Kitrak on the new Shopify Rebellion playstyle: “I think we’re a lot more yolo”

Ahead of DreamLeague Season 22, esports.gg has received the opportunity to speak with Shopify Rebellion's, Kartik "Kitrak" Rathi. Despite being one of the few veterans with lesser time in the pro scene, Kitrak has played with some of the best teams such as beastcoast, Evil Geniuses, OG and now Shopify Rebellion.

In this interview, we are able to find out what he truly thinks of Ceb's "karma" post, his opinion on the state of North American Dota and his goals for Shopify Rebellion.

You have been playing as a pro since 2016, but there was a bit of a hiatus between 2020 to 2023. What happened? And why have you decided to become active again?

Kitrak: "I was actually in school for four years I think up until like last March. I went to UC Davis and was studying Computer Science. But I was still playing on the side. I just wasn't playing professionally for those four years."

Despite not playing professionally as much as the others, you have built a respectable reputation for yourself and have played with some of the best Tier 1 teams like beastcoast, EG, OG then now Shopify. Can you tell us what makes you highly desirable?

Kitrak: "I have no idea honestly. That's probably a question you would have to ask the teams. I just play a lot of Dota, so that's maybe one of the reasons. Though I would say I'm quite an intellectual player so I'm pretty good at communicating ideas, reading the game and things like that. Maybe that's something appealing to people."

Speaking of the teams you played with, I have to ask about what happened with OG. Everyone is aware of Ceb's karma post on X that was directed at you. Care to comment on that?

Kitrak: "I think as much as I can say, I have a lot of love for OG. They were a really fun team to play on, to work with and I owe them a lot. From my end, I can't speculate as to why Ceb said that, but there's no beef or anything like that. I honestly don't think much happened. It was just a funny tweet and I didn't really mind."

You've had decent results with OG. In the last DreamLeague season (21), you even made fourth place. Any reason why you cannot continue to build upon that?

Kitrak: "I felt like we had hit sort of a wall and that it felt hard to get around. I remember the teams that we beat were honestly lower tier than the teams that we lost to, or the teams where the games were difficult. For example, I think we played BetBoom twice in DreamLeague and all four of those games felt quite difficult. That was probably the tournament we've tried the hardest. And so I felt like we had hit a wall with that roster and weren't going to be able to get past that. But honestly, looking at the OG's roster now, I feel like they have a much better chance. Their new roster looks really good and I think for us [Shopify] it's the same. So this should be better for both sides in that sense."

Would you say it also makes more sense that you being from North America (NA) makes more sense to play in this region? Or would you like to try other regions again in the future?

Kitrak: "Regions didn't really factor in for me. Because even though I'm playing in NA, we still scrim Europe. I still play on Europe, and Europe is really the only server you can play on if you want to play Dota here in NA. I don't think there's a significant difference between playing in North America and playing in Europe. As far as other regions that I would play in, I probably would never play in Southeast Asia, for example, just because I can't queue on Europe, which limits my stream of opportunities."

Following-up on that note, people have said that NA is dead. You yourself only queue Europe. Even Quinn said that the region is "permadead." Do you then agree with what he said? Or do you believe NA still has a lot to offer?

Kitrak: "It depends on how you view it. From the competitive scene, I think it's possible because most of the competitive players play on Europe anyway. But I think from a public matchmaking standpoint, I don't really see how it would ever grow because Dota has been a dying game in North America for a long time now. Compared to when I was playing in 2015 or 2016, there was a much more vibrant scene then than there is now. A lot of players left and not a lot of players replaced them. It's perfectly possible to be a competitive player from NA because to me there's no significant difference from a competitive standpoint. However, as for casual and pub players, I think it's difficult to see that ever coming back for me."

What about pro players from SEA or Europe coming into NA? Do you think they will breathe some life back into the scene?

Kitrak: "I think it would be cool if there were more teams. In the past NA had like three competitive teams. Right now it's at two since TSM is gone now, which is unfortunate. But having more teams is obviously better for everybody. Better competition and the qualifiers and all that. But that being said, I don't think it's a significant concern for me. Because like I said, most of our practice and most of the things that relate to us are in Europe. So, it's not such a big deal."

Kitrak: "As for people from SEA or Europe coming in here, I think they're mostly the ones who have difficulty breaking into the tier one or two scene, which is fine. But at the end of the day that's not going to change the public matchmaking scene because those players aren't going to play in NA pubs. And it's not like casual players are coming in and playing and growing here. I'm never going to queue US East because there's nobody that queues US East anymore."

Despite everything that went on the region, there's still a lot of very talented American players like Fear, PPD, Quinn and Sneyking. But what about yourself? Do you believe you can be the next NA star?

Kitrak: "I don't know. But I think it's really cool for Quinn and Sney are doing well. Both of those guys are really, really talented players. And it goes to show that there is talent here in NA. It's hard to build competitive teams with purely NA players. And I think that's something that's been difficult just because the scene isn't big enough to get like five competitive players most of the time."

Let's talk Shopify. This is the first time after so many years that the squad underwent a massive overhaul. How has it been for you so far playing with them?

Kitrak: "It's been super chill. We haven't placed a ton of expectations on ourselves, especially initially. Obviously all of us expect by the end of the year that we want to be competing for championships and we want to be competing with the best. Our goals started a lot smaller like just to qualify for tournaments and really just learn about each other and understand each other. Because this is a very very different roster than the previous one. There's a lot of new faces, but I would say it's been going quite well."

Kitrak: "Throughout the month of January we started off pretty badly, to be blunt, but I definitely saw a lot of improvement toward the end of the month. Our hope is that it will continue in February, that we'll just keep getting better. And so within a few months we'll be a really competitive team in all these tournaments."

From your observation, how big of a change, besides the players of course, that Shopify made to their playstyle? Or is it still the same sort of like "make space for Arteezy" strat?

Kitrak: "I think we're a lot more yolo, and there's good things and bad things that come with that. I think the last team was a lot more disciplined, if you want to put it that way. That's something that we're trying to find a balance in. Obviously, with new players there will be different ideas and different approaches to the game for better or for worse."

Does everyone have a voice and like to make calls? I heard that Yopaj tends to be quite vocal in the team.

Kitrak: "Yes. Nowadays, it's very difficult in Dota to just have one or two players be the main voices in the team. Everyone has to be responsible for different things within the game and needs to talk about what they want to see and do. Then, it's up to the team to find a good balance and mix those things together. Given that, I think everyone on our team pretty much contributes. Yopaj definitely contributes a lot. He's a really vocal voice from the mid lane and he does a lot for us."

This DreamLeague Season 22, Shopify seems to be in a group that is heavily competitive. Besides yourselves, which teams will make it pass the group stag? And how confident are you in winning all of the tournament?

Kitrak: "I don't know if we'll win the whole tournament. I don't think anyone has that expectation. Our main aim in this tournament is just to play the best that we can. How ever we do, we do. As far as the other teams in our group, I think there's a lot of really good teams. Team Spirit of course is amazing. Xtreme Gaming is in our group and so is Team Liquid. Those three teams are the ones I think will do well. But honestly, all of the teams in our group can take games off of each other. So, this should really be a fun group stage."

I agree and I cannot wait to catch those games. Thanks again for your time, Kitrak, and best of luck to you and Shopify Rebellion for the upcoming DreamLeague Season 22 tournament.

Kitrak and Shopify Rebellion will be playing at DreamLeague Season 22 group stage starting February 25. Their first opponent will be Aurora Esports.

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