Divisions |
Dota 2 Hearthstone League of Legends |
---|---|
Founded | 2014 |
Location | China |
Partners | Wang "Niuwa" Yue |
Newbee is a Chinese eSports organization, which has divisions in Dota 2, Hearthstone and League of Legends. Newbee won The International 2014, taking $5 million in prize money, setting a Guinness World Records title for greatest prize money in a video game competition at the time.
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." The rumors later placed Zhang "Mu" Pan, Zeng "Faith" Hongda, Chen "Hao" Zhihao and Wong "ChuaN" Hock Chuan in the team together with xiao8. However, at last, on February 23, 2014, ACE Dota organization announced dubbed team "Newbee" consisted of xiao8, Mu, Hao, Zhou "KingJ" Yang and Gong "ZSMJ" Jian. 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 team's leader.
After that, the Newbee's Dota 2 team won the MarsTV Dota 2 League without losing one game in May 2014 and placed in third in WPC League 2014 in June 2014. After these, Newbee won a direct invite to 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.