Home » Shanghai Dragons Stage 1 Week 3 Preview

Shanghai Dragons Stage 1 Week 3 Preview

Publish Date: February 27, 2019

Week 2 brought what could be one of the most exciting moments in esports history. The Dragons stepped up with something to prove, achieving their first victory in franchise history. With the win now in the past, the Dragons will look forward to see how they can take down their Week 3 opponents.

WEEK 2 MATCH

Drawing Courtesy of @pidoodle on Twitter

Boston Uprising: 1-2

After being transferred to Shanghai, it was clear that Young-jin “Gamsu” Noh had this matchup circled on his calendar. Shanghai surprised many with their quick work, as they took three straight map victories right out of the gate. Two of those three went to overtime, including a double overtime on Horizon (unofficially making the Overwatch League an anime). The final score of the match was in favor of Shanghai, 3-1.

Player of the Game

Although it would be poetic to give this honor to Gamsu, it would be an insult not to give it to Jin-hyeok “DDing” Yang. Rolling out on Pharah and then playing the rest on Sombra, DDing created havoc the entire fight. It’s hard to give it to one player in the inaugural win, but DDing led the way with his EMPs.

WEEK 3 MATCHES

Chengdu Hunters: 2-1

Photo Courtesy of the Chengdu Hunters

Chengdu is ons of the most surprising teams in the first two weeks. Their most impressive win so far is a 3-2 victory over the Guangzhou Charge. Their other two matches were not as impressive, being swept 4-0 by Seoul and scrapping a 3-2 win over Florida. Similar to many of the other Chinese teams in OWL, the Hunters typically don’t run GOATs as frequent as other teams.

This could provide a strong advantage to Shanghai, as they will be able to run an old-fashioned 2-2-2 (and maybe let Min-seong “diem” Bae click heads on Widowmaker). The Dragons will look to possibly throw off Chengdu with some whacky compositions with their versatile hero pool.

Shanghai will win the matchup 3-2, putting themselves back at a winning record.

FUN FACT:

With Zenyatta’s getting publicity out the wahzoo in the first couple weeks, Seong-hyeon “Luffy” Yang has made a statement of his own on the support hero. Luffy leads in healing (8,103 per 10 mins) and second in damage (7,641 per 10 mins) on the Dragons’ roster.

Dallas Fuel: 2-2

The Dallas Fuel have been two different teams in Stage 1 so far, and there’s almost no telling which one shows up. Swept by the Shock and the Charge, then dominating Seoul and Philly, this team is hit or miss. Against the Fusion, it seemed to be apparent that Dylan “aKm” Bignet is fit for the starting role, as Dallas won every map that he played in. Currently ranking top ten in both final blows (ninth) and eliminations (sixth), Shanghai will need to contain him in order to stay ahead.

During the Philadelphia vs Dallas match, Robert “HEXAGRAMS” Kirkbride mentioned a crazy statistic that will define this match (5:00 into the video on Numbani). Teams, at that point in time, won 5.9% of team fights if their Zarya fell first. Although six matches have come after this statistic was released, the pressure is on for diem to keep his energy as high as possible. With playing Chengdu the night before as the final match of the day, it’s hard to see the Dragons stealing the win.

Dallas will win this matchup 3-1.

Player to Watch

With DPS possibly being a key against Chengdu and the Fuel’s aKm being Shanghai’s biggest obstacle, the variable left in the formula has to be diem. Currently, diem ranks fourth in the league in final blows per 10 minutes (7.74 eliminations) after two weeks. When diem clicks heads and keeps his energy high, the rest of the pieces will fall into place.