What the Shanghai Dragons’ Coaching Changes Mean for the 2020 Season

The Release

After the somewhat shocking release of Shangai Dragons coaches We “BlueHaS” Seong-hwan and Jeong “Levi” Chung-Hyeok, many fans are wondering what other changes are likely to occur within the team during the offseason.

Shanghai Dragons release coaches BlueHaS and Levi

The Replacement

The day following the release of Shanghai Dragons coaches BlueHaS and Levi on September 23rd, the team announced the new coach that would be taking their place, Moon “Moon” Byung-chul. Coach Moon was released from the Los Angeles Valiant mid-way through the 2019 Overwatch League season. After that, Moon joined the Dragon’s academy team, Team CC. During his time on Team CC, Moon was able to coach the team to a second place finish in Chinese Contenders. This apparently led the Dragons staff to believe he was the most capable choice for the Head Coach position.

Moon’s Past

After a great first season with the Los Angeles Valiant that won them a stage title and a 3rd-4th place playoffs finish, followed by a miserable 0-7 stage one of the 2019 season, it’s easy to call Moon’s coaching career a rollercoaster. However, this is the first team in a long time Moon will be coaching a Korean speaking team, which will hopefully relieve a lot of added pressure for him as a coach, considering he will be less concerned about every player receiving the intended message.

The Shanghai Dragons sign Coach Moon

What Does This Mean for the Roster and 2020 Season?

This change means a lot of things for the upcoming season of the Overwatch League. This all but guarantees that the players Lee “Envy” Kang-jae and Kim “Izayaki” Min-Chul will remain on the roster. These players worked with Coach Moon in the past on the LA Valiant. This also means that DPS player Chae “Bunny” Joon-hyuk has a good chance of joining the team after working with Moon on both the LA Valiant as well as Team CC, despite his overlapping hero pool.

Returning Players

The majority of the remaining Dragons players are likely to stay as well including stellar damage players Bae “diem” Minseong, Yang “DDING” Jin-hyeok, Jin “YOUNGJIN” Young-jin. Another player likely to return is main tank and leader Noh “Gamsu” Young-jin. The consistent support line of Son “Coma” Kyungwoo, and Yang “Luffy” Seonghyeon is likely to return as well.

The two major question marks surrounding the dragons roster are fan favorites Weida “Diya” Lu and Kim “Geguri” Seyeon, who during the 2019 season only played a few times total (only one map in Diya’s case). Would the dragons rather trade these players to other teams so they get playtime (and so they have an open roster spot or two) or keep them for their endless marketability? Dropping these players could open up spots for other incredible Korean players such as Lim “Glister” Gil-seong and Yu “QoQ” Sung-jun. However, the release of Geguri, in particular, seems unlikely due to her being the only female player in the league, and also an inaugural season Dragons player. No matter how much the roster changes, it seems obvious that the Shanghai Dragons are very confident in Coach Moon’s ability to successfully lead the team in 2020.

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