Newbee: Old Champs, New Faces, Same Goal

Newbee
Roster:
1-Hao
2-Mu
3-xiao2le
4-banana
5-chisbug

Achievements:
The International 2014 Champions
1st Place at World Cyber Arena 2014
1st Place at MarsTV Dota 2 League 2014
1st Place at ECL Autumn 2014
1st Place at IeSF 2014 World Championship
1st Place at National Electronic Sports Open 2014
2nd Place at V Games Tournament
3rd Place at WPC 2014
4th Place at i-league Season 3
Top 4 Finish at National Electronic Sports Tournament


Despite having just formed in February of 2014, Newbee managed to make 2014 their year. While their crowning achievement came in July with their win of The International, Newbee won other marquee tournaments such as the MarsTV Dota 2 League and the 2014 installment of the World Cyber Arena, the latter of which they won without xiao8, the driving force behind their TI4 title run. By the end of 2014 Newbee had it all: money, trophies, fame, cars, women… for a while it seemed as though Newbee could do no wrong.



“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
-Luke 14:11, Recapping Newbee’s DAC performance

2015 sought to teach Newbee the meaning of this simple bible passage. Whether you’re a religious fellow or not is irrelevant, the statement holds plenty truth. Newbee, still intoxicated by their newfound fortune and fame, had taken a… prolonged hiatus from the game of Dota 2 in order to play some Chinese knockoff of a JRPG that I’m too lazy to research the title of. The point is this: while Newbee spent the months leading up to the DAC goofing around with some RPG, the rest of the teams around the globe were scrimmaging, studying the meta, training and just straight up preparing for 2015’s first big tournament, a tournament in which about 3 million bucks were going to be on the line. Newbee did nothing of the sort.

Though about 2-3 weeks before the DAC, Newbee finally decided to take a break from taking a break and began scrimmaging several semi-pro Chinese teams in order to shake of the rust that inevitably builds up from a multi-month hiatus. Newbee’s performance in said scrimmages was shaky to say the least but despite this, Gosugamers.net still had Newbee ranked as the number 1 team in the world heading into the DAC and the belief was that they had the talent to overcome the loss of xiao8, since they proved at WCA 2014 that they could in fact, win without him.

But we all know how the story unfolded, Newbee had a dismal showing at the DAC’s group stage, going 2-13, and were one of the first two teams to be eliminated in the tournament’s group stage (The other team was MVP.Phoenix, whose sole win of the group stage came against Newbee). Meanwhile, Newbee’s old leader, xiao8, went on to finish 4th in the tournament’s main event with his new (temporary) team, Big God. After their impressive turnabout performance in TI4, Newbee went from first to worst in the most stunning way imaginable. To any who watched this colossal fall from grace, could see the then-defending champs were a team with neither synergy or direction (New offlaner Rabbit seemed unable to get any rhythm going with his squad and the team looked lost without xiao8’s leadership).

The post DAC shuffle saw the departure Newbee’s 1 position Chen “Hao” Zhihao for Vici Gaming and the acquisition of Lin “June” Shiyang who assumed Newbee’s 3 position while then-offlaner Wang “Rabbit” Zhang took up the carry role for Newbee. With the shuffle concluded, Newbee would take this lineup into the 2015 installment of The International.

The months between the Dota Asian Championship and the The International 2015 were rather uneventful for Newbee, who only qualified for two tournaments in this time span and put forth rather unremarkable performances. For a short time, there were even doubts as to whether or not Newbee would be invited to TI5 (let alone, be deserving of an invitation) and earn the dubious honor of being the first world champ to not get invited to the International the year after they won the world title.



But sure enough, by the grace of Lord Gaben, the defending champs were gifted with the opportunity to put up a title defense. Despite the selection, doubts still lingered as whether or not Newbee truly deserved an invite and the general consensus was that Newbee was the weakest of the 10 directly invited TI5 teams. In the tourney’s group stage, Newbee, with the exception of CDEC, managed to split each series they played in their group. Despite this vast improvement over their DAC performance, Newbee, like they did in the DAC, finished second to last in the group stage (The team who finished below Newbee? MVP.Phoenix’s sister squad, MVP.Hot6!).

Coincidences continued into the main event as Newbee started out in the loser’s bracket, with their opponent being none other than MVP.Phoenix. At first, Newbee got off to a hot start, built a healthy advantage and for a while it seemed as though Newbee might just pull it off, that they could recreate the magic from their miraculous run in TI4 and make a run in TI5. However, this isn’t 2014, rather, it is 2015 and history (albeit very recent) would repeat itself as Newbee simply couldn’t find that magic (kind of like how Na’Vi were never able to reclaim that magic from 2011-2013) and fell apart. The circle of first to worst was complete as Newbee was the first team eliminated from TI5. Of course, there is no “Aegis of Participants”, rather, Newbee would have to settle for about 55 Thousand USD, a pittance compared to the 5 Million they won at TI4.

After each International, there is the shuffle, and Newbee was very much involved in it. Rabbit wound up being shipped off to Invictus Gaming, his tenure with Newbee considered largely to be a disappointment and June ended up joining CDEC’s brand new development squad “CDEC.Youth” (How do they come up with these names?) finally, Sansheng was relegated to a substitute role within the team. Newbee would then bring in both old and new blood to fill the voids left by these departures. To fill June’s place in the offlane was up and coming Meng “xiao2le” Lei who had spent the last year playing for Energy Pacemaker, meanwhile former Invictus Gaming support Li “chisbug” Chen took over Sansheng’s support duties. As for the carry role, Newbee brought in a familiar face that is none other than Chen “Hao” Zhihao himself.



Despite these changes however, Newbee did not receive a direct invite to the Frankfurt Major and instead had to earn their spot via the Chinese Qualifiers. The Chinese Qualifier, while not as loaded as the European Qualifier, still possessed some notable teams such as TongFu, Invictus Gamings, Wings Gaming and Team DK. Nevertheless, this was a humbling moment for Newbee… and they would seek to show the world that they still got it.

The Newbee we saw in the Major Qualifier was unlike the one we saw at TI4, the DAC or TI5. Newbee this time straight up eradicated the competition. With a 7-1 record in the group stage, Newbee had the best record out of all the teams in the qualifier. Newbee was in the playoff and one step closer to the Frankfurt Major. Newbee’s first match was against their organization’s “project” team, Newbee.Young. After taking game 1 in fairly convincing fashion, Newbee lost to the development in an hour-long slugfest that was game 2. Before any doubts could set in however, Newbee scored a decisive game 3 victory to proceed to the winner’s final.


Newbee’s opponent for the winner’s final would be none other than Invictus Gaming, where they would face former teammate Rabbit. Newbee maintained their dominant form that they had throughout the group stage in game 1, which wound up being a total stomp. Game 2 however, proved to be more interesting… if a tad prolonged. Those who stayed for the game’s first 63 minutes were rewarded with a sequence of events that were equal parts epic and head scratching. Invictus Gaming had Newbee’s backs to the wall, having just began the process of breaking high ground, but just when it looked as though iG had the game won, Newbee started a fight on their top lane high ground in which they managed to wipe out iG’s whole team. However, hardly a second had passed after the fight’s conclusion when all 5 of iG’s heroes bought back into game, unfazed by what had just transpired. At first, the maneuver paid off, iG claimed Newbee’s top lane of barracks and managed take down their 3 core heroes in the process. Barely a minute after the 5 man buyback, Newbee pulled out a few buybacks of their own and proceeded to wipe out iG’s lineup… again. Then finally, after these 3 hectic minutes, Invictus Gaming called gg, allowing Newbee to claim their spot in the Frankfurt Major in stunning fashion.


While there may still be some who aren’t convinced by Newbee’s performance in the qualifiers (“They beat up a bunch of tier 3 teams”, “iG’s no longer a top tier team” so on and so forth), it’s clear that Newbee means business. This new incarnation of Newbee demonstrates a very fearless style of Dota, utilizing aggression to their advantage while punishing any opponent who dares try to do the same.

Of course, fans of Newbee are very eager to say “Newbee is back!” While that may very well be the case, it is important to remember that China is a very competitive region in the pro scene and while Newbee may be on par with tier 1 teams from NA or SEA, a tier 1 Chinese team is a completely different story. Nevertheless, Newbee’s combination of newcomers and veterans symbolizes the coming of a new era in Chinese Dota, a region that at one point seemed to abhor the thought of welcoming in new talent, preferring to shuffle around a small group of veterans. If Newbee is to make a run at the Major, their young playmakers will need to step up and their veterans will have to take up the mantle of leadership. While the old champs have some new faces, their goal is still the same.