Cover-Credits:
On 29th January, after a series filled with back-and-forth skirmishes against nouns at the ESL One Birmingham 2024 North America closed qualifier, Shopify Rebellion managed to secure its spot at the main tournament. On its path to the main tournament, Shopify went undefeated and managed to win against nouns twice, once in the upper bracket finals and later in the qualifying series.
This is the second time Shopify Rebellion is taking down nouns on its way to a main tournament. In the middle of January 2024, Shopify also secured a spot at DreamLeague Season 22 by defeating nouns in a close 3-2 series.
Shopify vs nouns: A Common Occurrence These Days
Shopify Rebellion, which often finds itself at the center of ridicule, has secured a spot at the ESL One Birmingham 2024 after defeating nouns in the finals.
In a back-and-forth best-of-five series Shopify Rebellion’s victory over nouns was a testament to its strength as a team. During game 1 of the ESL One Birmingham 2024 NA closed qualifier finals, nouns seemed to have the upper hand in the early stages. It left no stone unturned and was imposing heavy pressure on the map, forcing skirmishes to its favor and finding kills. To counter this, Shopify Rebellion played very strategically and started rotating Erin Jasper "Yopaj" Ferrer’s Puck around the map along with the supports to find kills and level out the battlefield. While this was going, Artour "Arteezy" Babaev on Windranger seemed to be focusing on killing Yuma "Yuma" Langlet’s Morphling whenever possible. With small wins like these, Shopify eventually managed to turn the game around in its favor.
Game 2 saw a major comeback on the nouns’ side. During this game, Shopify Rebellion with the momentum from game 1 dominated throughout. With Arteezy’s Faceless Void being on a Beyond Godlike Spree and Shopify Rebellion being ahead in terms of gold and experience for most of the game, it seemed like an easy win for the team. But during the 46th minute, a failed high-ground attempt led to Arteezy’s death and a few casualties on other Shopify Rebellion players. Arteezy immediately bought back on Faceless Void and attempted to stop nouns on its path to Shopify’s base. At the 48th-minute mark, Shopify Rebellion and nouns found themselves in a skirmish. Arteezy who saw the opportunity for a Chronosphere on Yuma’s Terrorblade immediately jumped into action but was hexed instantly by Rodrigo "Lelis" Santos’s Lion. This play from Lelis played a pivotal part in Arteezy’s death and the fight going in favor of nouns. Shopify then called GG after this failed defense attempt.
Game 3 was a pure display of skills from Shopify’s Yopaj- as he styled on nouns with his Timbersaw. The young player dominated the map and maintained a strong map presence. Keeping up this momentum from Yopaj’s aggressive Timbersaw, Shopify sought to end the game quickly and won the game with relative ease.
In game 4, Arteezy opted for Windranger carry once again and seemed to do pretty well in the early game. However, this advantage lasted short as nouns just simply outscaled Shopify due to its better draft and eventually won the game.
In the final game of the qualifiers, Arteezy’s Troll was simply unstoppable as he topped the net-worth charts for most of the game. Yopaj along with Jonáš "SabeRLight-" Volek on Slardar made sure that Yuma’s Slark could not have an ideal game. Shopify eventually won the series after nouns failed to defend its base against Shopify’s high-ground siege attempt.
This is Shopify’s second qualification to a tournament in 2024 after its earlier qualification in DreamLeague Season 22 where it beat nouns to secure the spot.
