“Bulba Would Beat Me Up!”: SabeRLight Not Keen On Discussing Shopify Rebellion’s Drafting Tactics

The Shopify Rebellion offlaner jokes his coach would beat him up if he revealed the team’s drafting secrets 

The highly anticipated opening match of the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit North American Summer Tour showcased a captivating clash between Shopify Rebellion and Team SoloMid. Despite Team SoloMid’s previous dominance over Shopify Rebellion in the Winter and Spring Tour, this time it was the Dreamleague Season 19 semifinalists who emerged triumphant.

Starting the tour off with a BANG 💥

GG’S @TSM pic.twitter.com/rlk1Ej9xgo

— Shopify Rebellion (@ShopifyRebels) May 16, 2023

SR’s Abed “Abed” Yusop showcased an astounding performance, leading his team to a resounding victory over TSM in Game 2 of the best-of-three series. Abed’s impeccable play as Puck, boasting an impressive 7/0/10 KDA, coupled with Artour “Arteezy” Babev’s 6/0/5 performance on Ursa, solidified SR’s dominance. This victory places SR in an advantageous position as they strive to secure a spot in the Bali Major. 

After SR’s thrilling win against TSM, the dynamic duo of casters, Mike “MLP” Le Phoenix and John “johnxfire” Nathan Fernandez, caught up with Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek for an exclusive interview. 

SaberLight was asked about Shopify Rebellion’s drafting strategy, but the offlaner refused to spill the beans. 

“Can I shed some light? No, I can not. Sorry guys. Otherwise, Bulba would beat me up because he doesn’t like telling secrets. Basically, the reason for that is I just really want my hero so I begged him to pick me my Beast and he’s like, ‘Okay okay. It’s not best for the strategy but let’s give Saber his Beast.’ The same goes for everybody. That’s what we do.”

He did, however, shed light on the experience SR gathered from attending past LAN events. 

“In every LAN, we learned something new. And especially for me, I think it’s nice to just get this experience with the team because I’m in a completely new environment and this team operates differently than the teams I was on. I think with every tournament, with every LAN event, and with every bootcamp, we get more and more on the same page. I understand what they want to do and they understand how I operate. For both in and outside of the game, we just keep growing together and keep improving which is really nice because I think, with some things, it just feels like you stagnate over time. You were all a part of this hive mind and there were no new ideas, but with this new team, there are still debates to be had and new ideas coming through left and right, so I think we just keep improving as a team and that’s really good.”

The 22-year-old also shared his opinion about the new patch. 

“I kind of like the changes. I think the OP heroes got a little bit nerfed. They’re still okay but nothing seems super busted like the Medusa. I get to play my Beastmaster. I’m very happy playing the same hero for two patches straight so yeah. I’m just having a good time.”