It’s a match up we’ve seen time and again in the last couple of years. Once again, Gaimin Gladiators went head to head with Team Liquid in the grand finals, this time of Riyadh Masters 2024. We wanted Liquid to win, we wanted it for the plot so badly. But after just 3 games, it wasn’t meant to be.
Credit: Esports World Cup
History repeating itself at Riyadh Masters
Those who have followed the pro Dota scene this year are likely relieved to see that Team Falcons aren’t taking home another win. This also bodes well for orgs taking part in the Club Championship, which Falcons are topping by a margin with 4 tournaments completed.
But that does mean that yet again, we had to watch Liquid get dominated by GG in a grand finals.
Game 1 was a complete write off for Liquid, they gg’d out after just 24 minutes. Beastmaster and Broodmother were more than a match for a position 4 Morphling and a position 1 Monkey King.
Game 2 was a bit more of a respectable showing. Liquid showed signs of life but the last pick mid SF really threw off their plans when it was really looking like Quinn would be playing his Invoker.
By the time game 3 rolled around, it seemed like Liquid had sorted themselves out. Despite Quinn destroying Nisha in the mid lane, the rest of the team managed to pull out a respectable lead. But in the end, the dominance was too much.
This is the first time GG have defeated Liquid 3-0 in a grand finals since that first time back at the Lima Major, where Boxi needed to leave suddenly due to medical issues. We’re going to have to wait a bit longer for Liquid to finally, finally take a grand finals off GG.
Credit: Esports World Cup
Will literally any other region ever win again?
Europe’s domination of the pro Dota scene is becoming (or really, has already become) a bit of a joke. Europe has won every iteration of The International since 2016 and the vast majority of Majors until Falcons came on the scene.
China has recently made something of a comeback after placing 2nd at the PGL Wallachia and 4th at DreamLeague Season 23 but Riyadh Masters wasn’t their tournament at all, with G2.IG and Azure Ray placing at the very bottom of the standings for the entire competition. As for other regions, it’s hardly worth mentioning.
Elite League Season 2 is just a few days away, perhaps we’ll get something different this time around!
Leave a Reply