 tournament, which took place from 4th to 8th May and included a $2 million prize pool devoted to charity contributions, saw Team Liquid win in Europe, Royal Never Give Up win in Asia, and Deboosters win in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). These three teams will be present at the Riyadh Masters 2022 as well.
The event's ten teams will be divided into two groups of five. All group stage series will be Bo2s, while all playoff series will be Bo3s.
While it is unknown how the $4 Million will be split among the 10 teams, the event is predicted to gain a lot of traction due to its high prize pool. Aside from Valve's The Internationals (TI), where the prize pool surpassed $40 million at TI10, other third-party and Valve events so far have not seen such an amount according to esportsearnings. So, a $4 Million USD prize pool is expected to make Riyadh Masters 2022 the biggest Dota 2 event outside of The International.
The Riyadh Masters will not only serve a high prize pool, but will also offer top-tier Dota 2 gameplay and the possibility of great storylines with the world's best teams. The grand finalists of TI10, Team Spirit, and PSG.LGD, will likely face each other for the first time since October 2021. It will also be intriguing to observe how reigning Major winner OG performs against Chinese teams who did not compete at the Stockholm Major 2022.
The event will also serve as valuable interregional preparation for some of the teams that need to perform well at the PGL Arlington Major in early August.
In addition to Dota 2, Gamers8 is also hosting tournaments for other esports titles such as Rocket League, Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, and PUBG Mobile. The events run from 14th July till 20th August, boasting a total prize pool of $15 Million.
