From CuZn (Newbee’s CEO) - Update on recent DotA Activities

Dota 2 season review, info on acquisition of ex-Forward Gaming and more



When we were trying to rebuild our lineup at the beginning of this season, our original lineup was pursued by many other clubs. Some organizations who have established reputations in other games were trying to invest a lot of money into dota and they were offering very high salaries to get our players. Because of this, we were forced to spend 3 times as much money to keep our own players. We were also trying to get some players from other clubs, but many of them were unavailable. Also, we still have not received some portions of the payments from when we sold some of our previous star players. However, the issue was not that we didn’t have enough money to adjust our lineup, it was that there was very little space and opportunity to do so. Many of the players that we did have the chance to acquire were of similar skill level to our own youth players. The wise decision in this case, of course, is to use the players already with the club, so that is exactly what we did.



Because there is so little time until Valve’s official deadlines, we have decided to have the former Forward Gaming roster compete as Newbee, rather than other names such as Newbee.int. Then main reasoning is because we would be unable to create new logos, team banners, jerseys, and other materials, in the time left before TI. Newbee is making an effort to become an international brand, and organization, similar to other organizations, such as Fnatic, or Liquid, who have teams in multiple regions. For example, Fnatic is based in Europe but has a DotA squad that competes in SEA. We are hoping to become an international force, not just in DotA, but in all of our divisions. Newbee has recently been signing international players for our Starcraft and Warcraft divisions, and will continue to diversify our talent pool in the future.



Our contract with the ex-Forward Gaming members is only through TI9, but after TI9 we will discuss the potential of renewing their contracts. The DotA lineup that competed in Chinese qualifying for TI9 will not be competing in any more tournaments before the conclusion of the season and will be taking a break. The Chinese lineup will be rebuilt at the end of the season. At TI9, Newbee, a Chinese Org, will be representing NA, and as such the TI roster will most likely have little to no interaction with our Chinese lineup.



Finally, as the CEO of Newbee, I would like to thank you, our fans, and our amazing sponsors for the incredible support!



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