San Francisco Shock
The San Francisco Shock are an American professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in San Francisco, California. The Shock compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, the San Francisco Shock is one of the twelve founding members of the OWL and is one of three professional ''Overwatch'' teams in California. The team is owned by Andy Miller, co-owner of the Sacramento Kings and NRG Esports. The Shock have won three midseason tournament titles, qualified for three season playoffs, won two back-to-back OWL Grand Finals, making them one of the most accomplished franchises in OWL history. Franchise history Beginnings On July 12, 2017, ''Overwatch'' developer Activision Blizzard officially announced that Andy Miller, co-founder and co-owner of the American esports organization NRG Esports, had acquired a San Francisco-based Overwatch League franchise spot for an estimated $20 million. "The local aspect of the league was the bi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Overwatch League
The Overwatch League (OWL) is a professional esports league for the video game ''Overwatch'', produced by its developer, Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch League follows the model of other traditional North American professional sporting leagues by using a set of permanent, city-based teams backed by separate ownership groups. The league uses the regular season and playoffs format rather than promotion and relegation used commonly in other esports and non-North American leagues, with players on the roster being assured a minimum annual salary, benefits, and a portion of winnings and revenue-sharing based on team performance. The league was announced in 2016 with its inaugural season taking place in 2018 Overwatch League season, 2018. Format The Overwatch League is owned by Blizzard Entertainment and run by Major League Gaming, which is also owned by Blizzard's parent company Activision Blizzard. The Overwatch League plays out similar to most North American professional sport ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Matthew "super" DeLisi
Matthew DeLisi (born March 28, 2000), better known as super or supertf, is an American former professional '' Overwatch'' player. During his career, he played in the Overwatch League (OWL) for the San Francisco Shock, and prior to OWL's inception, he played for Bird Noises, Hammer Esports, and Luminosity Gaming Evil (LGE). A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, DeLisi began his ''Overwatch'' career playing on team Bird Noises before joining Hammer Esports in early 2017. Shortly after, he was a part of LGE, after LGE acquired Hammer Esports. DeLisi signed with the San Francisco Shock in late 2017, ahead of the OWL's inaugural season. Underage at the beginning of the season, he made his professional debut in April 2018. While with the Shock, DeLisi became a two-time OWL All-Star, was named an OWL Role Star, was an OWL MVP finalist, won three midseason tournament titles, and won two OWL championships, in 2019 and 2020, and won the 2019 Overwatch World Cup as a part of Team US ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shanghai Dragons
The Shanghai Dragons () are a professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Shanghai, China. The Dragons compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's East region. Founded in 2017, Shanghai Dragons are one of the league's twelve founding members and are one of four professional ''Overwatch'' teams based in China. The team is owned by Chinese internet technology company NetEase, who also own Team CC, an academy team for the Dragons that compete in Overwatch Contenders. The Shanghai Dragons did not win a single match in their first season in the OWL, going 0–40, giving them the record for the worst single-season record in professional sports history. The team also holds the record for the longest losing streak in professional sports history at 42 losses, passing the previous record 28-game losing streak held by the Philadelphia 76ers. Following, the Dragons overturned their roster, claimed at least one midseason tournament title in each of the next three s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Polygon (website)
''Polygon'' is an American entertainment website that publishes blogs, reviews, guides, videos, and news primarily covering video games, as well as movies, comics, television and books. At its October 2012 launch as Vox Media's third property, ''Polygon'' sought to distinguish itself from competitors by focusing on the stories of the people behind the games instead of the games themselves. It also produced long-form magazine-style feature articles, invested in video content, and chose to let their review scores be updated as the game changed. The site was built over the course of ten months, and its 16-person founding staff included the editors-in-chief of the gaming sites ''Joystiq'', '' Kotaku'' and '' The Escapist''. Its design was built to HTML5 responsive standards with a pink color scheme, and its advertisements focused on direct sponsorship of specific kinds of content. Vox Media produced a documentary series on the founding of the site. History The gaming blog ''Poly ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vancouver Titans
The Vancouver Titans are a professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Titans compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2018, the Vancouver Titans began play as one of eight expansion teams in 2019 and is one of two professional ''Overwatch teams'' in Canada (the other, Toronto Defiant). The team is owned by Canucks Sports & Entertainment, owners of the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Vancouver Warriors of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). For their inaugural season, the Titans signed a roster consisting of mostly members from Korean Overwatch Contenders team RunAway. In their first year, they reached all three of the stage playoffs, made two stage final appearances, won one stage title, finished at the top of the regular season standings, and reached the 2019 Grand Finals, where they ultimately lost to the San Francisco Shock. However, conflicts betwe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gwon "Striker" Nam-ju
Kwon Nam-joo (), better known by his online alias Striker, is a South Korean professional '' Overwatch'' player, best known for his play on the hero Tracer. He began his ''Overwatch'' career playing for South Korean team ROX Orcas in Overwatch Apex. Kwon signed with the Boston Uprising ahead of the Overwatch League (OWL) inaugural season. After one season with the Uprising, Kwon was traded to the San Francisco Shock. In his time with the Shock, he won two Overwatch League championships, in 2019 and 2020, and was named the 2020 Grand Finals most valuable player. Kwon retired from professional ''Overwatch'' in mid-2021; however he came out of retirement a few months later. He signed with the Uprising for the 2022 season but was released after only a few weeks into the season. Later that season, he signed back with the Shock, and the following year, he again joined the Uprising. Professional career Early career Kwon began his ''Overwatch'' career playing for ROX Orcas in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2019 Overwatch League Season
The 2019 Overwatch League season was the second season of the Overwatch League (OWL), an esport based on the video game ''Overwatch''. The league expanded from 12 teams from the inaugural season to 20 teams. Of the eight new teams, two were from the United States, two were from Canada, one was from France, and three were from China. The season began on February 14, 2019, and ended on August 25. Postseason play began in late August. The San Francisco Shock won the Grand Finals over the Vancouver Titans to become the league champions. League changes Expansion The Overwatch League initially launched with twelve teams in the 2018 season. During this season, Blizzard stated it planned to expand out the league to add six teams, ideally gaining more teams in European and Asian regions, and started meeting with potential owners in March 2018. By September 2018, Blizzard confirmed it had signed eight additional teams based in Atlanta, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Toronto, Paris, Washington ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The company was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen along with his son Scott Rasmussen and Ed Eagan. ESPN broadcasts primarily from studio facilities located in Bristol, Connecticut. The network also operates offices and auxiliary studios in Miami, New York City, Las Vegas, Seattle, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. James Pitaro currently serves as chairman of ESPN, a position he has held since March 5, 2018, following the resignation of John Skipper on December 18, 2017. While ESPN is one of the most successful sports networks, there has been criticism of ESPN. This includes accusations of biased coverage, conflict of interest, and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts. , ESPN reaches approximately 76 million te ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kotaku
''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ''Kotaku'' was first launched in October 2004 with Matthew Gallant as its lead writer, with an intended target audience of young men. About a month later, Brian Crecente was brought in to try to save the failing site. Since then, the site has launched several country-specific sites for Australia, Japan, Brazil and the UK. Crecente was named one of the 20 most influential people in the video game industry over the past 20 years by GamePro in 2009 and one of gaming's Top 50 journalists by Edge in 2006. The site has made CNET's "Blog 100" list and was ranked 50th on ''PC Magazine''s "Top 100 Classic Web Sites" list. Its name comes from the Japanese ''otaku'' (obsessive fan) and the prefix "ko-" (small in size). Stephen Totilo replaced Brian ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Boston Uprising
Boston Uprising is an American professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The team competes in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, Boston is one of the league's twelve founding teams. The team is owned by Robert Kraft of the Kraft Group, who also owns the National Football League's New England Patriots and Uprising Academy, an academy team for the Uprising that compete in Overwatch Contenders. Boston became the first team in the history of the Overwatch League to go undefeated during a regular season stage, after going in Stage 3 of the 2018 season. After reaching the League playoffs and finishing fifth in the final season standings in the 2018 season, the organization has failed to return to the playoffs. Franchise history On July 12, 2017, Blizzard Entertainment officially announced that the Kraft Group had acquired the Boston-based franchise of the Overwatch League. On the decision to purchase ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Choi "ChoiHyoBin" Hyo-bin
Choi Hyo-bin (), better known as ChoiHyoBin, is a South Korean former professional '' Overwatch'' player. He began his career playing with team X6-Gaming, where he won the first Overwatch Contenders Korea championship. Choi signed with the San Francisco Shock for the inaugural season of the Overwatch League (OWL). He won two OWL championships with the Shock, in 2019 and 2020, and was named the 2019 Grand Finals most valuable player. Professional career X6-Gaming Choi began his ''Overwatch'' career with Korean team X6-Gaming in 2017, where he competed in multiple seasons of the OGN APEX series, a premier ''Overwatch'' tournament series in South Korea. Choi was part of X6-Gaming's APEX Challengers Season 3 Championship team, were he mainly played as the tank character D.Va. After the inception of the Overwatch League (OWL), the APEX series ended, and X6-Gaming began competition in the newly formed Overwatch Contenders (OWC) series. Choi took home the first-ever OWC Kore ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |