Gamers8, the tournament organizer behind the $4 million prize pool Riyadh Masters in 2022, has announced its return as a gaming festival in 2023 with an even bigger prize pool. The festival will feature a range of games, including Dota 2.
Fans expect there to be seven games in the festival, with Dota 2 receiving the lion’s share of the overall prize pool.
The Dota 2 prize pool is likely to increase substantially from last year’s $4 million, and a majority of the participating teams are likely to be decided via invites. In 2022, Riyadh Masters had three qualifier spots.
Despite boasting an enormous prize pool, Riyadh Masters isn’t a part of the Dota Pro Circuit and it doesn’t reward teams with any DPC points. The 2023 edition of the tournament will begin on July 6, which should be after the last DPC tour wraps up, but it may overlap with the Bali Major.
In addition to becoming one of the must-attend events on teams’ calendars due to its prize pool sizes, Riyadh Masters also creatively uses its prize pool through various rewards. If some of the teams that qualify for the Bali Major also get invited to Riyadh Masters, they might have a tough time deciding which one to attend.
OG’s new coach and former player Mikhail “Misha” Agatov was able to take home an additional $50,000 for achieving the highest hero healing and recording the best interview in the tournament, while now retired Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida was awarded an extra $100,000 for being the tournament MVP.
