Shopify Rebellion - USA — Dota 2 team

"Innovators", "Most unexpected", "Promising" - this is how the Shopify Rebellion Dota 2 team is described by experts. In many ways, it remains a dark horse in the world of eSports, but the roster is closely watched not only by fans, but also by investors.

History of the team

The first rosters were assembled by the Canadian company Shopify in early 2021, when the team was prepared to participate in StarCraft II competitions by order of CEO Toby Lutke. The time to conquer the Dota 2 universe came much later - in December 2022. The boys made their DPC NA 2023 Tour 1: Division I debut with a 2-0 win over Thiuth Gaming.

Such a delayed start turned out to be fully justified: the creation of the roster caused a frenzy, which is quite understandable: it immediately included 5 players from Evil Geniuses, one of the oldest teams in the world of eSports (active from 1999 to the present day).

Shopify Rebellion's investment turned out to be more than successful: in 2022 alone, Shopify Rebellion Dota 2 earned more than 600,000 US dollars, and in 2023 the team was able to participate in each of the three majors (while taking 4th place at Bali Major 2023). More than that, the creation of the team has had an impact on the world of competitive Dota2, with many teams following their example and looking to attract the best players, which has led to a number of significant rotations in the largest rosters.

Game strategy

The team's philosophy is built on three pillars, which are intelligence, discipline and healthy sports competition. In addition, the coach of the team (BuLba) made (and quite successfully, because the CQ.Score level of the roster is 1707) a bet on innovative (often quite risky) strategies, as well as on attracting to the game talented players with solid experience of participation in international tournaments.

The team also introduced other innovations, including opening several online stores and creating large fan clubs around the world.

The composition of the team

The team turned out to be truly cosmopolitan, because its members included players from different continents. Shopify Rebellion Dota 2 coach is Kanishka “BuLba” Sosale, who started his career as a professional Dota 2 player and represented several top-ranked teams. He's been with Shopify Rebellion since its inception, helping to get some really solid wins, especially in tournaments held in North America.

In 2023, three key members of the team were replaced at once - the following left the roster:

• Israeli Tal 'Fly' Isaac , who played in the position of support;

• Filipino Abed 'Abed' Azul Yusop ;

• the Dane Andreas 'Cr1t-' Frank Nielsen , who acted as a support with the backbone of the team from 2016.

After the changes in the roster that took place in November 2023, the team has two "old-timers" and three new players who have not shown super good results so far, but have ambitions for really serious victories in 2024. So, the composition of the team at the end of 2023 looks like this:

• Artur Arteezy Babaev , who was born in Uzbekistan, but performs under the Canadian flag. His career in eSports began back in 2013, and today the boy would like to be seen in the position of carry by more than one team, marking the leaders of the ratings, but he remains loyal to Shopify Rebellion from the beginning of the creation of the roster.

• Jonas "SaberLight" Volek has been playing for the Czech Republic as an offlaner since Shopify Rebellion's inception.

• Thiago Thiolicor Cordeiro joined the Shopify Rebellion in 2023, having previously played for several teams in South America.

• Erin Jasper Ferrer, better known as Yopaj , is one of the biggest stars in the sky of players from Southeast Asia. The Filipino plays as a midfielder.

• Karthik Kitrak Rathi started playing back in 2016, but retired from professional competition in 2019-2022. He came to the team not only as a support, but also a very good analyst.

Performance

In its short history, the team has had mixed results, performing fairly well in regional tournaments such as DPC NA 2023 (rounds 1, 2, and 3), but not achieving significant wins in solid international competitions. During the year, the boys took part in 105 matches, winning 45% of them, and drawing 27% of the matches.

Earnings

The team managed to win the highest award in September 2023, when they took second place in the 21st season of the DreamLeague. The prize pool at the time was $175,000. In total, the earnings of the roster amount to more than 1.2 million US dollars.

Long-term forecasts

Despite a number of changes in the lineup of players, as well as a lack of impressive victories in 2022-2023, according to a number of experts Shopify Rebellion has excellent prospects, which is facilitated not only by a star-studded lineup, but also by solid financial support from Shopify - one of the largest investors in the world of eSports . However, the guys are not making ambitious plans yet: according to Jonas SabeRLighT Volek, their first priority is to win at least one LAN tournament.