The Shanghai dragons have made history twice in a very brief period of time – first, they were the first pro Overwatch team to sign on a female player within the Overwatch League earlier this year…and then they suffered, quite literally, the worst defeat possible.
0-40 was the end result of their season. That is to say, 0 wins and 40 losses. That is quite literally as bad as it gets, however it also looks worse than it is – quite complicated isn’t it? Starting out, the Dragons were just bad. They didn’t have a decent Genji player and their tanks were lacklustre at best. As time went on however, some team adjustments made things better. Part of these adjustments was the signing on of Shiyeon ‘Geguri’ Kim – as mentioned, the first female player to join the League!
Sadly, that’s where the positive news ends rather abruptly. The Dragons started to gain attention for their abysmal performance in the overall rankings sometime around their 25th loss – people took a closer look and realised they weren’t actually playing that bad! That is to say, in the match-ups with other teams, they would often win games or draw at least, but end up losing the overall point to their opponents. Now that they have finished 0-40 however, the formerly extremely optimistic team has taken some pretty drastic measures.
They’ve dismissed eight of their eleven players. Geguri herself, as well as two others, remain, and two coaches were also dismissed. Here is the list of the dismissed players and coaches:
• Cheng “Altering” Yage
• Xu “Freefeel” Peixuan
• Chen “Fiveking” Zhaoyu
• Jing “Roshan” Wenhao
• Liu “Xushu” Junjie
• Chon “Ado” Gi-hyeon
• He “Sky” Junjian
• Kim “Daemin” Dae-min
• Kong
• Nai8
That’s pretty drastic, even in the face of such a staggering defeat. It does, however, open a few new possibilities up for the Shanghai Dragons – not only are they now a sort of fan-favorite underdog, but a complete revamp of their line-up also puts them in the perfect position to surprise opponents with new strategies and plays next season.
On the bright side, the Dragons really have nowhere to go but up – and that is with a considerable fanbase already. Throughout their continued losses, Shanghai Dragons well and truly established themselves as the underdog, and people started rooting for the team in general and Geguri in particular – as the lone female League player, she has many supporters, and the skills to back it up.
Hopefully, next season the Dragons will fare better. 40-0 might be a bit much to ask for, but with a result like this one, absolutely anything will be a remarkable improvement!
