Artour "Arteezy" Babaev, a carry player for North America, has left Shopify Rebellion. On 23rd July, in the evening, the multiple Major champion and most well-known NA Dota 2 player in the game declared his withdrawal from the starting lineup.

Arteezy said in his statement that he is leaving because he found it harder than he had anticipated to lead a new team. He went on to say that he would think about taking a vacation from the competitive scene after streaming and hanging out with pals.

During Arteezy's stint at Shopify Rebellion, the group first carried on Babaev's and his longstanding teammates Abed "Abed" Yusop, Jonáš "SabeRLight-" Volek, Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen, and Tal "Fly" Aizik's prosperous Evil Geniuses history.

However, Abed, Cr1t-, and Fly left the team after TI in 2023, and each of them went on to succeed on a different squad. But Arteezy had trouble with the rest of the team, and he split up with SabeRLight-earlier this year. Shopify Rebellion, which was among the best teams in North America a year ago, has lost out on TI and several of the 2024 Majors.

Arteezy has been a mainstay of the NA scene for a long time. He started off as a prodigy in the game and then developed into a skilled journeyman who alternated between Team Secret and Evil Geniuses, the two dominant super teams. But even though Arteezy has won multiple Majors, he has never raised an Aegis, meaning that he has always come just short of the biggest championship in Dota 2.

It's unclear what Arteezy will do next. Streaming is one choice. Babaev inked a potentially lucrative contract with Kick in November 2023 to stream Dota 2 on the platform.

In order to have a better shot at competing at a higher level, Arteezy also alluded to plans to relocate to Europe. If he did, he would be going after fellow NA player Quinn Callahan, who relocated to Europe alongside Gaimin Gladiators and achieved success nearly right away.

In closing, Arteezy compared Jeremy Steeves, the creator of Shopify Rebellion, to Evil Geniuses founder Alex Garfield and praised the group and Steeves in particular.

There will undoubtedly be a lot of attention to whatever Arteezy does because he is one of the most well-liked and followed players in the scene.