Shopify Rebellion drop entire Game Changers roster after poor 2023 season

After failing to make it to the 2023 Game Changer Championship, Shopify Rebellion cut ties with every member of its Game Changer squad.

Shopify Rebellion has announced that the esports organization is dropping its Valorant Game Changes roster after it struggled to compete against the top-tier rosters. The Canadian organization announced this in a video posted to Twitter featuring SR’s program development head Dario “TLO” Wünsch.

An update on our VALORANT Game Changers roster pic.twitter.com/tNXdUwbHkn

— Shopify Rebellion (@ShopifyRebels) October 26, 2023

 

As Dario explained in this five-minute video, the decision was primarily rooted in their failure to qualify for the VCT Championship and not having enough ‘team culture’ the organization expected. As a result, Dario promised that the organization would return to the Challengers Circuit with a different lineup next year. This move allows SR’s entire roster, including one of the longest-standing cores in North American Game Changer, to become free agents.

Shopify Rebellion’s journey in the Game Changer Scene:

Shopify Rebellion is a prominent name in the North American Game Changer scene, putting on dominant performance ever since the inception of the league. Starting with a 3rd place finish in VCT 2021: Game Changers North America Series 2, they found their momentum and made it to the Grand Finals of Series 3 of Gamer Changer, where they encountered Cloud9 White. Despite their best efforts, C9 White clinched the final and title with a 3-1 victory, giving rise to a rivalry that persisted throughout the next year.

Although Shopify Rebellion was able to outplay all other opponents in VCT 2022: Game Changers North America Series 1 and made it to the Grand Finals, they faltered against C9 White again and fell short of the title. A similar pattern followed Shopify’s journey in the two subsequent Game Changer Series, where they were unable to beat C9 White and had to settle for second place. C9’s dominance throughout the year eluded them from the Game Changer title, but they exacted their revenge in Berlin at the first-ever World Championship for Game Changers.

The team eliminated C9 White from the Game Changer Championship with a 2-1 victory in the lower bracket. After exacting revenge on C9, SR GC took down Team Liquid Brazil to meet G2 Gozen in the grand final of their biggest tournament of the year. While they managed to secure a comfortable 2-0 lead over their opponents, they were unable to close the series out with a victory and finished second again.

Shopify Rebellion Game Changer’s released roster:

• Erika “KP” Lytle

• Kayla “flowerful” Horton

• Diana “sonder” Zhang

• Vannesa “panini” Emory

• cbui

• Rob “rob-wiz” Kennedy (Coach)

Header: Michal Konkol/Riot Games