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The Esports World Cup: Riyadh Masters 2024 returns to Dota 2
The world of Esports has come a long way since its underground computer café LAN tournaments. It is evolving into a global platform for the world's best players and teams to showcase their intellectual gaming skills. HRH Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia announced the Esports World Cup (EWC) on October 2023. It will be held in Riyadh every year starting from 2024. This annual event brings us the 3rd iteration of the Riyadh Masters series.
Riyadh Masters 2024
With its first tournament in 2022, Riyadh Masters has taken the Dota 2 pro scene by storm. Now part of a greater phenomenon, Riyadh Masters is the most anticipated tournament outside Valve's The International series. With a prize pool of $4 million in 2022 and $15 million in 2023, we can only imagine what this year's prize pool will be.
Riyadh Masters 2024 will consist of 20 teams, eight from the ESL Pro Tour Leaderboard and 12 from Regional Qualifiers. As of now, the tournament details have not been released. However, BetBoom Team was the first to qualify for Riyadh Masters 2024 after getting top 3 in DreamLeague S22, as announced by Esports World Cup's X page. BetBoom is leading the EPL leaderboard with 7500 points, followed by Xtreme Gaming at 6160 points, and Team Falcons in a close 3rd place with 5880 points. Though Falcons are the best Dota 2 team in the world now, BetBoom has been consistently improving and climbing up the ranks.
Esports World Cup
Credit: Esports World Cup
The EWC, run by the Esports World Cup Foundation, is dedicated to building a financially stable ecosystem for the future of esports and their athletes. The goal is to make Riyadh the global esports capital. With EWC, Saudi Arabia looks to enhance its Vision 2030 objective of becoming a hub for esports, sports & entertainment to create nearly 40,000 job opportunities.
The EWC was created with four ideas in mind:
- Become the ultimate tournament with the top titles in esports
- Crown the best esports club in the world across all games
- Offer the largest prize pool in the history of esports
- Celebrate the largest esports festival on earth
Upcoming Events
Though it would be exciting to watch BetBoom vs. Falcons at Riyadh Masters 2024, it is still too early for the Esports World Cup. Two more tournaments remain to finalize the top 8 teams in the EPL leaderboard, ESL One Birmingham and DreamLeague Season 23. But we might watch them clash early at Elite League, which starts on 31st March.
Read More on the Esports World Cup Foundation and its effects on esports!
Featured Image: @ESWCgg
