Shanghai Dragons have made serious personnel changes heading into Season Two of the Overwatch League after saying adios to several of their main roster from last year early in the offseason. After keeping just one player from their original lineup, and two extra players they added later on, Shanghai have announced six new players to their ranks.
Joining the team now are some of the most highly sought after players from Overwatch Contenders: Korea as Team KongDoo Panthera’s Son “CoMa” Kyung Woo, Seong-hyeon “Luffy” Yang and Yong-Jin “YOUNGJIN” Jin and Jin-hyeok “DDing” Yang have all made the switch.
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The Shanghai Dragons were no strangers to being on the wrong side of a result last season. When it was all said and done, the inaugural Chinese organization suffered a dismal 0-40 record, and some news outlets compared that streak to the worst overall run of a professional esports team in history.
In order to get out from the shame of mediocrity that followed them last season, it was high time to make serious changes to a roster that was plagued with chemistry issues and roster problems from the start. One of those issues was an obvious language barrier between Chinese and Korean players once the integration started.
© Blizzard Entertainment
Even though Geguri and Fearless were welcome introductions to the team last year, the results weren’t getting any better and the dips in communication were obvious even as other multinational teams were just finding their stride. After going through their fair share of growing pains, Shanghai Dragon’s management are not willing to make the same mistake as last year and they are now all in on this new look roster.
Leading the charge for this new team at DPS is diem, the Korean DPS is guaranteed to start with a 200k salary to his name already trouncing some of the high end salaries that were topping the league last year.
Diem has widely been regarded as the best DPS ever to compete in the Chinese region as he walked all over the Overwatch Contenders: China scene and is looking to take that same dominance into Shanghai.
The aforementioned trident from KongDoo Panthera in CoMa, Luffy and YOUNGJIN will be a stellar supporting cast to help out the carry potential of diem. Although YOUNGJIN and diem have some overlap in their hero pool, learning more projectile carries will likely not be an issue given the caliber of player both of these men have.
CoMa and Luffy were ever consistent in their run as the second seed from South Korea and both of them will have an advantage against their opponents as they have that built in chemistry from years prior. DDing also brings out the projectile hero pool needed in DPS and he will surely have a welcome spot on the roster with all the new changes still being settled.
Rounding out the roster is none other than GuardiaN, formerly of Toronto Esports as well as Lunatic Hai. Still young for an Overwatch League pro, GuardiaN hasn’t really had the chance to prove himself since making his switch to America last year after the APEX era, and now he will be given free reign to exercise his expertise against the best D.Va mains in the world.
© Shanghai Dragons
Leading the team at Head Coach this year is another Korean import from Team KongDoo Panthera in Seong-hwan “BlueHaS” We. BlueHaS has enjoyed success with some of the players on this roster before, and it makes sense to continue working with similar building blocks as he looks for success in a brand new league.
For many years Korean coaching has been the golden standard for esports teams, and even though last year’s efforts didn’t go well with Shanghai, there is an air of stability with this new roster that gives positive aspirations for the 2019 season.
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