Newbee overcomes Vici Gaming for Perfect World Masters title

Newbee have finally taken a Dota 2 Pro Circuit event—and in persuasive style. The Chinese squad overpowered local rivals Vici Gaming in a clean sweep during the best-of-five finals to take home the top prize. The first-place team earned 150 Qualifying Points and $150,000 USD, while Vici only takes home $60,000 and 90 QP.

During the course of the series, Newbee held a dominating team-fight style over Vici. While Vici attempted their own aggressive style with some degree of success, Newbee had drafts that, as a whole, were able to maintain their teamfights and objectives. Still, VG held their ground fantastically until the bitter end, even holding a lead for much of the 51-minute-long final game.

A milestone in a rivalry

The two teams have seen back-and-forth victories against each other in the past several months since TI7. Newbee won over Vici at the Dota 2 Professional League, a Chinese league involving several top squads in the country, as well as in DreamLeague’s play-in group stage matches. However, Vici took series from Newbee in Dota Pit and the qualifiers for Captain’s Draft.

Perhaps it was inevitable that Newbee and Vici met in the finals—if not for their banners’ TI4 rivalry, but for their frequent representation as Chinese teams in the last few months. Each has been able to reach a respectable rank in quite a few of their LAN appearances, with Newbee taking three top-four positions through its four LAN appearances, and Vici reaching two of its three.

Meanwhile, while Newbee has been directly invited for many of these events, Vici played in to qualify for three of its eight in a highly competitive atmosphere. Very few teams in China, and even internationally, have been able to show up with such consistency.

A turbulent week

It was a turbulent week for the other eight teams that showed up to the event, the first ten-team Pro Circuit event of the season. With regular champions Team Liquid and Virtus.Pro absent from the roster, it was time for other squads to shine. The process was more painful for some than others, as South American SG e-sports and China’s own LGD-Gaming were eliminated in the group stages.

The three Chinese teams remaining found their stride on their home turf, as Newbee, Vici Gaming and LGD.Forever Young won their way through the playoff brackets—and only lost to each other.

Showing some promise was the European Team Kinguin, playing their first LAN event and defeating CIS org Vega Squadron. Plus, North America’s CompLexity Gaming took on and defeated Kinguin and PGL Open Bucharest champs Mineski, but fell to Team Secret and LFY.

Secret, known as one of the stronger European teams, was taken down by two Chinese orgs, Vici in the upper bracket and LFY in the lower. LFY, two rounds later, couldn’t lift a finger to eventual runner-ups Vici in the lower bracket finals.

The Qualifying Point distributions for this event are as follows, per the Pro Circuit standards:

1. Newbee — 150 QP/player — Overall Standing: 1034 QP — #4
2. Vici Gaming — 90 QP/player — Overall Standing: 540 QP — #6
3. LFY — 45 QP/player — Overall Standing: 135 QP — #8 (tie)
4. compLexity Gaming — 15 QP/player — Overall Standing: 135 QP — #8 (tie)

(*The teams shared an equal third-place position at the event, thus they receive the same number of points.)