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Shopify Rebellion are the 2023 VCT Game Changers Champions
The VCT Game Changers Championship 2023 Grand Finals featured two of the crowd’s favorites taking on each other. In the tournament finals, Shopify Rebellion, North America’s best took on Brazilian heroes in Team Liquid Brazil.
Despite their strong international presence, the two teams hadn't played against each other on the stage. Earlier in the tournament, both teams also expressed their intentions to play the other team on LAN. The team finally met on the biggest stage of Game Changers. The teams, the desk and the community had high expectations from the match and the match exceeded those expectations.
Shopify Rebellion - The indomitable run to the Final
At the tournament, Shopify Rebellion came in as the contenders returning to finish what they started last year. In the first two games they played, they took down the first two opponents after losing only ten rounds in total.
The team was only challenged by G2 Gozen, who have history with the squad. In the game, G2 Gozen dominated for the first map, but Shopify Rebellion brought it back to secure the Grand Finals.
Coming into the finals day, Shopify’s IGL tested positive and missed playing on the stage. meL has been the mental leader for the team and her missing the stage definitely takes a toll on the team.
Team Liquid Brazil - The Lower Bracket rise to the Top
Contrary to their Grand Final counterpart, Team Liquid Brazil had to make a difficult lower bracket run filled with constant challenges.
They started their VCT Game Changers Championship journey with a 0-2 loss to G2 Gozen. In the lower bracket opening round, they comfortably took down Evil Geniuses and BBL Queen.
On Day 4 of the tournament, Team Liquid Brazil had to take down Team SMG, who took the game to the final map.
On the same day Liquid took on G2 Gozen, the team that defeated Liquid in the opening game. But they didn’t stop and completed their revenge with a 2-0 win over G2 to face Shopify Rebellion in the Grand Finals.
Shopify Rebellion 3-2 Team Liquid Brazil
Starting on Haven, both teams played their hearts out, the teams fought with everything they had. The constant tussle between the teams lead to a tie in regulation. Shopify Rebellion took control of the OT to secure a 1-0 lead in the series.
On the second map, Shopify secured a strong 8-4 map but Liquid came back in the second half to secure the map 13-11. With the win Liquid tied the series on 1-1.
Breeze was a one sided domination from Shopify. After the dust settled Shopify had defeated Liquid to secure a map point.
Liquid also answered back with a dominant win on Sunset and handed Shopify one of their biggest defeats at the event. The game saw Liquid start with a 9-0 lead and ended with a 13-7 score in Liquid's favor. With the win, Liquid forced the final map.
Ascent, the final map was the ‘decider’. Both teams had their close wins, their dominant wins and it all came down to the final map. Ascent was a brawl, the teams exchanged blows and every round was closer than ever. The first half of the final map ended in a draw.
In the second half, meL and co. displayed a defense masterclass. They did not drop a single round before lifting the VCT Game Changers 2023 trophy.
In the Grand Finals, the debutant Florescent dropped 112 kill bomb and the highest individual map kills on Haven.
Talking about her performance and becoming a champion, florescent said
“It’s nice”
The win also concludes meL and alexis’s two-year long wait to lift an international trophy. Unfortunately meL missed competing and celebrating on the stage.
Talking about their missing leader on the stage, alexis said
“Yeah it impacted us, not being able to fist bump her and not feel her energy. But she was so there in comms with us, making sure we were doing the right thing. Like meL’s meL, you know, she’s always on top of everything, even though she’s sick with Covid right now. It definitely impacted us a little bit but we brought up our energy as much as we possibly could, to the max to make up for the fact that she wasn’t there with us.”
The trophy was a result of two years of hard work for meL and alexis. It was also a result of the youngsters pushing their boundaries and eventually making it to the top.
The dichotomous nature of a match makes it so that if there are winners, there’d be the ones to fall. This time unfortunately it was Team Liquid Brazil, who had an amazing journey but failed to close out the final map.
Talking about their journey, their fans and her teammates, Team Liquid Brazil’s IGL Daiki said
“I have many things to say, the crowd was with us until the end. In the final map that we lost 13-6, from the beginning they were always cheering for us, always caring for us. And for those who weren’t from Brazil like BBL, I’d say it's a unique traits that the Brazilians and the crowd here have, especially talking about the cavalry (TL fan base), the great and amazing people supporting us and them, I can only be thankful for their support
And for my girls, I am speechless, I don’t have the words. I know that we went through the most difficult path. We had very tight first three maps, and we came back on Sunset. I think we tried our best during the whole championship. I have nothing else to say but I am so proud of my team and all the growth they did throughout the championship.”
With Shopify Rebellion's coronation, the amazing tournament comes to an end. We had some amazing performances and breakout stars throughout the tournament that'd continue to level up the playing field even more.
You can checkout the complete tournament bracket, with every game on Strafe.
Featured Image Credits: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games
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Shopify Rebellion defeat G2 Gozen to secure the GC Grand Finals.
Team Liquid Brazil eliminates Evil Geniuses from VCT GC Championships.
Shopify Rebellion annihilates EDG at VCT GC Championship.
