NewBee

NewBee

Location	China
Founded	2014
Sponsors	Wang "Niuwa" Yue
Divisions	Dota 2 Hearthstone League of Legends

NewBee (Chinese: 新兵) is an esports club based in China. The organization has Dota 2 and Hearthstone squads. NewBee won The International 2014, taking $5,028,308 in prize money, which set a Guinness World Records title for greatest prize money in a video game competition.^[1][2][3]

History

Dota 2

NewBee after winning The International 2014

NewBee was founded by Zhang "Xiao8" Ning and is sponsored by billionaire Wang "Niuwa" Yue. It emerged in early 2014 during the Chinese reshuffle. Originally dubbed "Dream Team 2", the rumors started after captain Zhang "xiao8" Ning made a post on his QQ micro-blogging page, saying "New start in 2014 after 3 years in LGD", forever Dream 5."^[4] The rumors later placed Zhang "Mu" Pan, Zeng "Faith" Hongda, Chen "Hao" Zhihao and Wong "ChuaN" Hock Chuan in the team together with xiao8.^[5] However, at last, on the 23rd of February 2014, ACE Dota organization announced dubbed team "Newbee" consisted of xiao8, Mu, Hao, Zhou "KingJ" Yang and Gong "ZSMJ" Jian.^[6] Then Wang "Banana" Jiao transferred to the team, replacing ZSMJ and Wang "SanSheng" Zhaohui joins the team, replacing KingJ. Tong "mikasa" Junjie became the coach of this team and former Noah's Ark player Li "Li" Peng was the teams leader.

After that, the NewBee's Dota 2 team won the MarsTV Dota 2 League without losing one game in May 2014^[7] and placed in third in WPC League 2014 in June 2014.^[8] After these, NewBee won a direct invite to The International 2014.

The International 2014

In July, NewBee became the champion of The International 2014. After finishing 7-8 in the group stages, the team had to play a 3-way tiebreaker with Mousesports and LGD Gaming where the 3rd place team would be eliminated. NewBee finished 2-0 in the tiebreaker, and Mousesports went home. Qualifying for the 3rd phase, the team won a spot in the winner's bracket of the main event after defeating Titan 2-1, former TI champions Natus Vincere 2-0, then former TI champs Invictus Gaming 2-1. In the main event, NewBee defeated Vici Gaming 2-1 and Evil Geniuses 2-0 and earned a spot in the grand finals. Vici Gaming ended up winning the loser's bracket, setting up a rematch in the finals. In the grand finals, Vici won Game 1, but then NewBee won the next three, therefore winning the tournament and the $5,000,000+ prize money.

After The International

After winning the tournament, captain Xiao8 announced his retirement. NewBee acquires Wang "Rabbit" Zhang from LGD to take xiao8's place. After this change, NewBee won National Electronic Sports Open 2014, World Cyber Arena 2014,^[9] ECL 2014 Autumn and E-Sports World Championship 2014.^[10][11]"In March 2015, Hao left NewBee to join Vici Gaming. He was replaced by Lin "June" Shiyang.

Hearthstone

In August 2014, NewBee founded the Hearthstone squads consisted of four players.^[12] In December 2014, the Hearthstone squad of NewBee became the third place in Netease E-sports League Autumn 2014 Premier League.^[13]

League of Legends

On May 15, 2015, Newbee acquired the roster of League of Legends team Positive Energy.^[14] After qualifying for the League of Legends Secondary Pro League Summer Playoffs,^[15] they finished 4th in the playoffs,^[16] earning a spot in the Promotion playoffs. In the first round of the Promotion playoffs, however, Newbee would lose to Team WE 3-0, failing to achieve promotion to the LPL.

Current squad

Current Dota 2 squad

Player position	Pseudonym	Real name	Place of birth	Date of birth	Date joined
Carry	Rabbit	Wang Zhang			2014-08-26
Midlane	Mu	Zhang Pan			2014-02-23
Offlane	June	Lin Shiyang			2015-03-14
Support	SanSheng	Wang Zhaohui	Huaihua, Hunan	1989-06-13	2014-04-25
Support	Banana	Wang Jiao			2014-03-09

Former players

NewBee at The International 2014, with Xiao8 in the foreground.

Pseudonym	Real name	Place of birth	Date of birth	Join Date	Leave date
Xiao8	Zhang Ning	Shaoyang, Hunan	1989-12-14	2014-02-23	2014-07-29
Hao	Chen Zhihao	Longmen, Guangdong	1991-07-28	2014-02-23	2015-03-10
ZSMJ	Gong Jian	Yiyang, Hunan	1990-1-11	2014-02-23	2014-03-09
KingJ	Zhou Yang	Shanghai	1988-11-13	2014-02-23	2014-04-25

Current Hearthstone squad

Pseudonym	Real name
wayne	Wu Wei
God Slayer	Shen Yang

Current League of Legends squad

Player position	Pseudonym	Real name	Place of birth	Date of birth	Date joined
AD Carry	Candy	Tang Xin			2015-05-20
Midlane	Luo	Yin Peng
Top	destroyer	Ding Li			2015-05-15
Jungle	Arms	Li Yi-jie			2015-05-15
Support	Gan1e	Yang Wei-hao			2015-05-15
AD Carry	LL	Wang Zi-Jun			2015-05-15
Midlane	SoftRR	Zhong Geng-Xuan			2015-05-15
Top	Khan	Kim Dong-ha			2015-05-15
Top	Limit	Ju Min-Gyu			2015-05-15
Top	xr	Sun Yan
Jungle	Captain57	Sun Yu-Ze
Jungle	Moon	Kim Min-Su			2015-05-15
Support	YuZhe	Zhang Zhe			2015-05-15

References

1. Lee, Josh. "Chinese newspaper Xinmin Evening News reports on Newbee's TI4 win". Retrieved May 23, 2015.
2. "NewBee夺冠打破吉尼斯世界纪录" (in Chinese). Retrieved May 23, 2015.
3. Lynch, Kevin. "Chinese team Newbee sets videogame prize money record with $5million Dota 2 championship win". Retrieved May 23, 2015.
4. Xiao8 leaving LGD to join dream team?
5. Candidates for Chinese Dream Team
6. "绝对NB！Xiao8新战队正式命名Newbee" (in Chinese).
7. MarsTV Dota 2 League
8. WPC League 2014
9. World Cyber Arena 2014 (Dota 2), Retrieved May 23, 2015.
10. 6th E-Sports World Championship player
11. 6th E-Sports World Championship result, Retrieved May 23, 2015.
12. "Newbee战队进军炉石 收购HOC成立分部" (in Chinese).
13. Netease E-sports League Autumn 2014 Premier League, Retrieved May 23, 2015.
14. Weibo post announcing the acquisition, Retrieved August 7, 2015
15. 2015 LSPL Summer Season results, Retrieved August 7, 2015
16. 2015 LSPL Summer Playoffs results, Retrieved August 7, 2015

External links