Ranking the Dota 2 regions in Riyadh Masters 2023

Dota 2

1 Aug

Otomo

The biggest tournament of the year, Riyadh Masters 2023 is over and Team Spirit was crowned champion after taking down Team Liquid. Eastern Europe makes a comeback as one of the strongest Dota 2 regions in the world.

Riyadh Masters 2023 is the first major International tournament this year in which Gaimin Gladiators did not take a trophy home. With many upsets happening, it's a good time to compare how each Dota 2 region stacked up.

Comparing Dota 2 regions' performance in Riyadh Masters 2023

South America

Credit: Beastcoast

Beastcoast (17-20th), Evil Geniuses (9-12th)

Average team placement: 14.5th

Beastcoast is the second-strongest team in South America, dominating the region and securing invites to every International event this year. However, Beastcoast gets eliminated in the group stage, or in the first round of the playoffs at each tournament. A new carry has helped the team, but not by much.

All regional hopes for South America are on Evil Geniuses. EG performed well in both the Lima and Berlin Major, yet they started slipping after the final DPC Tour of the year. Since then EG has finished last at the Bali Major and couldn't win a single series in the Riyadh playoffs.

Overall, South America is in a bit of a slump and hopefully, the region recovers in time for The International 12.

North America

Not quite the show-stealing performance we expected. (Credit: Shopify Rebellion)

Shopify Rebellion (15-16th), TSM (13-14th)

Average team placement: 14th

America as a continent is not doing well in Dota 2 right now, with both regions taking the bottom two spots in our list.

Shopify Rebellion is one of the most unpredictable teams in the world, with a star-studded roster. Despite the big names on the team, apart from their performance in Lima, Shopify has failed to live up to the hype at International events, Riyadh Masters included.

TSM has always been seen under Shopify's shadow the entire DPC season, but they walked away from Riyadh with better placement and USD $200,000 in their pocket after bringing down their North American rivals in a best-of-one tiebreaker. Perhaps TSM deserves their TI invite after all.

China

Who had Aster as strongest Chinese team in their Bingo Card? (Credit: Perfect World)

Xtreme Gaming (15-16th), PSG.LGD (9-12th), Team Aster (7-8th)

Average team placement: 11th

After Valve cracked down on several teams in China, the region has taken a big hit in its competitive performance. Despite the massive ban wave, China still put up a solid performance in the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year.

Xtreme Gaming started their journey strong, dominating the play in stage with a 7-3 score. Unfortunately, they couldn't compete against the invited teams and ended up leaving soon after that. The team has since made adjustments to their roster. Zhang "Paparazi灬" Chengjun left the team after nearly two years together.

A year ago PSG.LGD won Riyadh Masters and they have been seen as the strongest team in China for a long time. However, since the departure of Wang "Ame" Chunyu, Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida, and Zhao "XinQ" Zixing, the team has lost a lot of its luster and has yet to threaten the best teams in the world as they used to.

As mentioned previously, multiple professional Dota 2 players were banned in China and players had to be imported from other Dota 2 regions. Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan joined Team Aster and while their performances in some tournaments were lackluster, SumaiL and the rest of Aster stepped up when it mattered most, with the best performance among all Chinese teams.

Southeast Asia

SEA provided some of the biggest highs and heartbreak in Riyadh (Credit: Gamer8)

Execration (17-20th), Talon Esports (3rd)

Average team placement: 10th

The biggest disparity among teams happened in Southeast Asia, where one team got eliminated before the group stage and the other received a bronze medal.

SEA is known for having a very competitive regional scene but an underwhelming presence in International tournaments and nobody exhibits that better than Execration. The team placed in the top three in each Tour and last place in each Major. Execration failed again to impress at Riyadh and decided to part ways with their captain Carlo "Carlo" Manalo after the tournament.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have Talon Esports, which doesn't always do well against other SEA teams but dominates other regions. Talon took down dark horses Quest Esports, as well as Gaimin Gladiators, cementing them as a massive threat and placing SEA among the stronger Dota 2 regions out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD2zSmvHyEg

Western Europe

Zai gave us the biggest comeback of the tournament. (Credit: Team Liquid)

Entity (17-20th), OG (13-14th), Tundra Esports (9-12th), Team Secret (9-12th), Quest Esports (7-8th), Gaimin Gladiators (4th), Team Liquid (2nd)

Average team placement: 9th

After five tournaments that ended with Gaimin Gladiators facing off against Team Liquid, it was a nice change of pace to see Western Europe not come out as the strongest Dota 2 region for once.

With seven teams competing in the tournament, nearly twice as many as any other region, Western Europe was bound to have some teams do well. Team Liquid continued their second-place finish for the fifth tournament this year, while rivals Gaimin Gladiators had an early (for them at least) exit, falling prey to Talon in the lower bracket thanks in part to some Roshan shenanigans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYFuMG036kY

Quest Esports continues to improve in each appearance, proving that their Bali Major performance was no fluke. Tundra Esports had to play with a stand-in, making it difficult to judge their team's performance. Team Secret is getting better but they have to go through the dreaded Regional Qualifiers if they wish to keep Clement "Puppey" Ivanov International appearance streak alive.

Eastern Europe

Congrats to the TI10 winners for yet another massive victory. (Credit: Team Spirit)

Virtus.pro (17-20th), 9Pandas (5-6th), BetBoom Team (5-6th), Team Spirit (1st)

Average team placement: 7th

After Team Spirit won the tournament, it's no surprise that Eastern Europe is currently the strongest Dota 2 region. Not only did Spirit do well, but so did most of the other CIS teams.

9Pandas and BetBoom Team both lived up to the hype as the second and third-best teams in the region. Half of the defeats Eastern Europe suffered came at the hands of other CIS teams, as Team Spirit sent BetBoom to the lower bracket, while BetBoom defeated 9Pandas in the first round of the playoffs.

Only Virtus.pro failed to do well in Riyadh, bringing the region's overall placement down a little. Despite that, half the teams in the top six were from CIS and Eastern Europe has a lot of momentum going for them heading into TI12.

Featured Image Source: Gamer8