Staying true to form, the Shanghai Dragons have lost their final Overwatch League match, ending the season with a 0-40 record. Their run in the OWL might have been the greatest showing of incompetency that a professional team in esports or any other sports has ever shown. There are sports out there that also lost every match, but there are hardly any formats where you have 40 chances to win a match.
In the final match of the season, the Shanghai Dragons were up against San Francisco Shock and unsurprisingly, didn’t stand any chance. San Francisco Shock won the match in a clean 4-0 marking the end for both teams this season. In total, Shanghai Dragons has won 21 maps, tied 2 and lost 141.
The @SFShock beat the @ShanghaiDragons 4-0! #OWL2018https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/GEyl5ls2Pr
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) June 16, 2018
The second worst performing team, the Florida Mayhem doesn’t even come close to such an inept showing. They managed to end with at least 7 victories and won a total of 42 maps, which is still double than Shanghai Dragons.
Free at last: @iddqd! #OWL2018
Live: https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/oq9QOTUyZC
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) June 16, 2018
Although the players on Shanghai Dragons were undoubtedly some of the worst in the Overwatch League, it was hardly their fault. They were working hard to at least have somewhat of a chance, although this was to no avail. The real fault lies with the management of the team. China has an enormous talent pool but for some reason, the Shanghai Dragons refused to pick up the best players in China. At some point, the team decided to import 3 Korean players in order to bolster their team, but even these 3 Korean players were not considered to be the best players that were still free agents.
You have to wonder why Shanghai Dragons never got a single player from the successful Miraculous Youngster roster that did incredible at the APAC Premiere in 2017. That team consisted of 5 Chinese players as well that continually managed to beat out opponents deemed much stronger than them.
The Overwatch League as a whole is also affected by a team that puts on such a terrible performance. People expect the OWL to be the highest quality of play possible and if one team decides to not even field a qualified roster than this destroys everything that the OWL is meant to be. Blizzard will have to learn how to deal with teams like Shanghai Dragons in the future when expanding their league. Nobody wants to see a team like that square off against the best teams in the league as it’s just unexciting for everyone involved.
