Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
Last night, in front of a packed Blizzard Arena, the Shanghai Dragons ended a forty-two game losing streak that had lasted all of last season and the beginning of this one. The longest wining drought in professional sports ended when the Dragons walked away with a 3-1 victory over the Boston Uprising.
From the start of the first match team fight things went well for the Shanghai. They secured the first map, Ilios, with a dominating 2 points to none. They proceeded to follow it up with an eye-opening performance on King’s Row, where dding showed off his impressive Sombra play. His performance as Sombra remained a challenge the Boston Uprising, as they failed repeatedly to overcome the hacker.
Boston finally found their footing a bit after half time when they squared off again at Horizon Lunar Colony. The map was a seesaw match that showed Boston had no intention of going quietly into the night. After Shanghai took their first offense on the map at a blazing speed, Boston came back to nearly take the game in the third round of attacks. But, during those third attacks Boston finally broke. With chants of “LET’S GO DRAGONS!” filling the arena, Shanghai captured their last point to clinch their first ever Overwatch League victory.
The entire team showed up with their A-games for this historic occasion. Along with dding on Sombra racking up 89 enemies emp’d as part of a total 152 hacked enemies. Other exceptional performances included: commanding performances by tank duo Gamsu and geguri who provided ample control during the match, a solid night of play by DPS diem, and Zenyatta plays by Luffy that drew more than one comparison to legendary Zen player Jjonark.
Even as a Boston Uprising fan myself, I cannot understate my joy for the Shanghai Dragons. Their struggle to get that first victory was certainly longer than the other teams, and they will most likely have an unwanted mention in the record books for a great many years to come. However, last night, with the Dragons’ #BreakThrough trending all over the world, the Shanghai got a sweet reward for all their struggles.
Now that the winless streak “monkey” is off their backs I look forward to seeing what lies ahead for the this team. If they can continue to play like they did last night, I feel confident saying this won’t be the last break through night we see from the Dragons.
