The Dota 2 Asian Championships in 2015 introduced us to 16-year-old Syed "SumaiL" Hassan, who stunned the world by outplaying pros years more experienced than he was. Since Evil Geniuses took home the DAC title, pubstars have gained ever more respect from pros and fans alike, as names like Miracle-, w33 and MidOne have broken through the veil of obscurity.

But Evil Geniuses didn't win DAC just because they found a pubstar and jammed him into whatever position their roster was lacking — they respected his talent enough to mold their strategy around him. Already proven players like PPD and Fear gave up their pick priority to accommodate a player that had never won a premier event before. There are fewer examples of a team taking that kind of risk with a new player, though now, after the MarsTV Dota 2 League Finals earlier this month, we may have one more.

Newbee refreshed its roster after TI6, when seasoned veterans Mu and Hao retired from the team. Among the newcomers was mid laner Song "Sccc" Chun. He doesn’t exactly fit the definition of "rookie" — he played for Newbee’s Youth Squad since April of 2015 — but he hasn't yet seen much success on the international stage. Ahead of joining Newbee's primary roster this fall, his most notable accomplishment at a premier global event was qualifying for The Frankfurt Major, where he and Newbee.Young finished in last place.

"Pubstar," however, fits Sccc to a tee. His immense mechanical skill recalls that of a fresh SumaiL back in 2015. As of Oct. 11 this year, he had the highest solo MMR in the world at 9,086, ahead of Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen at 9,019 and Amer "Miracle-" Barqawi at 8,915. He has an all-time winrate above 60 percent on his three top heroes, Invoker, Shadow Fiend, and Ember Spirit, all with more than 200 games played.

MDL was the first international LAN after TI6, and the first time for a lot of teams to try out new rosters. Newbee and Sccc came out swinging, exiting their group in first place after a 2-1 win over Team Secret and a 2-0 over MVP Phoenix. They went on to 2-1 OG and shutout Evil Geniuses 2-0 in the Winner's Finals, though they lost to EG 3-1 in the runback Grand Finals.

MDL was a short tournament, but Newbee proved that the fresh blood they've added is enough to beat top teams. And what a showing Sccc managed to have — in the two-game Winner's Finals against EG, he tallied up 25 kills and only died once each game, finishing the series with an astounding 23.5 average KDA. His Invoker play, and especially his control of an important teamfight around the Roshan pit, earned him praise from the Dota community, including callouts from pros like qojqva, AdmiralBulldog, Ghostik and ALOHADANCE.

It was reminiscent of the initial reaction to SumaiL when he played at DAC, especially in Game 3 when EG's mid laner was ganked multiple times in the first few minutes but still managed to have a godlike Storm Spirit game. But the more important resemblance was in the way Newbee built their drafting strategy around Sccc, just as EG did with Sumail almost two years ago. The more experienced players on the team sacrificed their own pocket picks to ensure Sccc was able to play comfort heroes, rather than expecting him to adapt to their well-practiced style.

SCCC’s most played heroes all time, per Dotabuff

SCCC’s most played heroes on Newbee, per Dotabuff

Sccc was able to play one of his top heroes in almost every game at the event. The only odd one out was Timbersaw, who he’s played just 36 times on his main account. Of course, in future events Sccc will have to expand his hero pool, since his performance on his core heroes has made him a clear target for future bans, but with the mechanical skill he's shown so far it's hard to anticipate problems.

Newbee didn’t quite win MDL — EG managed to adapt after their Winner's Finals loss and win the championship — but it was enough to leave an indelible impression of Newbee's pubstar mid. At the moment, the team aren't slated to play any more LANs before The Boston Major, but opponents will definitely be studying their MDL games to learn as much as they can about this new up-and-comer.

Corey "CartDota" Hospes is a freelance writer, Dota 2 addict, lover of numbers and Techies picker.​ You can follow him on Twitter.