In the winner’s post-game interview, team captain Tal “Fly” Aizik spoke with the panel regarding his old organisation, Evil Geniuses’ (EG) withdrawal from the area following Shopify Rebellion’s successful competitive debut in the North America Dota Pro Circuit (NA DPC) 2023.
After the management made the decision to move and invest in a new squad in South America during the off-season, the old EG roster was left without a team (SA). However, Canadian organisation Shopify Rebellion signed the team at the final minute.
Fly said there were no resentments against EG’s leaving NA.
Shopify Rebellion’s Fly began his post-match interview with the winner, Fly, by discussing the relocation of his previous group, Evil Geniuses, from the area. He did add, though, that he had no ill will against his previous squad and that, should the chance present itself, he would be thrilled to compete against them.
“We’ve had a long history with EG, and different individuals have taken over EG at various points, so we’ve had various interactions [with management], and COVID has also had an impact on us. We are beginning a sort of fresh journey with Shopify, and the new team has generated a lot of excitement. I don’t believe there are any resentments because I much respect the members on that team. I believe they are great, and their run at TI11 was insane so I would be excited to play against them.”
Fly then proceeded to respond to Clinton “Fear” Loomis’s inquiry on the roster’s dubious offlaner selections, given that the roster is notorious for selecting carry players to play in the offlane.
That’s a wonderful topic since I had previously stated [in my podcast] that I wanted a natural offlaner after it became apparent that Nightfall will play for BetBoom Team. It’s not because you can’t turn a carry player into an offlaner; on the contrary, we were successful with these individuals at various points in time.
He said that the squad has benefited greatly from the addition of former TSM offlaner Joná “SabeRLight-” Volek since a natural offlaner lets them to experiment with different tactics.
“However, I believe it would be simpler for the entire team to bring on a player who is a natural offlaner, eliminating the need for the new player who is switching from carry to offlane to go through the learning curve. SabeRLight enables us to play these odd offlane heroes like Enigma and Dark Seer since all of these avenues have now opened up for us. It’s fantastic to have a natural offlaner in SabeRLight- because he already understands how to play whatever heroes we want to choose for the offlane.
