Shopify Rebellion was not selected for the VCT partner team list for 2027 and 2028. The organization's co-owner and streamer Ahgren subsequently criticized the decision, stating that the team might completely withdraw from Valorant. Currently, withdrawal remains an option under public discussion by management and is not yet a finalized decision.
To accommodate Valorant's new open circuit format, Riot Games reduced the number of VCT partner teams for 2027 and 2028, with each region retaining eight partner teams. Valorant believes that while partner teams can receive millions of dollars in upfront funding and skin revenue shares, non-partner teams still need to build rosters competitive enough to challenge them, making it difficult to offer comparable salaries and development opportunities.
He also mentioned that better-funded teams might recruit talented players from open qualifier teams, citing Brock “brawk” Somerhalder and Adam “mada” Pampuch’s previous move to NRG as examples. Shopify Rebellion entered the Valorant scene in June 2022 and won the VALORANT Champions Tour Game Changers Global Championship twice, in 2023 and 2024.
Valorant revealed that the organization is also discussing a shift to other esports titles such as Counter-Strike 2. M80 founder Marco Mereu publicly supported his stance, stating that maintaining a North American Challenger-level roster costs approximately $500,000 per year.
Marco Mereu stated that if the team cannot participate in every stage of the tournament and qualify for at least one Masters event, it would be difficult to break even on this investment. Whether Shopify Rebellion will end its Valorant project has not yet been finalized.