A reliable source has informed us that the original plans for a new Chinese dream team have finally come to fruition, as ChuaN and Faith have decided to leave iG and join NewBee as the two new supports.
In the great Chinese shuffle of 2014 after the Lunar New Year, the rumourmill was abound with news that a new Chinese Dream Team would rise from the ashes of multiple teams to challenge DK as the top team in China. However, that eventually seemed to fall apart when the rumoured transfers of Faith and ChuaN, both then contracted to Invictus Gaming, did not follow through.
As such, when NewBee was formed many thought it failed to have the star-studded power that it was hyped to have. Comprised of xiao8, Hao, Mu, KingJ and ZSMJ, it faltered almost immediately at its inception, eventually trading out ZSMJ for Banana. With this lineup, NewBee have still failed to make a large impression on the scene - falling to iG in the StarSeries Season IX Chinese qualifiers, and coming in fourth in the Netolic Pro League (East) despite the absence of DK.
At the same time, iG has not been on good form of late - they have had a poor showing at the Starladder LAN Playoffs, and have taken unconvincing victories against the other top tier teams. There has also been a seeming rift between the players captured by the team cameras at WPC-ACE and at StarLadder, where the team members, in particular YYF and ChuaN were seen to be arguing vehemently.
Our sources have informed us that it is likely that ChuaN and Faith will be replacing Banana and KingJ as the support duo of NewBee. Where the two ousted supports will go, however, is unconfirmed. iG have also not confirmed their replacement supports as well. This transfer is likely to take place within a day or two, but further confirmation is yet to be announced.
However, the timing of this transfer is very surprising given that there are two major obstacles in the way. First, with The International 2014 in less than three months, this transfer could very well cause Valve to reconsider their invitations, since it was widely expected that at least iG would receive an invite. It may result in both teams fighting for the spot in the qualifiers, a place that no team would desire. This happened last year as well, when LGD.cn made a transfer and Valve rescinded their invitation, forcing them to qualify through the Eastern qualifiers.
The other issue, also related to The International, is that with it looming this close, there will be little time and opportunity for the teams to train. This is even more problematic when we consider that the only major tournament left in the Chinese scene is the WPC-ACE League, which has extremely strict rules regarding player transfers. A player that is registered to play under one team is unable to play for the other even if the transfer has been made; this was apparent when Sylar joined Vici Gaming last year: Vici Gaming had to play with a stand-in for the rest of the tournament.
Rumoured new lineups:
Invictus Gaming
Cen 'YYF' Jiang
Fei Chi 'Ferrari_430' Luo
Yin Qi 'Luo' Luo
Unannounced
Unannounced
NewBee
Ning 'xiao8' Zhang
Pan 'Mu' Zhang
Zhi Hao 'Hao' Chen
Hong Da 'Faith' Zeng
Hock Chuan 'ChuaN' Wong
Photos from StarLadder
