Shopify Rebellion were, without a doubt, one of the hidden favorites to win The International 12. The team had pretty good results before the tournament, so people expected them to perform well. However, things didn’t go as planned in Seattle, which is one of the reasons why Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen, Abed “Abed” Yusop and Tal “Fly” Aizik are no longer a part of the team. Needless to say, this is one of the biggest post-TI12 roster changes so far.
The Decision
To say that Shopify Rebellion didn’t live up to the expectations would be an understatement. Despite having one of the best rosters at The International 12 and plenty of good results prior to the tournament, SR crumbled at the event itself. The team failed to defeat TSM, the other NA club at TI12, and ended up eliminated very early on. It seems like this was the last nail in the coffin for the current roster and the organization wasn’t happy with the results.
Shopify Rebellion’s squad has been together for several years (formerly playing together under the EG banner) and achieved some good results. Sadly, it seems like this will no longer be the case because three of their core players are no longer a part of the org. This also means that these players won’t be alongside Artour ‘Arteezy’ Babaev anymore.
According to the organization, one of the reasons for its decision to drop these three players is because they need a fresh start. The team wished them luck in their future endeavors, meaning the current SR lineup only has two players.
What’s next for Shopify Rebellion?
There are tons of Dota 2 roster changes right now, so it will be just a matter of time before Cr1t, Fly and Abed find a new team to call home. As for SR, the organization will probably try to attract new and upcoming players alongside Artour. The North American Dota 2 scene definitely needs fresh blood, so it’ll be interesting to see what we’ll get.
