Spoit: "We knew they had everything to lose but we had everything to gain"

Jaylen “Ambi” Turk. Although he may just be a 20-year-old with two professional seasons behind his back, the American has proven to be very reliable when his team needs him the most—and Year 11 has been no exception so far.

Against all odds, Shopify Rebellion sent G2 Esports back home following a one-sided performance that started with the young American fragger producing one of the highest KPR ever seen at a Rainbow Six Siege match; with a K-D of 21-1 (+20) and a SiegeGG rating of 2.63, Ambi’s individual display on Bank against the samurai will be long remembered. Logically, his individual performance on Bank was more than enough to make him the MVP of the day.

It’s hard to beat a team whose players are so in-tune with the game. On the first map of the series—which had been G2 Esports’ map pick—Ambi and his Shopify Rebellion teammates simply ran over their opponents. The European powerhouse couldn’t make anything work; which most of the North American fans in the crowd enjoyed.

Although Ambi was the one who stole the show on Bank, the individual mechanical quality shown by all Shopify Rebellion’s players—except for a certain Canadian player—has been exceptional in Salt Lake City. In fact, whilst Ambi’s 21-1 (+20) was the main highlight on Bank, Richie “Rexen” Coronado and William “Spoit” Löfstedt were also sharp throughout the first map of the series.

This has been no coincidence. With just two more playdays left in the Major, four of Shopify Rebellion’s players are among the best ten players in the tournament, as Spoit, Ambi, Rexen, and Damian “Surf” Medina currently average SiegeGG ratings of 1.20, 1.20, 1.16, and 1.15, respectively.

“That’s what is so good about our team because everyone can step up and have one of those games,” Spoit explained in an interview with SiegeGG after their match against G2 Esports. “I mean 21-1 is a bit outrageous, you don’t see that everyday… but we had our gameplan in mind.”

“The team is feeling very confident of course. If we just play our game and we just focus on ourselves, everything is going to be just fine. We proved that today, we’re excited to see what comes next,” the Swede said.

“At the end of the day it’s just all confidence. We haven’t changed anything necessarily, I think me personally I am focusing more on the energy of the team, hyping my teammates up, focusing on composure, I’ve taken more confident fights, playing a little smarter,” he added.

Coming from a very shaky Kickoff stage where Shopify Rebellion struggled to get the right results and after qualifying for Salt Lake City after back-to-back brilliant Ambi performances, the team’s results were a bit ambiguous; it felt like the potential was there, however, there was also that feeling of Shopify Rebellion not being able of capitalizing on their individual talent. Eventually, they proved everyone wrong.

Following a slow start against Four Angry Men and a defeat against Team Falcons, Shopify Rebellion ended up moving to Salt Lake City’s Phase 2. There, the team started with a nail-bitting 7-5 victory against Virtus.pro, including a great individual display by Spoit. Then, a 5-7 defeat against the back-to-back world champions was followed by one-sided wins against All Gamers and ENTERPRISE Esports—two teams fans had likely underestimated due to them being from China and APAC. 

Now, Shopify Rebellion shocked the fans by sending home one of the championship favorites. “People had us going out in Phase 1 and now we’re here on the Top 4,” said Spoit proudly.

“We knew they had everything to lose but we had everything to gain. G2 they said themselves that anything worse than winning is a failure for them, so we knew that they were coming into this with a lot on their shoulders. Like I said, composure once again,” Spoit said.

“We know when they get nervous, they move a lot, they can’t really sit still, so we just took advantage of that. Because they move a lot, they leave a lot of gaps, which we could exploit,” Spoit added.

Shopify Rebellion’s next match will be against Twisted Minds. Everything points at a very close series where Twisted Minds will try to hijack Shopify Rebellion’s championship dream with their shield plays and overall aggressiveness. Twisted Minds are currently on a historic run of results as they have yet to lose a match in Salt Lake City. On top of that, their victory against ENTERPRISE Esports made them become the first MENA team to reach the semifinals of a BLAST R6 Major; therefore, their confidence will be at an all-time high.

“I think with them (Twisted Minds) is just about slowing down the game. They’re also a super aggro team, which is a blessing and a curse for them. It’s about understanding the game plan and exploiting whatever they’re weak on, it’s going to be what we do moving forward.”

For more information about Rainbow Six Siege and its esports scene, make sure to check out Siege.GG.