The start of the next Riyadh Masters 2022 is scheduled for this Wednesday, July 20, and some of the top teams in the world will travel to the capital of Saudi Arabia to compete for a piece of the substantial 4 million dollar prize pool.

Ten teams will compete in an action-packed program that, for some, will be a much-appreciated prelude to the Arlington Major. The group stage and playoffs at the Riyadh Masters will take place from July 20 to July 24. Only the top three teams from each group will advance to the playoffs when the teams are initially divided into two groups of five.

Riyadh Masters format for 2022

Group stage: July 20-22

• Single round-robin
• Two groups of five
• Two-game series
• Top team of each group advances to the playoffs semifinals
• 2nd and 3rd placed teams of each group advance to playoffs quarterfinals
• 4th and 5th placed teams of each group are eliminated

Playoffs: July 23-24

• Single-elimination bracket
• All matches are Bo3, including the finals

Prize pool distribution:

• 1st place: $1,500,000
• 2nd place: $750,000
• 3rd – 4th place: $425,000
• 5th – 6th place: $200,000
• 7th – 8th place: $150,000
• 9th – 10th place: $100,000

Group A:

• Royal Never Give Up
• TSM.FTX
• OG
• Team Liquid
•  Nigma Galaxy

Group B:

• PSG.LGD
• Team Spirit
• Team Secret
• Tundra Esports
• Deboosters

In a tweet by Gamers8 Esports:

Gamers8 Esports

@Gamers8GG

“Group Stage schedule is ready and set! ✅

Mark your calendars and don’t miss ANY of the #RiyadhMasters action this week! 📅”

Not all of the teams that were scheduled to compete were able to bring their entire squads, despite the fact that this is the second-largest Dota 2 tournament of the year in terms of prize money awarded after The International. Ten teams in total will compete at the Riyadh Masters, however almost half of them will use substitutes.

substitute Riyadh Masters

Only two of the four clubs who will substitute players made a formal declaration. Due to apparent reasons, Tundra Esport’s Neta “33” Shapira won’t be able to compete with his squad. As an Israeli, 33 is prohibited from traveling to Saudi Arabia, thus Tundra will be employing Nikita “Daxak” Kuzmin of the BetBoom Team for this competition.

In a tweet from TUNDRA Esports official twitter page:

TUNDRA

@TundraEsports

“Since @33Dota will unfortunately be unable to attend the @Gamers8GG LAN event, we will be playing with @DaxakDota2 as a stand-in 

Thanks to @BetBoomTeam for their co-operation! 🤝”

On order to fit into the Tundra lineup, Daxak will switch roles and play in the offlane in Riyadh.

Team Secret did not provide any other information regarding Daryl “iceiceice” Xiang’s absence, but they will also be using a stand-in in the offlane.

Since Remco “Crystallis” Arets and Baqyt “Zayac” Emiljanov stepped in, Roman “Resolut1on” Fomynok will handle Team Secret’s offlane responsibilities at Riyadh Maters, which is technically the first LAN competition where Secret could have participated in the entire formula.

In a tweet from Team Secret’s official twitter page:

Team Secret

@teamsecret

“Feels good to be back on LAN. Riyadh Masters, here we go! 🏴 🏳️

Our roster for the event:

[🇳🇱] Crystallis

[🇵🇱] Nisha

[🇺🇦] Resolut1on

[🇰🇬] Zayac

[🇪🇪] Puppey

#SecretDota #RiyadhMasters”

Team Liquid’s predicament as a stand-in for this competition may be the most exciting. While Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen will be filling in, Liquid is scheduled to compete in Saudi Arabia with only the two-time TI champion Anathan “ana” Pham. However, there has been no formal announcement or confirmation from the organization.

In a tweet from OG:

OG

@OGesports

“brb barricading the fountain”

*tweet includes a photo of the TF2 Heavy meme*

Ana will make her first LAN debut in nearly three years at Riyadh Masters. He last appeared on a tournament stage at TI9, which was held in Shanghai, China, in the Mercedes-Benz Arena. He became one of the five players to win The International back-to-back along with his OG colleagues at that time. After TI9, he took a vacation from competitive gaming, but for Season 2 of the 2021 Dota Pro Circuit, he made a comeback.

Although he declared his retirement after finishing only sixth in the regular league season, OG went on to assemble a completely new team for the 2022 DPC, which would now compete against Ana in Saudi Arabia.

The ultimate underdog in this competition is without a doubt the deboosters. The team was developed for the online charitable competition Gamers Without Borders 2022, which was held in May of this year. Deboosters, a team made up of two Saudi Arabian players, one Bulgarian, one Ukrainian, and one Jordanian, participated at GWB in the Saudi Arabia bracket and won, earning an invitation to the $4 million Riyadh Masters 2022 competition.

A few months later, Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov was unable to attend the event because to the continuing Russian invasion of Ukraine, therefore Deboosters won’t be able to reconnect in their entirety from Gamers Without Borders. Deboosters will face off against Abdimalik “Malik” Sailau of PuckChamp in his place.

Viewing locations for the Riyadh Masters 2022

In a tweet by Gamers8 Esports:

Gamers8 Esports

@Gamers8GG

“The friendly faces and voices that will lead you through the #RiyadhMasters! 🎥🎤🎙️

Join us in welcoming our Talent 🙌”

*the tweet contains a photo*

Contents of the photo:

TALENT LINE-UP

Stage Host	Desk Host	Analyst	Analyst	Analyst	Caster
AVO+	KILLERPIGEON	CEB	SEENSTRIKE	DANOG	GARETH
CASTER	CASTER	CASTER	CASTER B STREAM	CASTER B STREAM	CASTER B STREAM
LACOSTE	BKOP	BLACK^	MOXXI	JENKINS	NOMAD

English commentary will be available for the group stage, and two streams on the Gamers8 Twitch.tv channels will be live-streamed.

• Stream A: twitch.tv/gamers8gg
• Stream B: twitch.tv/gamers8gg_b

The official broadcast is also rumored to air on a YouTube channel.