There are two options for the Shanghai Dragons' first Overwatch League match against the Hangzhou Spark: They win or they lose. The outcome of the Overwatch League's first matches -- which are spread out across opening week for the league's 20 teams -- sets the tone of the new season's first stage. But for most teams, the result is yet another statistic in a flood of numbers.
For Shanghai, it's a continuation of a narrative that was whispered, then shouted, across the Overwatch League's inaugural season: When will the Shanghai Dragons get their first win? Shanghai's players say it's this season -- but their goal isn't just one or two victories. It's to get to finals.
On June 16, the last day of the Overwatch League's inaugural season, Shanghai lost to the San Francisco Shock -- a quick 0-4 sweep that bookmarked Shanghai's abysmal year. That's 40 losses on the record, each game building more anticipation for a win. The losses spanned roster shake-ups, meta changes and structural controversy but were ultimately a product of a team without cohesion -- in communication, playstyle and practice.
In the offseason, Shanghai has tried to fix that. The organization dropped eight players -- six Chinese players and two South Korean players -- and opted to keep three players from Overwatch League's first season: Kim "Geguri" Se-yeon, Lee "Fearless" Eui-seok and Lu "Diya" Weida, the only Chinese player now on the team. (Fearless has since taken personal leave for an unspecified health condition and won't participate in the team's first matches, however.)
Shanghai brought on seven South Korean players, many of whom previously played for KongDoo Panthera. Bae "diem" Min-seong, Cho "GuardiaN" Joon-hwan and Youngjin "Gamsu" Noh are the exceptions, the former plucked from other Contenders rosters, with Gamsu joining from Boston Uprising. The Dragons also added new coaches in former KongDoo Panthera coach We "BlueHaS" Seong-hwan, former Miraculous Youngster player Yan "creed" Xiao and former Element Mystic coach Jeong "Levi" Chung-hyeok.
By bringing on four core players from KongDoo Panthera and the team's previous coach, Shanghai is banking on players that have some cohesion, both in familiarity of style and language. They have a demonstrated ability not only individually, but together -- and the rest of the players can build off of that. With eight South Korean players, language is no longer an issue. The team is not complicated by the communication barriers between English, Mandarin and Korean it faced last year, except for Diya, the team's only Chinese player.
"I learned [last season] how important it is to communicate and work with your teammates," Geguri told ESPN via email. "I'll apply this experience to this season. [Communication] is easier since the language barrier is smaller."
But for Diya, this problem isn't simply solved. If he's to be consistently used on Shanghai's main roster, he has to adapt to his South Korean team. And that means learning a new language. Diya told ESPN over email that he is learning Korean and English "daily" to improve communication with his teammates.
A lack of shared language underscored Shanghai's long days of practice, with their reported 12-hour days, six days a week, inside the Overwatch League's Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles. Many wondered if what manager Yang Van called the league's "most intensive" training regimen, on top of the communication issues, was a factor in Shanghai's poor performance. Indeed, it likely was. Burnout and stress are very real threats to the Overwatch League's players, regardless of team. A new schedule has been implemented this season -- teams play fewer matches overall, a total of 28, as compared to last season's 40 -- but it's ultimately on teams to manage player health.
How that plays out differs from team to team; some have built facilities that encourage players to establish working hours and time off. Others are employing mental health experts and personal trainers. For Shanghai, it means keeping up with the six-days-a-week schedule, but with rest time built in.
"We have stable scrims and time for playing ranked matches [in the] training schedule, which can help improve communication and teamwork," Diya said. "We have one rest day every week, and some recreation plans will be scheduled by our team, such as massage, relaxation and team bonding."
(Diya also said one of the more important things he is implementing in the 2019 is to wear more clothes on the Blizzard Arena Los Angeles stage. "It's really important," he added. "[The stage] is cold, so I suggest every player should wear more clothes.)
Structure is a way to mitigate the obvious pressure on the Shanghai players to prove themselves this season. The challenge is in ensuring that structure isn't so rigid as to devalue flexibility, a skill that is baked into Overwatch esports -- after all, fundamental rules of Overwatch often change with the meta. A hero that's a staple of one meta isn't guaranteed success in another. Teams that succeed in the Overwatch League are adaptable; they can mix and match players and heroes, adjusting with the game's frequent twists and turns.
A lot has changed in Overwatch since the inaugural regular season's culmination in June, both meta-wise and in rosters. Shanghai is near unrecognizable in roster and coaching staff. But the team's inaugural season players are still feeling the pressure to get their first win.
"Season 2 is a brand-new start, so I try not to [feel] pressure," Diya said. Geguri added there's "definitely" pressure to perform but that the team's training will allow members to show their best selves on stage.
But any pressure in breaking Shanghai's losing streak seems to be overridden by confidence in the new roster's ability. Both Diya and Geguri are looking forward to their first win in the Overwatch League, but their goals are well beyond that.
"My personal goal is to enter finals," Geguri said.
The Shanghai Dragons made history in the Overwatch League's inaugural season, history that spans beyond esports -- there are no records here that come close to matching it in traditional sports. Winless seasons happen occasionally, but no professional sports franchise has lost as many games in a row. The Detroit Lions went winless twice, once in 1942 and again in 2008. The Cleveland Browns went 0-16 in 2017. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost 26 games in a row, an entire winless season followed by 12 straight losses in the next.
And then there's the Philadelphia 76ers' 28-game losing streak, the worst in the history of modern professional sports.
The Shanghai Dragons soared past that just over halfway through the season.
Yet, while the losses stacked up, Shanghai fans grew more dedicated. The narrative of Shanghai's winless season is only of loss -- that is a big part of being winless, after all -- but erases what Shanghai has gained: a massive and loyal fan base. The story of the Dragons is one that taps into the essence of why we love sports, competition and, most aptly, the underdog. Unlike sports teams, esports rosters don't have ingrained, geographically defined allegiances -- yet. (The Overwatch League is certainly trying to achieve that.) We don't love teams because we grew up with them or because our parents loved them. Fans of the Overwatch League do adhere to regional ties, but they're building out their own histories with the players and their teams.
A 1991 study, "The Underdog Concept in Sport," published in the Sociology of Sport Journal, found that 88 percent of people favored the underdog in a hypothetical scenario between two teams. (Participants changed allegiances as the definition of an underdog changed.) Another study, "The Appeal of the Underdog," published in 2007 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found similar results: People are drawn to teams that appear to be at a disadvantage.
There are a lot of reasons to be a fan, one of which is the ability to see yourself in a team. Most of us can relate to being an underdog, not only in sports, but all over life. The Shanghai Dragons are the epitome of this narrative, of the will to keep going despite the horrendous season. And when Shanghai does take their first win, fans who've stood by the team (or not) will feel that payoff.
Shanghai, scheduled to play Thursday against the Hangzhou Spark, will face an inordinate amount of criticism and pressure as compared to any other team in the Overwatch League. They'll win or they'll lose. Both outcomes will push forward a narrative -- one of a losing streak that continues or ends.
The truth is, the first game of the season might not give fans an accurate model of how the rest of it will play out, and yet, it's a huge moment in the team's history. No other team will face the same scrutiny over the outcome of its first match.