The longest losing streak in Overwatch’s history is finally over.
The Shanghai Dragons defeated Boston Uprising in a one-sided 3-1 match, breaking the team’s infamous 0-42 losing streak record. It was an emotional victory for the Dragons, and Se-yeon “Geguri” Kim could be seen crying tears of joy soon after leaving the stage.
Despite a shaky start to the season, former Boston Uprising tank Young-jin “Gamsu” Noh appeared to become the in-game leader the Dragons so desperately needed. With 108 eliminations and 39 final blows in the series, Gamsu showed no mercy to his former Uprising teammates.
To the surprise of everyone following the Overwatch League, Gamsu had been traded to the Dragons with only a day of practice remaining before the second season began. He had yet to establish communication and strategy with his new team, and expressed concern with the squad’s dour mood during practice.
“We were getting too much pressure from the losing streak. But, we will overcome and be a great team now,” Gamsu said.
Dragon fans began to take notice of their team’s improved confidence and strategy in game one against Boston. When Jin-kyeok “DDing” Yang cleared the first point with a Rocket Barrage, Twitch viewers started spamming, “TODAY IS THE DAY.”
The Dragons had similar energy on King’s Row, causing Overwatch League analysts to wonder if the pressure of potentially being the first team to lose to Shanghai might be getting to Boston.
Even though the Boston Uprising had proven themselves against the Houston Outlaws last week, the team just couldn’t keep up with the Dragons newfound determination, putting the Dragons up 3-0 and guaranteeing the win. The Uprising came back to take one game on Rialto, but by then the Dragons had already secured their first victory in OWL history.
The Shanghai Dragon’s official #breakthrough hashtag amassed over 18K tweets soon after the win, becoming a trending topic on Twitter.
“The first day, we had only pressure. Now, we can bring positive energy to our games instead,” Gamsu said.
