21-year-old Iranian, Mikey, will stand in for Abed in Shopify Rebellion for the upcoming DreamLeague Season 19.
ESL Pro Tour's DreamLeague Season 19 starts in a few more days and all participating teams are supposed to be in Europe for the tournament. Shopify Rebellion is one of the invited teams and while all members have seemingly secured their VISA, Abed "Abed" Yusop's is still processing. This means he won't make it to DreamLeague Season 19 in time and Shopify Rebellion's coach, Kanishka "BuLba" Sosale, revealed that they will grab Kasra "Mikey" Mesbah as a stand-in.
BuLba took to Twitter to reveal the last-minute changes, "Abed won't be in Europe in time for the start of DreamLeague due to VISA processing. We'll be using (Mikey) as a stand-in. Grateful to have him be ready last minute!"
Abed's absence from the highly-anticipated DreamLeague S19 is definitely a bummer to the team and fans. The 2-weeks long league, backed by Saudi Arabia, offers a $1 million USD prize pool to the top teams in the world. It's no surprise that the Dota 2 community view this as its own Major, with all teams relocating to Europe to clash in an online setting.
But fret not, there are chances that Abed make it to Europe later in the tournament. In the meantime, Mikey will seemingly play for Shopify Rebellion from his home country.
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Who is Mikey?
Mikey is a 21-year-old midlaner from Iran. The young player attracted tons of attention, even from pro players, when he rose to the top of the European leaderboards in December 2022. It was said that he climbed from 11K to 12K in just 15 days. Due to his young age and prominent achievement, the community believes he would be the next superstar in Dota 2.
He is also known for his time with the Iranian team, Winter Bear, in 2022. His most recent match was a series under Team Blink in the ongoing Pinnacle Cup: Malta Vibes tournament. Even though he isn't very known in the pro scene, his name is constantly on YouTube clips, portraying his pub plays.
While he is often praised for his skills, some people in the community criticize Mikey's gameplay, including popular streamer Qojqva. After a pub game with Mikey, he commented: "Obviously (Mikey) is good but I think he's trying too hard to be the next Miracle-. What Miracle- used to do.. it worked back then. I think Miracle- played the way he played because it was the best back then. But now, playing 1 against 5 is bad, you're going to ruin the game. Just AFK farming and going around."
Mikey has big shoes to fill in Shopify Rebellion but it is also his first big tournament. Playing alongside veterans in a very competitive environment would be a big learning experience for the young player. The first day of DreamLeague Season 19 starts on April 9, 2023, so mark your calendar.
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