One of the finalists from The International 7 finally got back to their winning ways. Newbee took home a new championship and $80,000 at WCG 2019 today after an unprecedented drought in 2019.
Despite Newbee’s constant struggles throughout the year, they crushed the WCG circuit, going 7-0 in the group stage before facing their first challenge, Hippomaniacs, in the semifinals.
Hippomaniacs had a fine showing in the TI9 European closed qualifiers, only getting eliminated by eventual winners Chaos EC. But they fell to Newbee after three hard-fought games at WCG 2019.
Newbee advanced to the grand finals where they met Cignal Ultra, an established Filipino esports organization that recently entered the Dota 2 scene. With plenty of young talent hungry for success, Cignal Ultra looked to upset Newbee to claim their first major international championship.
But Newbee’s star mid player, Song “Sccc” Chun, had other ideas. In the first game, Sccc impressed with a virtuoso Ember Spirit performance where he had 18 kills and zero deaths. In the second game, his space-making core Queen of Pain allowed Newbee to simply out-farm their opponent and Cignal Ultra conceded in less than 30 minutes.
This is only Newbee’s third tournament win after their fantastic run at TI7, which culminated in a loss to Liquid in the grand finals. They won ESL One Genting in January 2018 and then had to wait an entire year before winning the Thunder Fire Spring Cup, an online tournament only open to Chinese teams.
For Newbee fans, this title might be a sign that their favorite team could be ready to find their way back into the top-tier competitive scene. As one of China’s star players, Sccc can only hope that his youth and talents aren’t wasted on a team stuck perennially in the second tier.
