The American Dream Ends at ESL One Raleigh 2025 as the Region’s Teams are Eliminated

Dota 2

April 10, 2025

Marcus Wong

It’s a rough day to be an American Dota 2 fan as the region’s Dota 2 teams participating at ESL One Raleigh 2025 have all been eliminated.

Both Shopify Rebellion and HEROIC representing North and South America regions respectively placed bottom seed in the group stage, going home with merely $10,000-15,000 in winnings.

HEROIC and Shopify Rebellion eliminated at ESL One Raleigh 2025 (Image credit: ESL)

NA and SA Out of ESL One Raleigh After Group Stage

Taking a look back at the ESL One Raleigh 2025 Group Stage games, Shopify Rebellion lost three out of five series, while the remaining were draws against Team Liquid and Talon Esports. With notable players, such as Enzo “Timado” Gianoli and Crhistian “Pakazs” Savina, alongside the leadership of NA’s best coach, Kanishka “BuLba” Sosale, frankly, we expected more from Shopify at ESL One Raleigh 2025.

Yet, all we saw from Shopify’s playbook was interesting drafts with diverse hero picks but with no results to back it up. Shopify just fall behind when it comes to executing the overall plan they had in mind for these drafts. From losing a game, where their draft favors mid-game timing to still losing the late-game expectations with strong hard-carry picks.

At this point, we had rather Shopify stick with the best meta in Dota 2 Update 7.38 , so they can focus on consistency.

HEROIC’s underwhelming performance at ESL One Raleigh 2025

It’s just not the same after David “Parker” Nicho Flores left HEROIC. Ever since HEROIC replaced their prodigy, HEROIC lacked the same energy that made HEROIC a terrifying force to be reckoned with.

Nevertheless, HEROIC is aware of their team’s issue, especially their poor laning phase. Hence, why they have been repeating the same hero picks throughout the group stage of ESL One Raleigh 2025. After all, they have to evaluate how their line-up’s strategy and execution as early as the laning phase.

America’s Last Hope at ESL One Raleigh 2025

It’s not over yet for American fans because we still have several American players competing and representing the region’s home ground. For instance, Quinn “Quinn” Callahan, who is stand-in for Team Falcons and Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu as the team’s captain, both hail from NA.

Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan, could also be categorised as an American player, as he grew up in NA, currently playing for Nigma Galaxy. Finally, let’s not forget Jonathan Bryle “Bryle” De Guia from Canada, currently stand-in for Team Liquid.

We would be rooting for these players to win ESL One Raleigh 2025 and make America proud.