Arteezy steps down from Shopify Rebellion roster, SabeRLight back for Elite League

Artour “Arteezy” Babaev announced a “short-term” competitive break.

After spending the past eight years in North America, Arteezy is considering moving to Europe once again. The legendary NA player stated that he decided to step down from the Shopify Rebellion active roster after realising that he was unprepared for “leading a team and establishing its culture.”

“I contributed to team’s decline and eventual demise” stated Artour in his announcement made via X.com.

Arteezy moved from Evil Geniuses to Shopify Rebellion after a disappointing top eight finish at The International 2022. Three of his EG teammates followed him at Shopify along with coach Kanishka "BuLba" Sosale, but despite all the enthusiasm that came with joining a new organisation, Shopify Rebellion’s first year in the Dota 2 scene was lacklustre. After returning from TI 2023 with just a 9th-12th placement, Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen, Tal "Fly" Aizik, and Abed Yusop parted ways with the team, leaving Arteezy to rebuild the roster.

Unfortunately, it all went from bad to worse. In May this year, Shopify also lost Jonáš "SabeRLight-" Volek. The team’s decline continued through the next couple of months and from being the strongest team in their region, Shopify ended up not qualifying for The International 2024 nor the many LAN tournaments of the current year, including Riyadh Masters 2024.

Despite the downhill trajectory, Shopify Rebellion received a direct invite to the upcoming Elite League Season 2 LAN tournament which will take place in Lima, Peru with one million dollars on the line. Arteezy’s spot will be taken by Crhistian "Pakazs" Savina for this event while SabeRLight returns to stand-in in the offlane.