The Gamers8 festival is in full swing, and this week the $15 million Dota 2 Riyadh Masters get underway on July 19, with the world’s best Dota 2 teams battling it out for a share of the biggest prize pool on offer at the festival.

The top 20 teams in the world have been invited to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and we expect that the gameplay will be top tier over each of the 11 days of play.

Some of the key leagues and tournaments taking place in the esports world this week include:

• Dota 2 Riyadh Masters

  The Dota 2 professional scene has been dominated by Gaimin Gladiators throughout 2023. With a win at the Riyadh Masters, it would give the Gladiators their sixth straight tournament win going into the final event of the year, The International.

  Most esports betting sites have Gaimin Gladiators as the +200 favourite to take out the Riyadh Masters, closely followed by Tundra Esports at +300.

  Check out our extensive Riyadh Masters betting guide to get the latest odds and tournament information.

• CS:GO BLAST Premier Fall Groups

  The second week of the BLAST Premier Fall Groups will continue this Monday, as the final group stage matches are completed and the tournament heads into the playoff stage.

  The winners of each group will advance straight into the BLAST Premier Fall Finals, whilst the remaining teams will clash in the playoff bracket to determine the other three teams that will join them and the six that will drop into the Fall Showdown.

  Check out our extensive BLAST Premier Fall Groups betting guide to get the latest odds and tournament information.

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Natus Vincere and Fluxo will kick off Group B with their very first meeting. NaVi are ranked no.3 in the world, while Fluxo are no.28.

Natus Vincere will be looking to defend their BLAST Premier Fall Final title, having defeated Team Vitality 2-1 in the grand final last year. NaVi have won the last three BLAST Premier finals in a row, as they also took out the BLAST Premier World Final last December and the BLAST Premier Spring Final in June this year. At their last two international events, IEM Rio Major and ESL Pro League 16, NaVi finished fifth-eighth in both, getting knocked out in the quarter-finals. Their in-game leader, Denis “electroNic” Sahripov, and the player that many regard as the greatest of all time, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, haven’t been performing anywhere near their best of late. For NaVi to take out this event, they will need to lift their game.

Fluxo have been climbing the ESL world rankings for the last 12 months. Since this time last year they have improved their ranking from 56 to 28 in the world. Over the last two months Fluxo have competed in six events, winning five of them, including a victory in the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown for North America, which gained them a spot in the Fall Final. The Brazilians are on a three-match win streak after taking out the Fall Showdown.

NaVi come into this series as very short favourites to take out this series, and there is no doubt in our mind that they will be the victor in this series. Therefore, we will be taking them at the rounds line of -12.5.

The best series on the opening day will be saved to last. The world no.9, Team Liquid, will take on G2 Esports (no.13) once again after they met three months ago in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, where Liquid won the best-of-one series 16-12.

Liquid were in very good form before they got to the IEM Rio Major, winning their IEM Road to Rio 2022 Americas RMR and finishing second in ESL Pro League Season 16. At the Major, Liquid were knocked out on the final day of the Legends Stage after they lost in a very competitive series against Team Spirit. The one thing that seems to hold Liquid back at these big events is that they haven’t won an S-Tier tournament since ESL Pro League Season 11 North America in April of 2020, which is one of the longest droughts for any team inside the top 10 of the world rankings. This Liquid roster have shown glimpses of form that could see them win an event, but they don’t have the quality to finish teams off and win the big series.

G2 Esports have also struggled with consistency over the last 12 months, with the lowest of the lows coming last month when they didn’t qualify for the IEM Rio Major. G2 finished third-fourth at the BLAST Premier Spring Final and ESL Pro League Season 16, showing they can perform at the big events, while they have beaten the best teams in the world many times. G2 will enter this event off the back of a six-week break from all competitive Counter-Strike, which will have given them plenty of time to get ready for possibly their last event of the year. Their newest additions, Justin “jks” Savage and Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen, have been with the organisation for just over three months, and these last six weeks will have given them time to mesh with their new team.

This game is a tough one to pick, and the esports betting sites agree. We will be taking the overs in the total maps market as this series looks destined to go the distance.

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FaZe Clan and OG will clash in the first best-of-three series of Group A. These two teams played each other in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, where OG won the series 2-1 (16-10, 9-16, 16-11) on August 27.

FaZe Clan are coming off one of their worst performances at an international tournament in the past 12 months, where they were knocked out of Legends Stage at the IEM Rio Major. After qualifying straight into the Legends Stage by winning their IEM Road to Rio RMR, FaZe didn’t win a series at the Major and were knocked out on the second day, finishing 15th-16th. This roster is being spoken about as one of the best we have ever seen, after winning IEM Katowice, ESL Pro League Season 15, PGL Major Antwerp and IEM Cologne throughout this year. When you consider how well they have done over the last 12 months, it is hard to see FaZe having two bad tournaments in a row.

OG will be looking for a better performance at the BLAST Premier Fall Final after they finished 10th in the Challengers Stage and didn’t qualify for the main event. Before IEM Rio, OG finished second in the CCT Central Europe Series, losing to forZe 1-2 in the grand final. However, the rise in quality from the CCT Central Europe Series to the IEM Rio Major and this event looks to be too much for OG, especially when they have to take on FaZe in their first series.

FaZe Clan have a lot to prove and will be looking to make a statement in this series, so we will be siding with the favourites.

Heroic and Ninjas in Pyjamas will be the second series in the opening round of Group A. Just like the other matchup, these two teams played each other in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, where Ninjas in Pyjamas won the series 2-1 (16-14, 9-16, 16-7) on August 29.

After an outstanding run at the IEM Rio Major, Heroic have jumped up to number two in the world rankings and will come into the Fall Final on a massive high. Now that this Danish roster has won the Europe BLAST Premier Fall Showdown and finished second at the Major, it will come into the Fall Final as one of the favourites to take out the event in Copenhagen. As the only local team in this event, Heroic will have the added benefit of the crowd being on their side in every series they play.

Ninjas in Pyjamas have dropped from no.5 in the world to now be the no.15 team in the world after a disastrous three months on the international stage. Since the start of September, NiP haven’t made it past the first round at the two S-Tier events they have played in — ESL Pro League 16 and the IEM Rio Major. The addition of Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen has not worked out like the organisation would have hoped; he isn’t playing anywhere near his best, which is affecting his in-game leadership for a team that was already struggling. NiP are going through a transitional stage, so coming up against an in-form Heroic in their first series is less than ideal.

Heroic come into this event as the top-ranked team and NiP are the third-lowest in the rankings, which makes our selection for this series quite easy. Heroic should win this series convincingly, so we will be taking them at the match line of -1.5 maps.

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BLAST.tv will look to bolster the BLAST Premier viewership experience by implementing live stats, interactive polls, a moderated chat and timelines, among other viewing features.

As of right now, the free-to-use platform will only include the BLAST Premier CS:GO events, but there are still aspirations to add more tournaments and esports titles in the future.

All BLAST events will not be exclusive to BLAST.tv, which will give fans the option as to whether they watch on BLAST.tv or other streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube.

Esports viewership has enjoyed exponential growth over the last few years and is expected to continue to grow by 8.7% to 532 million viewers this year and increase to 725 million by 2025.

“When you’re watching the content on Twitch and YouTube, they’re amazing platforms, obviously a huge market share across esports and others as well. But, it didn’t really feel like that experience was particularly tailored to our fans,” Tom Greene, BLAST’s Chief Growth Officer, said.

“At BLAST our aim is to provide next-level entertainment across everything we do. The public launch of BLAST.tv marks an exciting step on that journey.”

The launch coincides with the BLAST Premier Fall Final in Copenhagen this November and comes ahead of the BLAST Premier World Final in Abu Dhabi in December.

BLAST.tv will be the home for all things BLAST, including the BLAST.tv Major in Paris in May 2023 as well as the BLAST Premier 2023 season.

The organiser’s next high-profile event will be the BLAST Premier Fall Final, where Natus Vincere are the +275 favourite at BetOnline.

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Of the eight teams only Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan have qualified for the World Final after their victories in the BLAST Premier Spring Finals, ESL Pro League and PGL Major. Not only will the winner of this tournament book their spot in the World Final next month, but they will also take home the US$200,000 winners’ cheque.

Esports betting sites have Natus Vincere (+275) as their favourite followed by, Heroic (+300), FaZe Clan (+400), G2 Esports (+550), Team Liquid (+650), Ninjas in Pyjamas (+1000), OG (+1000) and Fluxo (+3300).

Best bet – G2 Esports to win outright

G2 Esports haven’t been seen at an international since they finished 3rd-4th at ESL Pro League 16 in early October, where they lost to Vitality 0-2 in the semi-final. After the ESL Pro League, G2 participated in the European RMR for the 2022 IEM Rio Major, but they were unable to qualify, finishing 12th-14th. After their recent form slump and inability to qualify for the Major, the organisation saw it fit to relieve the G2 coach, Remy “XTQZZ” Quoniam, of his duties.

Now Jan “Swani” Muller will take over the coaching duties for the G2 Esports CS:GO team on an interim basis, but as we know, this could be a perfect audition for Swani to gain the job permanently with some good performances. G2 will come into the BLAST Premier Fall Finals refreshed after having six weeks off the professional scene. We expect to see something new from G2 now that they have a new coach their new additions, Justin “jks” Savage and Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen, have had time to practice with the team, since joining them three months ago.

Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan are going to be hard to beat, but with the added advantage of not having to fly to Brazil and play in the Major and more time to practice, we see G2 Esports as the one to beat in Copenhagen.

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?It doesn’t take much to understand why Team Vitality are priced at only -285.71 against Team Liquid. The French side were quarter-finalists at PGL Major Stockholm 2021, while their North American counterparts didn’t even make it to the playoffs, crashing out of the New Legends Stage (1-3) with only one win against ENCE.

Even though Liquid failed to impress in Sweden, they still boast a strong squad. At +204, we feel like the top CS:GO betting sites are underestimating TL and their ceiling.

It’s also important to note that Vitality have confirmed roster changes, which should make you question the morale and motivation of Richard “shox” Papillon and Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van, who are both on their way out of the team.

Like the first match of the day, this one features a team that did reasonably well at the Major and a squad that is capable of much more than recent form would appear to suggest. Heroic were semi-finalists at PGL Major Stockholm 2021, whereas FaZe Clan narrowly missed a playoffs berth, losing 1-2 to Virtus.pro in the fifth game of the New Legends Stage.

However, while Heroic have achieved far more on paper, they haven’t been playing too well for the last few months, and we feel like their run in Sweden was more of a fluke than anything else. We’re not saying FaZe are better, but at the same time, there is no reason to believe Heroic should be priced at -222.22.

At best, this is a 60/40 match, so we have to take Finn “karrigan” Andersen and his crew at the outsider odds.

The reigning CS:GO Major champions and the undisputed best team in the world, Natus Vincere, will clash with BIG for the first time since August, when the German side won 2-0. Despite that result, it’s very tough to make a case for BIG here, both because they haven’t achieved anything of note in recent months and because NaVi are in the form of their lives.

NaVi won the Stockholm Major without dropping a single game, which alone is a testament to their quality. Meanwhile, BIG’s most recent achievements include a runner-up finish at DreamHack Open November 2021 and a top-four finish at the V4 Future Sports Festival in Budapest.

BIG are a highly tactical team, but they lack the “CIS firepower” of NaVi, and we don’t see how the Germans will be able to stop Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, who is averaging a 1.33 rating across the last three months. Take NaVi to close this out with at least six rounds to spare.

With the addition of Patrick “es3tag” Hansen last week, Ninjas in Pyjamas have significantly improved their CS:GO roster. Although it’s not like NiP lacked quality before, adding the Dane was definitely the right call.

Ninjas in Pyjamas and Astralis last met at the end of October, during the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 New Legends Stage, when NiP won 16-1 on Inferno. The result makes plenty of sense since Astralis had to play against their former long-time player Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, but we could be in for a much different result on Wednesday.

Like NiP, Astralis have since made some changes, adding two new players in Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke and Benjamin “blameF” Bremer as well as a new coach in Alexander “ave” Holdt. With that, the Danish side have not only removed any tactical advantage dev1ce might have had against his former teammates, but they’ve also formed a very scary team.

It’s hard to say how Astralis will do with two new members, but on paper, this looks like a top-five team. There is a world where the outsiders cause an upset, but we like a safer bet on the overs.

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