Each and every week, fans flood the Burbank Studios, dressed in red and black, waiting for the Shanghai Dragons to score their first win during the inaugural season of the Overwatch League. Sadly after nearly six months, the Shanghai Dragons remain winless touting an impressive 0-40 match record. And sadly, no one really knows or has any explanation to why. To put their match record into perspective, this cold streak rivals some of traditional sports worst offenders. In the NBA the Philadelphia 76ers in 2015 racked up a staggering 28 game losing streak. The NFL has the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the MLB has the Louisville Colonels both with 26 consecutive game losses. The picture and narrative that we’ve been painted has been one where Shanghai have little to no pressure put on them. How could an underdog team feel any pressure? With this line of thinking, we could theoretically expect Shanghai to use this notion to their advantage to punch above their weight. However, this has not been the case. The picture that I am offering attempts to better explain why the Dragons have struggled to find any success. I’d argue that the Shanghai Dragons are stuck in a negative feedback loop, feigned as positivity, where the players swim in a bottomless sea of pressure and anxiety. Shanghai has oceans of diehard fans, but nothing to show for it. They’ve got one of the most intensive practice schedules with minimal improvements made. They are the sole representatives of the Chinese Overwatch scene and to top it off their roster, along with their coaching staff, has gone through numerous iterations throughout the first season. It’s this cycle that has kept Shanghai on a slow hemorrhage at the bottom of the Overwatch League standings. Going by way of the Wiseau cult classic, “The Room”, the Shanghai Dragons have become the strange sweethearts of the Overwatch League nearly overnight. Impressive in all the wrong ways, Shanghai has garnered an abundance of attention for being the king of the underdogs. So much so they’ve inadvertently built a familiar narrative around themselves. Orbiting them is the narrative of “no pressure,” which is normally given to a quiet underdog who is paired against a towering opponent in which they are expected to lose.  

2018-06-01 / Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment

With their frankly horrendous match record, the Shanghai Dragons should fit this mold to a tee, right? Here is the part where I am supposed to catch you in my trap of words and claim a written checkmate, but let’s face it: it’s impossible to know what goes on in the heads of players. But what we can’t forget is that there are two sides to every coin. What I’m trying to showcase is this proverbial “other side” of Shanghai’s coin. Consider the following: imagine being a professional in any respectable field and knowing that your most known quality is the fact that you are the worst among your peers. From this fact, somehow you’ve generated some amazingly loyal fans, that you constantly disappoint with a poor record of performances. With these amateurish performances, your merit is then questioned and you have fight for your livelihood. And to top it off you are the sole representatives of one of the largest countries in the world. Start to see where I am headed? Approaching the narrative that the Shanghai Dragons have little to no pressure on them is slightly naive, especially given the fact they operate in a merit-based league and have gained notoriety for simply being the worst of their peers. When you spend nearly half of your day honing a craft, I don’t think anyone would accept being just mediocre at something, let alone be the most deficient. Having spoken to numerous high-level Overwatch players within the last two years one factor remains constant in all of them; the need to win and the Shanghai Dragons are not exempt from this rule. This is evident with the strict training schedule that they maintain. With that in mind, I’d argue that Shanghai operates in one of the most pressured environments in the league. A competition like the Overwatch League is built as a marathon and not a sprint. The winner is the one team who could remain consistent and last the entire grueling season. Seeing how this is the first season of the Overwatch League, professional players are just getting a taste of what that actually means and we’re seeing some repercussions from their undoubted fatigue. With Shanghai's less than stellar match record, fans were quick to speculate on the Dragons’ overall mental sharpness. “We have the most intensive training scheme among all the teams…” Shanghai Dragons’ manager, Yang Van, explained in this statement on the matter. “Our daily schedule starts at 10:30 am as we leave for training facilities and return to our houses around 10:30 to 11:00 pm, with a possible training extension to 12:00 am; we train six days a week with one day off.” With nearly a twelve hour work day, six days a week, for almost six months and little to no ground made, how can we continue to press the narrative that the Dragons have “no pressure”? What people tend to forget is that the Shanghai Dragons are the only Chinese team in the league. When you are the sole representatives of a huge population of avid esports fans, you don’t just play for your team or your teammates, you play for the entirety of a competitive ecosystem. You are the example of what that specific ecosystem can offer the world. Chinese esports fans are incredibly passionate about their regional success. So much so that one League of Legends fan boycotted the 2017 World Championships by purchasing multiple tickets, ripping them to shreds, and than shared the photo of the stubs on Chinese social media. How can that not generate pressure? Now, I’m not too proud to admit that Shanghai has improved steadily throughout the season, I think you’d be lying if you said they hadn’t, but sadly it hasn’t been enough. A large reason why I think they’ve struggled has been from the pressure they face every time they walk onto the stage. With all of these factors in mind, these stressors have created a very tense headspace for the players, hamstrung their gameplay, and exasperated pre-existing problems the team has had. This does not excuse Shanghai’s poor performance, but it does add context to what they’ve been going through. I have all the respect in the world for the Shanghai Dragons, they have some incredibly talented players, but to say they play without pressure undermines anything they’ve worked towards in the Overwatch League. The Shanghai Dragons play with elephants on their shoulders, large pink elephants that everyone disregards. It is these elephants that weigh the Dragons down like thought-anchors, landlocking them from ever finding success.

---

Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel. Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment