Shanghai Dragons have released the majority of their Overwatch League team after a disastrous first season.
The Dragons were unquestionably the weakest team in the league in the first season, finishing in last place without having won a single series, a 0-40 final match record.
As teams begin to build their rosters for the second season, Shanghai has announced the most drastic changes of any season one team, releasing nearly their entire roster. With eight players departing the team, only Kim ‘Geguri’ Se-yeon, Lee ‘Fearless’ Eui-seok, and Lu ‘Diya’ Weida remain.
The following players have departed the roster:
- Chen ‘Altering’ Yage
- Xu ‘Freefeel’ Peixuan
- Chen ‘Fiveking’ Zhaoyu
- Jing ‘Roshan’ Wenhao
- Liu ‘Xushu’ Junjie
- Chon ‘Ado’ Gi-hyeon
- He ‘Sky’ Junjian
- Kim ‘Daemin’ Dae-min
While a major overhaul doesn’t come as a shock for a team that failed to win a single match in season one, the only surprise comes in the departure of DPS player Ado, who stood out as a bright spot even as the Dragons struggled.
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Shanghai will have until September 9 to sign players via trade with existing Overwatch League teams, but with no other Chinese players in the league it seems likely that the Dragons will have to rebuild the majority of their roster with free agents.
Unfortunately for Shanghai, there will be an exclusive free agent signing window from September 9 to October 7 for new expansion teams. With at least one new Chinese team announced based in Guangzhou, and potentially more still to be revealed, it seems likely that a lot of China’s top talent will be taken before Shanghai is able to sign new players from October 8.
In addition to the major roster changes, Shanghai also seem to be overhauling their staff ahead of season two. It was also announced that head coach Son ‘Kong’ Jun-Young and analyst Jia ‘Nai8’ Jia have been released from the team.
