Hangzhou Spark () is a Chinese professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

. The Spark compete in the

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 lea ...

(OWL) as a member of the league's East region. Founded in 2018, Hangzhou Spark began play as one of eight

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

s in 2019 and is one of four professional Overwatch teams based in China. The team is owned by

Bilibili Bilibili (stylized bilibili), nicknamed B Site, is a video sharing website based in Shanghai where users can submit, view and add overlaid commentary on videos. Since the mid-2010s, Bilibili began to expand to a broader audience from its origi ...

, a Chinese

video sharing An online video platform (OVP), provided by a video hosting service, enables users to upload, convert, store and play back video content on the Internet, often via a structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally u ...

website; the company also owns

Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming (BLG) is a professional esports organisation based in China. It was formed in December 2017, when Bilibili, Chinese video sharing website, acquired the I May ''League of Legends'' roster. The team expanded into ''Overwatch'' in ...

, who operate their own ''Overwatch'' division that compete in

Overwatch Contenders Overwatch Contenders (OWC) is an international esports league for the video game ''Overwatch'' that is organized by Blizzard Entertainment. The series acts as the development league for aspiring Overwatch League (OWL) professionals. Founded in 2 ...

as an academy team for the Spark.

Franchise history

OWL expansion

On 7 September 2018,

Activision Blizzard Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Vivendi ...

announced that Chinese video sharing website

had purchased an expansion team based in

for

'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 roster through a series of

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

posts, consisting of players from different Chinese and Korean Contenders teams.

Early years: 2019–present

Hangzhou's first regular season OWL match was a 3–1 victory over the

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 ...

on 14 February 2019, in the 2019 season. The Spark qualified for the both the Stage 2 and

Stage 3 Stage or stages may refer to: Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * St ...

playoffs, but failed to reach the finals in either one. Hangzhou struggled at the beginning of Stage 4, which was the beginning of the enforced 2-2-2 role lock by the league, after suspending their starting

damage Damage is any change in a thing, often a physical object, that degrades it away from its initial state. It can broadly be defined as "changes introduced into a system that adversely affect its current or future performance".Farrar, C.R., Sohn, H., ...

player Cai "Krystal" Shilong — an event that later led to the Spark's parent company

taking legal actions. The team lost their first three matches of the stage but recovered by winning their final four matches, ending the regular season with an 18–10 record and the fourth seed in the season playoffs. The Spark began their playoff run with a 3–4 loss to the

Los Angeles Gladiators The Los Angeles Gladiators are an American professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Los Angeles, California. The Gladiators compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, the Los Angeles ...

, sending them to the lower bracket. The team defeated the

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' ...

, 4–1, in the first round of the lower bracket, followed by a 4–0 sweep over the

Atlanta Reign Atlanta Reign is an American professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Reign compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2018, Atlanta Reign began play as one of eight ...

in the second round. The Spark's season came to an end after a 0–4 loss to the

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 ...

. Prior to the 2020 season, the Spark made minor changes to their roster, departing with two players and promoting two from their academy team

. In the first two regional midseason tournaments of the 2020 season, the May Melee and Summer Showdown, Hangzhou lost 0–3 in the quarterfinals each time. Following, Hangzhou released head coach Lee "Mask" Mu-ho and promoted assistant coach Huang "Pajion" Ji-sub to head coach. In the third, and final, midseason tournament, the Countdown Cup, the Spark reached the finals, but lost to the

. The team finished the regular season with a 12–10 record. Hangzhou fell in the Asian play-in tournament to the

, 0–3, ending their season. Looking to improve from their 2020 season, the Spark nearly instantly maxed out their roster with rookies in the 2021 offseason. After an 0–2 start to the 2021 season, the Spark released head coach Hwang "paJion" Ji-sub and promoted Hwang "Andante" Jae-hong to interim head coach. In the first week of June, the Spark hosted the first live OWL events of the 2021 season, marking the first time that live OWL events took place in China. Head coach Hwang "Andante" Jae-hong was released on 15 July 2021, due to "irreconcilable differences between Andante’s and the rest of Spark’s ideals," leaving assistant coach assistant coach Chen "U4" Congshan as the only member on the coaching staff. The Spark finished the regular season in fifth place in the Eastern region. Prior to the start of the postseason, starting Spark support player Lee "MCD" Jeong-ho was dropped from the team following reports that he had made

xenophobic Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

remarks towards a Chinese player. Their season ended after they were eliminated in the play-in tournament tournament semifinals, losing to the

Philadelphia Fusion Philadelphia Fusion is an American-based professional Overwatch (video game)#Professional competition, ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Fusion compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's E ...

Team identity

On 14 November 2018, Bilibili officially announced the brand of their franchise, the Hangzhou Spark. The name "Spark" symbolizes the immense speed and power electricity, as well as the "electric nature and creative spark" of the Bilibili brand. The logo is in the team's official colors of pink, white, and blue. It depicts a hand-gesture in shape of a gun with electricity emerging from it and is a reference to

Mikoto Misaka is a fictional character created by Kazuma Kamachi and first illustrated by Kiyotaka Haimura. She is a major character in the ''A Certain Magical Index'' light novel series and the main protagonist of its manga spin-off series ''A Certain Sci ...

from ''

A Certain Scientific Railgun is a Japanese manga series written by Kazuma Kamachi and illustrated by Motoi Fuyukawa, which began serialization in the April 2007 issue of ASCII Media Works' ''Dengeki Daioh'' magazine. The manga is a spin-off of Kamachi's ''A Certa ...

''. The official colors are vibrant in nature to reflect the fast-growing nature of

Personnel

Current roster

Head coaches

Awards and records

Seasons overview

Individual accomplishments

Role Star selections *guxue (Qiulin Xu) – 2019 *iDK (Park Ho-jin) – 2019 All-Star Game selections *guxue (Qiulin Xu) – 2019

Academy team

On 15 March 2019, the Hangzhou Spark announced their official academy team, Bilibili Gaming (BLG), and full roster. The team competes in Contenders China.

References

External links

* {{Overwatch League Esports teams based in China Overwatch League teams Esports teams established in 2018 2018 establishments in China