The hardest working team in CN, Newbee: mid-year report by Sheen Sah
The following article contains my argument for why Newbee has earned the title of “hardest working team in China”.
Q1, 2017 – The hardest working team deserves a break
To start off the year, Newbee made the finals of ESL One Genting 2017 in January. The tournament played out as expected based on the group stage standings. Both Newbee and Digital Chaos (now Planet Odd) went undefeated in the group stage before making the finals. After Newbee took a 2-1 lead, Digital Chaos rattled off two wins to eliminate Newbee. Nonetheless, Newbee earned $50,000 to begin 2017.
Newbee took February and March off before returning to DAC 2017 with a direct invite. Five 1st Place finishes throughout November and December of 2016 set Newbee up to take such a hiatus. As the hardest working team in their region, I support the break. These breaks give players well-earned rest and it provides an opportunity for new teams and players to get some spotlight. Not to mention, Newbee really packed their schedule in 2016. They competed in a total of 34 tournaments last year. They’re nowhere near that pace in 2017.
Second quarter, 2017
Newbee put together a decent performance when returning to the scene in April. A second place group stage record set Newbee up to play OG in the opening match of the Main Event. Newbee was swept and forced to play Evil Geniuses in the lower bracket.
After losing Game 1, Newbee reverse swept EG and sent them home before sweeping iG Vitality. Unfortunately, Newbee met the eventual tournament winners, Invictus Gaming, in the lower bracket finals. That was all she wrote for Newbee at DAC 2017 ($73,000 earned from the loss).
Following the 3rd Place finish at DAC, Newbee won the Dota2 Professional League Season 3 – Top with a 3-1 victory over LGD Gaming for $33,000. Newbee broke the $100,000 mark in April.
Perhaps that victory made Newbee overly confident, because a dead last finish at the Kiev Major ensued. Furthermore, Newbee failed in two consecutive qualifiers (EPICENTER 2017 and Summit 7) before making the finals of the Manila Masters to close out May.
However, Newbee’s form is certainly up at the moment, as they claimed back-to-back titles in June. The ZOTAC Cup Masters and Galaxy Battles resulted in $119,000 in earnings for June 2017. That’s on top of the $60,000 that was earned in May from Manila and the SLi Invitational 2. Great job, Newbee.
Grade: B
Reach out on Twitter with any thoughts you’ve had on this article or any other from the series thus far. I’m replying to all tweets until June ends. I wanted to give a B+, but something about missing EPICENTER doesn’t sit well with me.