Shopify Rebellion and TSM qualify for Lima Major

By now it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who watches North American Dota that Shopify Rebellion and TSM are by far the strongest teams in the region.

The two teams will play on January 28 to determine who will be the winner of Tour 1. However, regardless of the result of that match, both of them are already qualified for the Lima Major.

Shopify Rebellion’s run

Rebellion started the new season with great ambitions and it’s understandable why. The team signed the former roster of Evil Geniuses and the strength of that roster was well-known. With Tal “Fly“ Aizik as the captain and Artour “Arteezy” Babaev as the carry, this squad was easily among the top 10 in the world.

As soon as the regional competition began, Rebellion made their intentions known by beating teams left and right and doing it in under 30 minutes. Many of their matches lasted for 25 minutes or less. And in some cases, their opponents got absolutely humiliated and lost in almost 15 minutes.

This level of regional dominance is very hard to achieve, but North America isn’t exactly the most competitive region in the world. Meanwhile, Fly is one of the best captains in the history of the game. That immense contrast inevitably creates a situation in which a team becomes virtually unbeatable.

So far, Shopify Rebellion won six matches and didn’t lose a single game. And they’re likely to beat TSM as well.

TSM’s run

This is the other strong team in the region and their main strengths are the position 1 and position 5 players. One of them is a phenomenal carry while the other is a great strategist. Enzo “Timado” Gianoli and Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon have been playing together for a long time and their level of coordination during games is exceptional.

TSM won six consecutive matches in Tour 1, just like Rebellion. The only team that managed to steal a game from them was nouns.

Last season, TSM participated at The International 11 but weren’t able to do anything there. Since then, their offlaner, Jonas “SabeRLight-“ Volek left and joined Rebellion. But the team has remained strong enough to dominate everyone in the region with one exception.

The epic confrontation

The reason why Rebellion are the favorites ahead of this match that will decide the North American winner is that Fly and his crew are a lot more skilled than TSM’s players. When you look at the results of the two rosters, one is obviously a lot more successful than the other.

Header: Shopify Rebellion