Cover-Credits:
During the Riyadh Masters 2023, Quest Esports encountered a major setback during their lower bracket series against the formidable Gaimin Gladiators. In the crucial first game, an unexpected and unfortunate incident occurred – the entire Quest team simultaneously disconnected from the game right in the middle of the teamfight.
Just before the game was paused, a critical moment unfolded for Quest Esports with their Terrorblade dying, and the rest of the team motionless and unable to respond.
Once the game was resumed and the intense teamfight ensued, Quest suffered further losses, with a total of three of their heroes falling, while on Gaimin Gladiators' side, both Juggernaut and Underlord met their end.
As fate would have it, Gaimin emerged victorious in that particular game, sparking discussions and raising questions about whether the pause and subsequent period granted them an undue advantage that played a role in their triumph. The circumstances surrounding the pause and its potential impact on the match's outcome have become a subject of scrutiny among spectators and analysts.
Unfortunately for Quest Esports, this series loss ultimately led to their elimination from the Riyadh Masters 2023.
Quest Esports faces an unforeseen all team disconnect at Riyadh Masters 2023
During the first game of the series between Quest Esports and Gaimin Gladiators, an intense battle unfolded. Both teams fought fiercely, and after 36 minutes of gameplay, they found themselves evenly matched in terms of net worth when Quest managed to breach Gaimin's high ground.
In the midst of the action, Gaimin initiated a crucial teamfight, targeting the enemy carry, Terrorblade, and bringing him to low health. At a critical moment, Terrorblade utilized his Ultimate to exchange HP with the enemy offlaner, Underlord, who ultimately succumbed and died shortly after. However, this left Terrorblade in a vulnerable position as he no longer had the protection of his Black King Bar (BKB).
As the conflict continued, just when Terrorblade's situation seemed dire and he was about to meet his demise, an unexpected and unfortunate event occurred. All the heroes controlled by Quest Esports froze simultaneously, and approximately three seconds later, all of them disconnected from the game, forcing a pause in the match. This abrupt disconnection was a significant setback for Quest, and it undoubtedly added a moment of confusion and tension to the already intense game.
Quest's mid Queen of Pain was locked in Underlord's Root at the time. As the technical issue was being resolved, the players exchanged some banter in the all-chat, but the game resumed soon after, and Queen of Pain exited from the Root but both sides did lose other heroes.
Following this teamfight, Gaimin pulled ahead in the game and finally won, and the team took the series following another hard fought game two win to advance to the next round of the lower bracket.
Following the series, there were debates over whether that brief period aided Gaimin in particularly killing Terrorblade, but it was largely believed that because Quinn "Quinn" Callahan, who was in full health, would have taken him down in normal circumstances as well.
Quest Esports carry Aybek "TA2000" Tokayev said on Telegram that there will be no replay of the first game, after similar speculations.
As it now stands, Quest has been eliminated from the event, taking home $500,000 USD in prize money. Due to the roster change just before the tournament, the team was not considered one of the strongest but did well overall to finish in the 7th-8th position.
Gaimin moves on to the lower bracket's next round and will face BetBoom Team. Given that these are two of the top teams in pro Dota 2 right now, this is certainly to be a tough match.
