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Shanghai Dragons Esports Betting Online
The Shanghai Dragons made history in 2018, though not in the way they wanted to. Shanghai never got off the ground and ended the year as the worst Esports team ever and arguably the worst competitive sports team of all-time too. Shanghai failed to get a single win, finishing the season 0-40, and things got so bad that they were getting raucous cheers whenever they happened to win a map. The good news is that things can’t get any worse in 2019, even if they again go winless, as each team only plays 28 matches in 2019.
Shanghai Dragons Owners
NetEase owns the Shanghai Dragons. NetEase is a massive internet technology company in China that already had a business relationship with Blizzard before buying into the Overwatch League. The company is responsible for launching Blizzard games in China, but this has been their first venture into Esports. After such an embarrassing first season, it might be their only one.
Shanghai Dragons 2018 Year in Review
Curious decisions were made when it came to building the roster for Shanghai’s first season. The Dragons signed an eight player all-Chinese roster with the goal of creating a team that would be more marketable in China. China continually has one of the best-performing teams at the Overwatch World Cup, so that made total sense, but the Dragons decided to select a number of players that were not considered elite and their play was poor.
It quickly became clear that the Dragons were overmatched. Shanghai won just one map in its first four matches, and they won a total of 21 maps all year. They won just two maps in the entirety of Stage Two and four maps throughout Stage Four and were simply hopeless.
Like other teams in the league, they thought their best option was to go the Korean route and signed four Korean players during the season to try to break into the win column. Of course, communication problems quickly emerged between the Korean players and the Chinese players and the language barrier became a problem.
On a positive note, Shanghai did make some history in a good way too. They signed the league’s first ever female player in Geguri, and she was pretty good on D.Va. When Zarya came into the meta, she shined on that character too, and she earned a spot at All-Stars for her play.
Shanghai Dragons Roster
It took just one month for Shanghai to ditch their all-Chinese lineup, and the Dragons have just one Chinese player on the roster this season. DPS player Diya is back for 2019, and he is out for revenge. He is not expected to start, but he should have value as a role player.
Instead, the starting DPS players are expected to be DDing and diem. DDing is known more for somewhat off-meta picks like Pharah and Doomfist, but he is very talented and can flex when needed to. Diem will be the Dragons’ hit-scan player, and he became a standout player for Chinese-based team Lucky Future Zenith in 2018. Youngjin from Team Kongdoo Panthera is expected to be a back-up too.
The supports are going to be new too, but at least they have chemistry together. Luffy and Coma played together on Kongdoo Panthera all last season, and that experience should help. However, Luffy is a more well-rounded support than Coma, and Coma could have a hard time in certain metas. There are currently no other supports on the roster.
Tank play is going to be the strength of Shanghai. Geguri will be the team’s starting off-tank, and she will be joined by either Fearless or Guardian. Fearless was her partner up front for most of the year and largely played Winston, while Guardian is a former member of Lunatic-Hai that didn’t participate in the league last year. They should make the Dragons better in 2019.
Shanghai Dragons 2019 Preview
Bold prediction: Shanghai will get a win this year. The Dragons are still likely to be one of the worst teams in the league, but they got to spend the offseason together and they should be better than some of the new expansion teams. They will beat a few of those teams to finally get a long overdue win.
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