Liquid And Aster Secure Group Stage - Riyadh Masters Play-ins Day 1 Recap

The first day of the chaotic two-day Play-ins stage for Riyadh Masters 2023 has ended. Here is a recap of what happened on this action-packed day of Dota 2.

Group A

It only took one day for the results of Group A to be confirmed. Two teams advance to the Group Stage and the remaining four will play in elimination matches against teams from the opposing group.

As we all expected, Team Liquid will move on to the main event. Standing right next to them is the new Team Aster, who has recently replaced their long-time player Ye "BoBoKa" Zhibiao for Hu "Kaka" Liangzhi. The roster change seems to be doing them good so far, as both Liquid and Aster have secured their advancement to the next stage with scores of 7-1.

Meanwhile, TSM, Team Entity, Execration, and Virtus.Pro have all been sent to the Decider bracket which will determine their elimination. Team Entitiy's new roster debut didn’t go too poorly, but wasn’t enough for them to secure their Group Stage spot yet. It is impossible for any of these teams to catch up to Liquid's and Aster's scores, and they will all play in elimination matches against Group B teams.

Group A still has a few remaining matches, but the outcomes will not change and the teams will only be playing for seeding purposes.

Group B

Group B, however, is still entirely up in the air. Five out of six teams will still battle it out for two instant slots in the Group Stage, while Beastcoast is the only team in Group B to have already been sent down to the elimination matches.

Currently, Quest Esports is leading the way with a record of 6-2. Despite the departure of Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf, Quest is still looking good and only needs one last push to make it out of the Play-ins. They play against Beastcoast tomorrow, and a 2-0 victory will secure their place in the next stage.

Tied for second and third are 9 Pandas and Xtreme Gaming, both with a score of 5-3. They must perform well tomorrow to avoid elimination matches.

Two Western Europe outcasts, OG and Team Secret, are hanging on by a thread. Both teams have a score of 3-5 and will face Xtreme Gaming and 9 Pandas, respectively. OG and Secret must win their match 2-0 to force a tiebreaker. Dropping one map or more will result in them being sent to the Decider matches.

Decider Bracket

In the Decider bracket, the 3rd seed of Group A will play against the 6th seed of Group B, while the 4th seed of Group A will play against the 5th seed of Group B, vice versa. The elimination matches will be in Best of 3 format. All four losing teams will be eliminated, and all four winning teams will qualify for the Group Stage.

TSM, Team Entity, Execration, Virtus.Pro, and Beastcoast are confirmed to play in the Decider bracket.

We apologize for the incorrect information in the previous, now-deleted article.