5 best group stage highlights from Dota 2 Riyadh Masters 2023

The Riyadh Masters is the final stretch of tier-1 Dota 2 play before The Internationals (TI) start in October this year. Hosted by Saudi Esports Federation, this event has the biggest prize pool of any Dota 2 tournament other than TI. Given the extremely terse competition between evenly matched teams from several regions this year, things got intense long before the playoffs.

The round-robin group stage has already culminated in a string of absolute bloodbath games of Dota 2. Even teams like OG that got eliminated before the playoffs put forth their best attempts at keeping games close and wins narrow.

Listed below are some of the best executions from the play-in and group stages in this year's Riyadh Masters.

Note: This list is subjective and reflects the opinions of the writer. The entries are listed in no particular order.

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5 amazing Dota 2 plays in Riyadh Masters 2023 group stage

1) Ace in the hole (9Pandas vs Gaimin Gladiators Group Stage Day 5)

Highlight reel compilations from Dota 2 LANs have a tendency to feature at least one Enigma. His ultimate, Black Hole, is one of the most iconic abilities in the game, both functionally and visually. One could even call it the most powerful team-fighting ultimate, paralleled only by Chronosphere.

Black Hole has such universal scalability that Enigma often gets flex-picked early, even at the cost of being countered. In these games, an obligatory Silencer or Treant Protector pick tends to ensure Enigma does not get an easy chance to cast this channeled ability scot-free.

In their second game against 9Pandas in the group stage day 5, however, Gaimin Gladiators took their chances and did not pick any obvious counters against a second-pick Enigma.

Gaimin Gladiators squandered a significant 14k gold lead by 25 minutes before the inevitable happened: a vigilant 9Pandas gank spotted them out with a scan. A bold jump from Matvey "MieRo" Vasyunin's Enigma caught two top net-worth cores and a support on the edges of his Black Hole.

Even though it was technically not one for the Dota 2 five-man Black Hole Hall of Fame, there were five hero units counting all three of Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaar's Meepos. The follow-up was Gleb "kiyotaka" Zyryanov's Requiem of Souls, which connected with all three, sealing their fate.

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2) The Grand Magus steals the show (Aster vs Execration Play-in Day 1)

Kept unchecked, a sneaky Rubick can often shift the tides of battle on his own with a stolen ultimate. The result of these maneuvres is easily the flashiest bits of uno reverse gameplay for Dota 2 highlight reels. Yu "pi-qiu" Yajun's position 5 Rubick cemented this on the first day of playoffs as a reminder of why the hero is never off-meta.

After a stolen Stone Gaze on Execration's Rubick (Mark "Shanks" Redira) almost stirred a comeback plot in game 1 against Team Aster, the latter opted to poach Rubick for themselves in the second game. This paid dividends when a mounting lead on Execration almost spelled out Aster's doom.

An otherwise game-deciding Black Hole from Justine "Tino" Grimaldo was slightly mistimed and canceled by an ongoing Stone Gaze from Du "Monet" Peng's Medusa. This was followed up by an Echo Slam from Aster's Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan on his Earthshaker, which did not translate to much damage.

It was pi qiu who then stole the show with his newly begotten copy of Black Hole, which allowed Medusa to shred through the Execration cores and let Aster come back into their second game of the Dota 2 series.

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3) Call an ambulance (Secret vs Betboom Group Stage Day 4)

Clement "Puppey" Ivanov has had a 100% attendance rate at The International so far. The Team Secret captain has built his Dota 2 roster from scratch time and time again and succeeded in taking it deep into the TI main stage brackets, one position higher in standing every year.

Many in the Dota 2 community still question his decision to rebuild the new roster around his carry, Remco "Crystallis" Arets. Even though they made it to TI grand finals last year, the current year has been one of their worst.

Struggling through the division 2 trenches after relegation, Crystallis did not get many chances to shine. His performance in the last Dreamleague Dota 2 Season 20 and the ongoing Riyadh Masters has been mostly hit or miss.

The team's surprise series win against BetBoom Team, however, stands testimony to Puppey's unflinching faith in hero specialists. The surprise upset against Betboom Team in game 1 was on the back of a stellar scoreline on Crystalis' Monkey King. Empowered by the Aegis of the Immortal, his foolhardy solo chase on Vitalie "Save-" Melnic's Enchantress was a dicey decision.

This got dicier by the second with a premature Black King Bar and a seeming wastage of the Aegis, which seemed to set him up for a throw as the opponent, midlaner Tiny (Danil "gpk" Skutin), showed up to secure the kill.

With a surprise cameo from his allied Dark Seer (Saieful "Fbz" Ilham), however, Crystalis roughed it out on his Monkey King, his most-played Dota 2 hero. Not only did he survive, but he also cemented his Godlike streak with a triple kill.

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4) Monet lived (Shopify Rebellion vs Aster Group Stage Day 6)

The long-time NA stack on Shopify Rebellion is seemingly on a downward spiral, unable to perform up to its potential. Nevertheless, Team Aster's Group Stage series romp against them was not as easy a match-up as one would think.

The first game was an extreme back-and-forth encounter with a high kill count across the board. A series of teamfights developed around the third Roshan spawn on the Dire side, and it eventually turn into an all-in deadlock. Save for Team Aster's offlane Timbersaw (Lin "Xxs" Jing), no one had buyback as the two teams started posturing around Roshan.

Unbeknownst to Team Aster, however, Artour "Arteezy" Babaev, on his Wolf Bite-injected Faceless Void, snuck into the Roshan pit to claim the Aegis for his team. In the fight that developed afterward, however, Team Aster purely outskilled them and came out on top.

The standout performance in this game-deciding team fight was the Aster carry, Du "Monet" Peng, on his Morphling. His pre-emptively Blink Dagger purchase after committing buyback let him elude Arteezy and baited him into whiffing his Chronosphere.

The greater part of the highlight, however, goes to the scuffle afterward. Monet showcased his nerves of steel, the real difference maker in a LAN. Morphling came back from the verge of death, dropping as low as 65 HP only to Time Walk it off in Morphed form and lifestealing back up with his Satanic to cinch the fight.

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5) It's a disastah! (OG vs 9Pandas Group Stage Day 4)

One of the most iconic plays in the history of professional Dota 2 is the six million-dollar Echo Slam in TI 2015. Fights in the Roshan pit often end up being the most game-deciding and nail-biting ones.

In the second game Group Stage game between OG and 9Pandas, a similar fight brought back echoes of the same disaster. Just as 9Pandas were trying to build their momentum off a pickoff by securing Roshan, their move was read by the OG side.

9Pandas paid the ultimate price for entering the Dota 2 Roshan pit without vision. In a pincer maneuver, the OG IO (Sebastian "Ceb" Deb) and carry Meepo (Artem "Yuragi" Golubiev) snuck up on them from the corner of the map, while the rest of the team teleported into the nearby Dire outpost.

The oblivious Radiant side clumped into a choke point was the dream scenario for Tommy "Taiga" Le's Elder Titan Combo. His five-man Earth Splitter set up for an easy team wipe, starting the sequence of events that culminated in OG winning the game for a series draw.