Total Shorty Kills
Shopify Rebellion, The Repeat Champions of the Sakura Cup
Lynne "drDelta" Dumeny
08/23/2021
What an emotional and eventful week for women’s VALORANT. The VALORANT community grieved for the loss of a beloved team, Man I Love Fwogs.
A team that has been dominant in the women’s scene, they could not hold on after the recent loss of Lynn to Gen.G and EllieTwitches to Nothing2Lose. The name will live on; however, transitioning into a Valorant content creator group. Meanwhile, Just Breathe grew stronger as long-time subs became confirmed members of the roster: Zoe and rushhh.
There was so much emotion over the lost of the Fwogs that the community wanted to celebrate their nostalgia by setting up a throwback tournament.
Pittsburgh Knights Sakura Cup #4
Looking ahead, the Knights’ Sakura Cup kicked off August 21-22 with the first day containing group stages and the Round of 16. There were no surprising upsets on Day 1, but what was surprising was the last map of the Shopify Rebellion vs. Unbind Crouch series. Panini was able to come out completely untouched on Breeze. She had zero deaths and as many kills as Unbind Couch in total, thus bringing Shopify Rebellion to a 13:1 map and completing a 2-0 series. All teams in the semifinals made it there by having perfect group stages and a streak of 2-0 series.
Semifinals: Shopify Rebellion vs. GenG Team Bumble
The series started out on Bind, Team Bumble’s map pick and one of their favorite maps to play. Although SR did not seem to care much for this preference, as they dominated the first half on their defense. GenG would need to overcome a 1:11 deficit to win this map. Amazingly, GenG managed to successfully deal with the stress of match point for several rounds, holding their own with 6 rounds in a row. However, the deficit was too much to overcome and they could not clutch out the map thanks to diana’s amazing clutch.
On Split, the game was much more evenly matched with several very close rounds. In a round where SR was in the advantage, Tiraye managed to save the round even after getting detained by a lockdown in the middle of the site.
SR eventually closed out the series with a decisive 13:4 victory on Icebox after 11 straight rounds went their way.
Semifinals: TSM Female vs. Grilled Cheese
Though Grilled Cheese is an unknown name, it is actually a mashup of a well-known team including 3 members of CLG Red. Similar to their colleagues on the other side of the bracket, it looked like TSM was running away with the map by bringing it to an 8:3 attacking half. However, Grilled Cheese punched back, not going down without a fight. Grilled Cheese’s efforts to bring it to a tied game were thwarted by a perfectly timed wall from mle.
Trialing for the team, Karnthida “dodonut” Chaisrakeo was a star duelist, getting multiple multi-kills and the highest number of first kills in the lobby. She helped TSM secure their spot in the grand finals on Icebox, then Split, 2-0.
Grand Finals: TSM FTX Female vs. Shopify Rebellion
This grand finals was a repeat of the grand finals of the last Sakura Cup. TSM has been in every grand finals match since the beginning of the Sakura Cup. Shopify Rebellion won the last tournament, taking TSM’s title as the champions of the second iteration of the Cup. Things started off looking dim for TSM, losing 9:13 even though they won Icebox at their last match up with SR. KP, as the IGL for the team, impressed everyone with her amazing trick kills throughout the map with both her shock darts and the Hunter’s Fury.
SR showed again that they are a completely dominant force on Breeze, no matter the team they face. SR only dropped 3 rounds, not even allowing TSM to hit any of their shots with aggression on both their attacking and defensive half, 13:3.
Shopify Rebellion won the series 2-0 and kept their spots as the reigning champs of the Sakura Cup.
Check Run it Back to review this and future tournaments in depth. And remember to join our Discord to enter competitions and win prizes!
