Riyadh Masters 2022: Dota 2 titans come together

Today is the first day of the Riyadh Masters 2022 due to take place in Dubai. All of the top teams in the world have come together for a short single round-robin tournament with a huge prize pot of $100,000 for last place and $1,500,000 for first place.

This is the first time this year that European and North American teams will get to play against Chinese teams as they could not attend the Stockholm Major. With a number of exciting stand-ins, things are sure to get exciting!

A new tournament on the scene

Fans of the Dota pro scene will be familiar with a multitude of tournaments including DPC leagues, ESL One tournaments and Majors but the Riyadh Masters is a new one! Seven of the top teams in the world were invited:

• PSG.LGD
• OG
• Team Secret
• Team Spirit
• Tundra
• Nigma Galaxy
• TSM.

Three other teams also earned a place through qualifiers: Team Liquid, RNG and Deboosters. This is the top way for fans who like to bet on Dota 2 to study how teams play against each other before the upcoming Arlington Major and, of course, TI11. The top esports betting sites will also be keeping a close eye to ensure they have the best odds available.

The favorites: almost impossible to choose

Those who are familiar with Dota 2 betting 2022 will know that choosing a favorite to win at this point in the tournament is almost impossible. The top esports sites such as Unibet are going to struggle to provide the top odds with so many variables! With multiple TI winners, Major winners and overall top-tier teams, it’s going to be really interesting to see how they face off against each other in the current meta.

OG

Stockholm Major winners OG will certainly be drawing a lot of attention in this tournament. However, after achieving an impressive 3rd place in tour 3 of the DPC League, they are already qualified for TI. It wouldn’t be the first time that fans have seen teams not playing their best strategies in the run-up to that all important final tournament. OG is famously a team that thrives under pressure so without that pressure applied, how will the new roster react?

PSG.LGD

One team that really has the pressure on is PSG. They’ve placed second and third at the last 3 TIs in a row but have never been able to take home that final win. Having struggled a little in the most recent Chinese DPC tour, it wouldn’t be surprising if they have a little something extra up their sleeves that’ll help them pull out a win.

Underdogs – hard to pick!

If there’s no clear favorite at the Riyadh Masters 2022, there’s also no clear underdog. However, while it’s clear that fans looking to bet on Dota 2 will be spoilt for choice, there are a couple of teams that will be operating at a slight disadvantage in this tournament.

Team Liquid

You’ll probably be pretty surprised to see Liquid in the list here. This is because it was announced via Insania’s social media profiles that legendary OG carry Ana will be filling in for one of the players. While it’s not 100% confirmed, it seems that Matumbaman will not be attending although no reason has been given. A last minute stand-in can certainly affect a team’s performance and Dota 2 betting odds, they may not have had time to prepare properly.

Deboosters

Deboosters is a team you may not have heard of in the realm of Dota 2 – they don’t even have a Liquipedia page available! However, they stormed through the Saudi Arabian Gamers Without Borders tournament and rightfully earned their place. This can give them an edge, they have the opportunity to study the other teams without others being able to study them. While they won’t be able to qualify for this year’s TI, Deboosters could be the next team to watch.

Our summary – amazing betting opportunities to come

This is certainly going to be one of the hottest tournaments in recent Dota 2 history. It’s fairly rare for all of these consistently top-tier teams to come together and fight it out to see who is the best. While Dota 2 betting 2022 is continuing to grow and get more and more exciting, fans will undoubtedly find it a little trickier than in recent years to choose who is going to come out on top.