Quest Esports, Gaimin Gladiators and Team Aster stayed alive in the Dota Riyadh Masters by winning first-round, lower-bracket matches on Wednesday.
Quest and Gaimin will square off in the next round Friday. Aster will be back in action on Friday to oppose the winner of a first-round, lower-bracket matchup between 9Pandas and Team Secret.
The $15 million Riyadh Masters began with 20 teams, and 12 were left standing after the play-in and group stages.
The group stage featured two groups of eight teams and concluded on Monday. Those matches were best-of-two in a single round-robin format. The top four teams advanced to the upper bracket of the playoffs, while the fifth- and sixth-place teams from each group advanced to the lower bracket. The remaining teams have been eliminated.
The double-elimination playoff stage runs through Sunday. All matches are best-of-three except for the grand final, which is best-of-five.
The winning team pockets $5 million with $2.5 million going to the runner-up.
On Wednesday, Quest swept PSG.LGD 2-0, winning in 33 minutes on green and 35 minutes on red. Lebanon’s Tony “No!ob” Assaf led Quest with an average kill-death-assist ratio of 9.0/1.0/7.5. China’s Li “niu” Kongbo topped PSG.LGD at 3.5/4.0/4.5.
Gaimin topped Tundra Esports 2-1, sandwiching 59- and 61-minute victories on green around a 34-minute loss on red. Russia’s Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov produced a 7.7/3.0/8.3 K-D-A ratio for Gaimin. Slovakia’s Oliver “skiter” Lepko wound up at 10.3/3.7/9.7 for Tundra.
Aster downed Evil Geniuses 2-0, prevailing in 43 minutes on red and 38 minutes on green. Pakistani-American Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan finished at 10.5/1.0/11.0 for Aster. Peru’s Crhistian “Pakazs” Savina posted a 6.0/4.0/5.0 K-D-A ratio for Evil Geniuses.
Three matches are scheduled for Thursday:
–Lower-bracket first round: 9Pandas vs. Team Secret
–Upper-bracket semifinals: Talon Esports vs. Team Liquid
–Upper-bracket semifinals: Team Spirit vs. BetBoom Team
Riyadh Masters prize pool:
1. $5 million — TBD
2. $2.5 million — TBD
3. $1.7 million — TBD
4. $1.2 million — TBD
5-6. $800,000 — TBD
7-8. $500,000 — TBD
9-12. $300,000 — PSG.LGD, Tundra Esports, Evil Geniuses, one team TBD
13-14. $200,000 — OG, TSM
15-16. $100,000 — Xtreme Gaming, Shopify Rebellion
17-20. $50,000 — beastcoast, Entity, Virtus.pro, Execration
–Field Level Media