Newbee (Chinese: 新兵电子竞技俱乐部) is a Chinese esports organization that has a Dota 2 team and previously had teams in League of Legends and Hearthstone. Newbee won The International 2014, earning $5 million in prize money and setting a Guinness World Record for the largest prize money in an esports competition at that time. In February 2021, Newbee was banned from participating in official Dota 2 championships. As of 2023, the organization no longer has any active teams.

Dota 2

Newbee was started by Zhang "Xiao8" Ning and is supported by billionaire Wang "Niuwa" Yue. It was created in early 2014 during a major change in the Chinese esports scene. The team was first called "Dream Team 2," but this name came after Zhang "Xiao8" Ning posted on his QQ blog, saying, "New start in 2014 after 3 years in LGD, forever Dream 5." Later, rumors suggested that Zhang "Mu" Pan, Zeng "Faith" Hongda, Chen "Hao" Zhihao, and Wong "ChuaN" Hock Chuan would join the team with Xiao8. However, on February 23, 2014, ACE Dota announced the official team "Newbee" would include Xiao8, Mu, Hao, Zhou "KingJ" Yang, and Gong "ZSMJ" Jian. Later, Wang "Banana" Jiao joined the team, replacing ZSMJ, and Wang "SanSheng" Zhaohui joined, replacing KingJ. Tong "mikasa" Junjie became the team's coach, and Li "Li" Peng, a former player from Noah's Ark, became the team leader.

In May 2014, Newbee's Dota 2 team won the MarsTV Dota 2 League without losing a single game. In June 2014, they finished third in the WPC League 2014. After these successes, Newbee received a direct invitation to The International 2014.

In July 2014, Newbee won The International 2014. After finishing 7–8 in the group stage, the team played a special match against Mousesports and LGD Gaming to decide third place. Newbee won 2–0, and Mousesports was eliminated. In the next round, Newbee defeated Titan 2–1, Natus Vincere 2–0, and Invictus Gaming 2–1 to reach the main event. In the main event, Newbee beat Vici Gaming 2–1 and Evil Geniuses 2–0 to earn a spot in the grand finals. Vici Gaming won the loser's bracket and faced Newbee again in the finals. Vici won the first game, but Newbee won the next three games and won the tournament, earning over $5,000,000 in prize money.

After winning the tournament, captain Xiao8 announced his retirement. Newbee added Wang "Rabbit" Zhang from LGD to replace Xiao8. After this change, Newbee won the National Electronic Sports Open 2014, World Cyber Arena 2014, ECL 2014 Autumn, and E-Sports World Championship 2014. In March 2015, Hao left Newbee to join Vici Gaming and was replaced by Lin "June" Shiyang.

On May 15, 2020, Newbee's Dota 2 team was permanently banned from events organized by ImbaTV and CDA after an investigation into accusations of cheating in matches. This decision was announced on the official Weibo accounts of ImbaTV and CDA, and evidence was sent to Valve and Perfect World the same day. The CDA Alliance and the Chinese Dota 2 Professional Association, along with the Dota 2 Professional League, later confirmed that Newbee was guilty of match fixing and gave lifetime bans to the team and its players.

Hearthstone

In August 2014, Newbee started a Hearthstone team with four players. In December 2014, the Newbee Hearthstone team placed third in the Netease E-sports League Autumn 2014 Premier League.

League of Legends

On May 15, 2015, the team Newbee purchased the group of players from the League of Legends team Positive Energy. After qualifying for the League of Legends Secondary Pro League Summer Playoffs, Newbee finished in fourth place during the playoffs, which earned them a spot in the Promotion playoffs. However, in the first round of the Promotion playoffs, Newbee lost to Team WE with a score of 3–0, and they did not get promoted to the LPL.