Shopify Rebellion Gold Shopify Rebellion Gold North America Rank #1 dodonut Karnthida Chaisrakeo meL Melanie Capone alexis Alexis Guarrasi Noia Nicole Tierce sarahcat Sarah Simpson has qualified to Stage 1 of Challengers North America. They become the first full Game Changers roster in Valorant's history to qualify for their region's Challengers league.

This is not the first time the two-time Game Changers Champions have tried to reach Challengers. They competed in the open qualifiers in both 2023 and 2024, but were always eliminated relatively early on, with qualification far from reach.

Coming off of their second GCC win, Shopify was given an invite to the closed qualifier, where the top three teams would earn a spot in Challengers. With florescent joining VCT EMEA with Apeks Apeks Europe Rank #3 florescent Ava Eugene hype Tautvydas Paldavicius MOLSI Michał Łącki AvovA Auni Chahade batujnax Mehmet Batu Özaslan , they were without their star duelist for the first time. Her replacement, dodonut , had yet to even play an official match with Shopify. However, she quickly showed her comfort with the team in their opening match against Pigeons Pigeons North America Rank #13 Kouf Andrew Koufogianis beanann Rylin Smith LenX Andy Collins Zamal Cohburg , putting up a 1.37 rating in the 2-0 win. A loss to Winthrop University Winthrop University North America Rank #4 flare Andy Le moobs Gabriel Powell Jerk Justin Milani infiltrator Nahsie Eishan Jaffer sent them to the lower bracket, but they quickly bounced back with a dominant win against their Game Changers rival FlyQuest RED FlyQuest RED North America Rank #107 sonder Diana Zhang L4CE Lacey Dilworth Karra Aara Lee Bob Bob Tran unstable . This left Shopify one win away from Challengers, with only Funhavers Funhavers North America Rank #26 Blahst Nathan Brand k0rupt Wylie Watts Tim Timothy Braun left standing in the way.

After a slow start, Shopify found themselves trailing 5-7 at the first map's halftime. Big performances from Noia and meL helped bring it back and narrowly clutch out a 13-11 win. One map away from making history, Shopify did not let off the gas, steamrolling Funhavers on map two. A 10-2 first half quickly turned into a 13-6 victory, ending the match 2-0, and finally earning Shopify their spot in Challengers.

The winning moment for Shopify.

With this victory, Shopify Rebellion will now field two different teams in NA Challengers. Their recent merger with Moist Esports left them with the Moist x Shopify Moist x Shopify Inactive Pa1nt Amarri Peak Spaz Adam Laamoumi Paincakes Jake Hass BcJ Brendan Jensen brawk Brock Somerhalder roster, now officially announced as Shopify Rebellion Black Shopify Rebellion Black North America Rank #28 Pa1nt Amarri Peak BcJ Brendan Jensen Spaz Adam Laamoumi Paincakes Jake Hass monSi Ludovic Lefebvre . This roster most recently competed in 2024's Challengers Stage 3, where they were eliminated in groups by Funhavers, the same team that their GC team, now called Shopify Rebellion Gold, defeated to qualify.

While Shopifys' GC team is the first to reach Challengers, they may not be the only ones. The GCC runner ups MIBR GC MIBR GC Game Changers Rank #5 srN Nicolas Niederauer sayuri Camila Obam Jelly Julia Iris Mel Melissa Souza jubs Juliana Oliveira currently sit in the upper final of Brazil's closed qualifiers. One more win will qualify them to the league. They play their next match against PEEK PEEK Brazil Rank #7 Yeah insano hunterx nicksz Nicholas La Torre Stwz1 PKX on Jan 23.

With the conclusion of qualifiers for NA Challengers, only two more spots remain in the league, which will be decided via Premier. Shopify Rebellion Gold will make their Challengers debut in the Swiss Stage, starting on Jan 29.