Entering this year's Riyadh Masters without star carry player Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen, Team Liquid is the first team to be eliminated in the DOTA 2 competition after a lackluster performance in the early stages of the tournament.
It is Day 2 of the Riyadh Masters 2022. As teams like OG and Nigma continue their effective campaign of dismantling their competitors, Team Liquid found itself out of the podium, losing all their chances to enter the playoffs.
Team Liquid was out of the competition after losing to every team that it had faced until this point. The squad appeared to be out of its true form game after game.
After announcing his retirement from competitive DOTA2 last year, 22-year-old 'ana' is making a comeback in this year's Riyadh Masters. He is standing in for "MATUMBAMAN." In his first game back in the professional DotA scene, he chose Spectre to terrorize TSM.
Entering Day 2, Team Liquid had only won a single game with its 1-1 draw against Nigma, just when they thought they had the momentum to push back, they ran out of fuel on their bout against TSM.
TSM's Timado played brilliantly in the two games against Team Liquid, displaying an excellent type of carrying gameplay. Although Team Liquid battled their hearts out and also showcased an excellent game, TSM simply appeared to overpower them.
Watch Riyadh Masters 2022 Team Liquid vs. TSM here:
Team Liquid's display of toughness in their match against TSM had a lot of their fans holding on and hoping but not until OG dismantled them and snatched the series victory. Team Liquid, though, has still a series left against RNG to avoid a last-place finish.
Watch Riyadh Masters 2022 Team Liquid vs. OG here:
Fierce and Tight Match-ups
With Team Liquid out of the tournament, teams OG, Nigma, and RNG remain to battle for the remainder of the Riyadh Masters group stages. OG and Nigma are holding on to their streaks after dominant performances against past match-ups, each with their own 2-0 upsets.
The face-off between the two teams did not disappoint the fans, as both teams showed interesting drafts and strategies. OG grabbed the first win with its classic objective-based strategy, building up networth midgame and weathering against occasional skirmishes.
On the other hand, Nigma manages to bounce back and tie the series after figuring out to hunt OG's deadly cores. Kill after kill and Aegis after Aegis, Nigma did not even give OG a slight window to fight back.
While tight competition exists with Group A, Team Secret seems to own Group B with an untarnished record.
Team Secret surprised the crowd with back-to-back 2-0 performances against DotA juggernaut team PSG.LGD and DeBooster.
Tomorrow will be the last day of the group stages. Team Secret has an upcoming game against Team Spirit, which will guarantee a top-seed finish and a sure spot in the tournament's semi-finals once they secure a win.
Riyadh Masters 2022 is a DotA2 tournament hosted by Gamers8 featuring the world's top gaming teams vying for a 4 million USD prize pool. Be updated with the latest news and standings here.