Cover-Credits:
Rapier comebacks in Dota 2 are always exciting since they usually occur when the Rapier purchaser's team has little prospect of winning the game. Shopify Rebellion was in a similar situation at DreamLeague Season 21 in a crucial game against BetBoom Team when its carry player Artour "Arteezy" Babaev helped make a comeback with a double Divine Rapier purchase. In the third game of the series, Arteezy had one of the slowest starts of the tournament, but one teamfight in which he managed to escape with a sliver of HP while taking an Ultra Kill changed everything. The 2-1 win sent Shopify to the upper bracket final of the DreamLeague Season 21.
Arteezy’s Double Rapier comeback propels Shopify to DreamLeague S21 upper bracket final
As the series was tied at 1-1 with an upper bracket slot on the line, Shopify was struggling as Arteezy limped to a naked Battle Fury in 16 minutes. He spent most of the game at the bottom of the networth list, unable to find the right momentum in farming or killing to move ahead.
Other Shopify cores were gaining some farm, but BetBoom was running away with the game with two Barracks down. However, a failed teamfight for BetBoom due to an unnecessary move, while taking down the last Barracks, laid the groundwork for Arteezy's comeback.
Arteezy was Gripped and on the verge of death in a teamfight near Shopify's Tormentor when he was Swapped by Vengeful Spirit just in time. Instead of fleeing, the carry player went all in, received several lucky Crits, and registered an Ultra Kill, which completely transformed the game.
Shopify's superb teamfight positioning after this resulted in Arteezy dishing out Daggers and jumping back and forth to get kills and assist the team in winning in 52 minutes. Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen also deserves a lot of credit for his defensive and aggressive saves on Vengeful Spirit.
Here are the highlights of the complete series between Shopify and BetBoom.
Shopify has been impressive in this tournament and is likely going to have its best finish in an international event in the past few months. It will be a massive boost of confidence for the team if it wins this tournament against teams that will compete at The International 12 (TI12) in just a few weeks.
In the upper bracket final, Shopify will go up against Team Spirit on 22nd Sept 2023.
