Shopify Rebellion has officially signed arguably its most impressive Halo roster yet, capitalizing on one of the Halo Championship Series partnered teams jettisoning its roster at the end of last season.
Shopify Rebellion confirmed the signings of Timothy “Rayne” Tinkler and Ryan “RyaNoob” Geddes today, two longtime veterans of competitive Halo who spent the 2022 competitive season with eUnited. Joining them is a young gun in Jason “Karmea” Morales, who most notably played for Luminosity last year and reached the main bracket via the open bracket at three different Majors.
Rounding out Shopify Rebellion’s starting roster for 2023 is Billy “MentaL” Putnam, the sole remaining member of the team’s 2022 roster that primarily consisted of former Call of Duty and Gears of War pros. Prior to joining Shopify Rebellion Halo, MentaL played pro CoD for the L.A. Guerrillas and the LAG Academy team during the 2021 CDL season after an extremely successful career in Gears of War.
While they were with eUnited, the duo of Rayne and RyaNoob were a consistent contender at the biggest HCS events across 2022, including a grand finals appearance at the Kickoff Major and a top-four placement at the Kansas City Major. But in the summer of 2022, a falling out between players led to the departure of Nick “KingNick” Panzella and Tyler “Spartan” Ganza, and while eUnited was able to get back the legendary Eric “Snip3down” Wrona on loan from FaZe Clan, their season fizzled out with an eighth-place result at the world championship.
A relatively quiet but somewhat concerning offseason for the Halo scene has primarily been highlighted by some of the bigger organizations dropping their rosters, including eUnited, Cloud9, and Fnatic. Similar to how Spacestation was able to jump on the free agent C9 roster, Shopify Rebellion has pounced on two top veteran talents in Rayne and RyaNoob after eUnited released the entire division back in November.
The new-look Shopify Rebellion roster will look ahead to the Kickoff Major that begins on Feb. 24.
