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The Riyadh Masters Group Stage Seeds are Released
The Play-Ins are done and dusted and four teams have been eliminated but there is a lot more Dota 2 to come. The Riyadh Master group stage is coming soon and the teams have been announced.
We're going to look at the teams for each group and share our thoughts on who will advance and who will fall in the next stage of the Esports World Cup.
Riyadh Masters Group Stage Analysis
Group A
Each time groups are announced in a tournament, one group is often dubbed the "group of death" for containing most of the strongest teams and it's fair to say that applies to Riyadh Masters as well.
Featuring the strongest team from each region except China, it looks like making it through Group A is an achievement.
We believe Team Spirit, Falcons, and Gaimin Gladiators will take three of the top four spots. Fourth place is hard to guess, but it'll probably go for Aurora or Heroic.
OG will likely land in the middle of the pack, they are a solid team but there's a lot going on for them right now and time will tell if they can rise above it.
The two teams we expect to get eliminated are Blacklist International and LGD Gaming. SEA teams are notoriously inconsistent in LAN events and it's hard to imagine Blacklist making it through, despite their amazing performance in the play-ins.
LGD has a different problem, as Chinese teams are focused on breaking the meta right now and it just isn't happening. Perhaps they can adjust in time, but at the moment LGD looks like the weakest team in Group A.
Group B
The second group is significantly harder to predict, as most of the teams seem even in terms of skill. But while all teams are equal, some teams are more equal than others.
Team Liquid, Tundra Esports, Entity, and Xtreme Gaming are our picks for the top four. Three of them are Western European powerhouses, while Xtreme is the best team from China, with multiple impressive accolades collected this year.
PSG.Quest and BetBoom Team will likely begin the playoffs in the lower bracket but we wouldn't be surprised if they snatched a top spot in group B either. Quest hasn't been able to compete much this year due to facing Falcons in every major qualifier.
Mouz and Beastcoast will likely occupy the bottom two spots and go home next. Mouz is a solid squad but a cut below the best teams in the group. Beastcoast on the other hand narrowly scrapped by in the play-ins and will unlikely go any further.
Those are our predictions for the Riyadh Masters Group Stage, let us know in the comments what you think!
READ MORE: SunBhie reveals Riyadh Masters 2024 tier list
Featured Image Source: EWC
