Seoul Dynasty
Seoul Dynasty is a South Korean professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Seoul, South Korea. The Dynasty compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's East region. Founded in 2017, Seoul Dynasty is one of the league's twelve founding members and the only professional ''Overwatch'' team based in South Korea. The team is owned by Kevin Chou of Generation Gaming, who also own and operate an academy team for the Dynasty that compete in Overwatch Contenders (OWC) under the moniker Gen.G Esports. The team that would be the Seoul Dynasty competed under the moniker Lunatic-Hai and were considered to be one the best ''Overwatch'' teams heading into the OWL's inaugural season. However, the team failed to reach the playoffs in 2018. Seoul qualified for the playoffs for the first time in 2019, and in 2020, the team reached the Grand Finals, where they lost to the San Francisco Shock. Franchise history Team creation On July 12, 2017, Blizzard officially annou ... [...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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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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Hangzhou Spark
Hangzhou Spark () is a Chinese professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. The Spark compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's East region. Founded in 2018, Hangzhou Spark began play as one of eight expansion teams in 2019 and is one of four professional Overwatch teams based in China. The team is owned by Bilibili, a Chinese video sharing website; the company also owns Bilibili Gaming, who operate their own ''Overwatch'' division that compete in Overwatch Contenders as an academy team for the Spark. Franchise history OWL expansion On 7 September 2018, Activision Blizzard announced that Chinese video sharing website Bilibili had purchased an expansion team based in Hangzhou for Overwatch League's second season. On 14 November, the team revealed their team name as Hangzhou Spark. On 16 November, the Spark revealed their new head coach, Lee "Mask" Mu-ho. In the following week, the Spark revealed their 10-man inaugural roste ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2019 Overwatch League Playoffs
The 2019 Overwatch League playoffs were the postseason tournament of the 2019 Overwatch League regular season, beginning on September 5, and concluded with the 2019 Grand Finals, the second championship match of the Overwatch League (OWL), on September 29. Eight teams competed in the OWL Playoffs – a double-elimination tournament. The winner of each round of the Playoffs were determined by a single-match, where each match winner was determined by which team wins four maps. The final two teams remaining in the tournament advanced to the Grand Finals, which took place at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The defending OWL champions were the London Spitfire, who won the title against the Philadelphia Fusion in the 2018 OWL Grand Finals, but they fell in the first round of the lower bracket. The San Francisco Shock defeated the Vancouver Titans in the finals to claim their first OWL Championship. Map pool The postseason map pool consisted of twelve maps evenl ... [...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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Guangzhou Charge
Guangzhou Charge () is a Chinese professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Guangzhou, Guangdong. The Charge compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's East region. Founded in 2018, Guangzhou Charge began play as one of eight expansion teams in 2019 and is one of four professional ''Overwatch'' teams based in China. The team is owned by Nenking Group and is managed by the esports brand of Nenking, Ultra Prime Esports. Franchise history OWL expansion On 2 August 2018, Activision Blizzard announced that Nenking Group, owner of Guangzhou Loong Lions, purchased a seat for Guangzhou in Overwatch League. On 15 October 2018, Nenking announced that Sonny Xiao, the vice president of Nenking and the president of basketball operations for the Guangzhou Long Lions, would be the CEO of the team, Overwatch developer Eddy Meng would be the COO, and Overwatch management veteran Ethan Liu would be the general manager. On 8 November, the Nenkeng Group announced ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2019 Overwatch League All-Star Game
The 2019 Overwatch League All-Star Game was the second Overwatch League (OWL) All-Star Game that matched the top players in the Atlantic Division (ATL) against those in the Pacific Division (PAC). The game was played on May 16, 2019 at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California and was the culmination of the league's 2019 All-Star Weekend. All-Star Game Roster selection The rosters and coaches for the All-Star Game were selected through a voting process. In order to be eligible for selection, a player must have played at least 10 regular season games or participated in the 2018 All Star Game. The starters were chosen by the fans, with voting beginning on March 16 and ending on April 28. Fans were allowed to vote for a maximum of two DPS, two tank, and two support players from each division. After the starting rosters were announced, an additional 12 players from each division were selected as reserves by Overwatch League players, coaches, casters, and staffers. The starting roster ... [...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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Dot Esports
The GAMURS Group, simply known as Gamurs, is an esports media and entertainment publisher. Established in December 2014, the group operates multiple brands focusing on the esports and entertainment news markets, including the websites: ''Dot Esports, We Got This Covered,'' ''The Mary Sue'', and ''Prima Games''. GAMURS is based out of Sydney, Australia, with an office in Austin, Texas. History In 2010, at the age of 14, Riad Chikhani and Phillip Luu established Rune Gear, an online portal for the game ''RuneScape''. They sold the business at the age of 17 to focus on school. This portal motivated the pair to develop a similar business but for a wider variety of games, which later became the GAMURS Group. GAMURS began as a social network for gamers after joining the NRMA Jumpstart program run by the Slingshot Accelerator. Shortly after the program ended, the company raised $500,000 in a seed round. GAMURS acquired two platforms, TeamFind and CSGOTeamFinder. On February 14, 2016, th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2019 Seoul Dynasty Season
The 2019 Seoul Dynasty season was the second season of the Seoul Dynasty's existence in the Overwatch League and is the team's first under head coach Kim "KDG" Dong-gun. The team looked to improve on their 2018 season, when they posted a 22–18 record and missed out on the season playoffs. A 3–0 victory over the London Spitfire in the final match of Stage 1 gave the team a 4–3 record and qualified them Stage 1 Playoffs. Seoul took down the New York Excelsior 3–1 in the quarterfinals, but they were eliminated after losing to the Vancouver Titans, 0–4, in the semifinals. The Dynasty struggles in Stage 2, as they were only able to amass a 3–4 record. After the All-Star break, Seoul hit their stride. The team opened Stage 3 with three straight 4–0 sweeps over their opponents, leading to a 5–2 Stage 3 record. Qualified as the fifth seed in the Stage 3 Playoffs, the team fell to the San Francisco Shock 1–3 in the quarterfinals. Seoul struggled in Stage 4, which included ... [...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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Los Angeles Valiant
Los Angeles Valiant (stylized as VΛLIΛNT) is an American professional Overwatch (video game)#Esports, ''Overwatch'' esports team representing the city of Los Angeles, California, although the team is operated in China. Valiant compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's East region. Founded in 2017, Los Angeles Valiant is one of twelve founding members of the OWL and one of two professional ''Overwatch'' teams based in Los Angeles (the other, the Los Angeles Gladiators). The team is owned by Noah Whinston, CEO of esports organization Immortals Gaming Club. The team played out of Los Angeles from 2018 to 2020; in that time, the team won a midseason tournament title and reached the season playoffs twice. The Valiant relocated to China ahead of the 2021 season, a decision that was met with heavy criticism, and Chinese esports organizing LinGan e-Sports began operating the team. The Valiant became the second team in OWL history to have a winless season, after ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |