Welcome to EGamersWorld.
It's sunny and dry in Riyadh. The biggest commercial tournament of the year, the Riyadh Masters 2023, continues. At stake is no less than $15,000,000.
The top championship is in the play-offs stage. This means that only select Dota is ahead, with minimal mistakes. Well, or so it just seems.
Talk about the lower championship grid. That's where the second round of play-offs begins.
In the first match we prepare to watch the derby of Western European clubs - the match Quest Esports - Gaimin Gladiators. The winner of the match goes to the next round, where he will play against the loser of the Spirit/BB Team pair, the loser will be eliminated from the tournament with $500,000 in his pocket.
Let's see who goes where. Going Forward.
Gaimin Gladiators uniforms
By good tradition, let's start the match analysis with an analysis of the Gaimin Gladiators' form. In this match the team will play as favourites.
Bookmakers are definitely on the side of GG. The odds for their victory are at around 1.5.
It should be noted that GG in this match is a favourite, but a shaky one. I can't remember the last time I saw odds around 1.5 for GG against anyone. All because of the instability of the Gladiators at this tournament.
At DPC 2023 Tour 1 WEU Division 1, the team took the top 2, which opened the way for them to The Lima Major 2023. The first Major season of the tournament was a trailblazing triumph for the Gladiators. Gaimin Gladiators won the tournament without losing a single map in the championship play-offs.
The next DPC cycle in the home league ended even worse than the previous one. Then GG lost to tiebreaker for the top 2, but more than compensated for the failure with a performance on the international stage. Even twice.
On the eve of Long Copega DPC 2023: Tour 3, GG took the championship in two international arenas. They won the $1,000,000 DreamLeague S19 and The Berlin Major 2023, defending their status.
In the third round of the domestic league, Gaimin Gladiators were expectedly one of the top contenders to win the league, but failed to get the regional championship. At the end of DPC 2023: WEU Tour 3 GG took 2nd place, but they made it to the Major, and that's the main thing.
- Gaimin Gladiators lineup: dyrachyo, Quinn, Ace, tOfu, Seleri .
There was also DreamLeague Season 20, where in the first group stage GG felt like they played half-heartedly. Nevertheless, they made it to the next stage and then won the grand final.
The last tournament before the Riyadh Masters 2023 was The Bali Major 2023. The third Major tournament ended with another triumph for Gaimin Gladiators. In the grand finals, Liquid were once again run over.
After exiting the group stage with a statistic of 8-6, Gaimin Gladiators met their arch rival from Team Liquid. This time, Liquid were able to beat their vis-a-vis. Fun fact: Liquid earned more for one Bo3 series than GG earned for winning three Major events.
In the first round of the lower play-offs GG were one step away from fiasco. They were saved from defeat against Tundra by the latter's "shenanigans", when Tundra went under T-3 on the third map against buybacks.
The most popular Gaimin Gladiators heroes
The most frequent pick was Rubick. The character has appeared in the GG pick 8 times and has an 87% win rate.
Next came Pangolier (6 matches, 83% wins), Doom (6 matches, 66% wins), Keeper of the Light (5 matches, 80% wins), Ember Spirit (5 matches, 80% wins).
We also took Ember Spirit (4 matches, 100% wins), Terrorblade (4 matches, 75% wins).
Quest Esports uniforms
We continue the match analysis with the analysis of Quest Esports form. They will be playing in the status of an outsider.
Bookmakers are not ready to believe in Quest Esports. The odds to win this match are at 2.4.
Again, 2.4 is not at all what we have seen over the course of the season against the Gladiators' opponents. Quest has a real chance to win now, given their increased level of play in recent months.
Quest Esports have been one of the big revelations of the season. It was hard to imagine them in the top 4 Major a, but here they are.
They started their rise to the top of Major a with a top-5 finish at DPC 2023: WEU. Then the team was one map short of reaching the Berlin Major 2023, but not enough.
In the third round of DPC 2023: WEU Tour 3 the team again showed a top game and that time they had enough. It was enough for the top 3 of the tournament, and as a result, they made it to The Bali Major 2023.
- Quest Esports roster: TA2000, No!ob, Malik, OmaR, kaori.
During the Bali Major 2023 Quest Esports showed from the very beginning of the tournament that they did not come there to rest. The team finished top-1 in their group and then went to play in the top set of play-offs. In the end, Quest's jaunt through The Bali Major 2023 ended with them in 4th place.
Having travelled to the Riyadh Masters 2023 with a replacement in the lineup, Quest Esports did not lose their team scilll. In their Play-In group the team took a confident first place, losing only 1 match out of 5.
The group stage of the Saudi tournament also proved to be no match for Quest. Residents of Western Europe confidently took the top 1 in Group A, thereby guaranteeing themselves passage to the top grid play-offs. But the main stage did not start the way the European club would have liked. In a tense game against Talon TA2000 and Ledge were defeated 1-2.
In the first round of the lower grid, Quest played against PSG.LGD. They didn't feel the Chinese - they won 2-0.
The most popular Quest Esports characters
Among the most popular Quest characters are Shadow Demon (14 matches, 71% wins), Snapfire (14 matches, 64% wins), Techies (12 matches, 83% wins).
Also playing with Undying (9 games, 77% wins), Templar Assassin (8 matches, 50% wins).
There is also Silencer (7 games, 100% wins), Medusa (7 games, 100% wins), Doom (7 matches, 85% wins), Enchantress (7 matches, 71% wins).
History of head-to-head meetings between GG and Quest
The teams have faced each other 4 times during the season. GG won twice, and 2 more matches ended in a draw.
Predicted result Gaimin Gladiators - Quest Esports
In this match I expect an equal fight due to the "tiredness" of GG. Quinn is having their worst tournament of the season, and if they can completely shut down Ace, GG will not be able to surface.
However, Quest aren't perfect either: playing with substitutes, an upset loss in the first round of play-offs and all that. All in all, they can pull the card, but GG are still GG and it's not easy to fight them.
Bottom line: +1.5 on Quest.
