The Shanghai Dragons are your 2021 Overwatch League champions!
After six months of competition, 4 Regional Tournaments, Play-ins and finally, the Playoffs, the Shanghai Dragons have captured history and won the 2021 Overwatch League Championship.
With strong play from former MVP Byung-sun “Fleta” Kim and Pan-seung “Fate” Koo, the Shanghai Dragons in the 2021 season have officially reversed the narrative of the Shanghai Dragons being the worst team in the Overwatch League to CHAMPIONS.
This year was amazing for the Shanghai Dragons, with two Regional Tournament wins, 1st seed in the Playoffs and of course the Championship. Outside of the final Regional Tournament, the Countdown Cup, the Shanghai Dragons had a presence in every other tournament. They won both the June Joust and the Summer Showdown.
With their 1st seed placement in the Playoffs confirmed, their path to the Grand Finals seemed to be very familiar from their regular-season performance. They chose the previous 2-time champion San Fransisco Shock as their first opponent, beating them decisively in 3-0 fashion. Their second opponent was the upstart Los Angeles Gladiators, whom they defeated 3-1 in the Winners Semi-Final. And then finally, they defeated the Dallas Fuel, another favorite to make it far in the bracket 3-1 in the Winners Finals to make it the Grand Finals for the first time in the organization’s history.
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On the other side of the bracket, the San Fransisco Shock was eventually defeated by the Atlanta Reign. The Reign lost their first match in the Playoffs against the Chengdu Hunters and they have won every match since in the Lower Bracket. The Atlanta Reign defeated both the Shock and the Dallas Fuel on their way to the Grand Finals.
However, the Shanghai Dragons, with the history of the Grand Finals for the Overwatch League behind them, defeated the Atlanta Reign 4-0 to claim the Overwatch League Championship. A new narrative will unfold for the Shanghai Dragons organization.
The Grand Finals Match of the Overwatch League is also bittersweet because, after this season, the Overwatch League will be playing on Overwatch 2. Overwatch 2 comes with some significant changes, the most significant being moving to 5v5 instead of 6v6. Also, the Assault map type will be replaced by the new map type “Push.” The Push game type was demonstrated for the world during the Overwatch League Grand Finals and looks to be promising for the future.
The Grand Finals will not be the end of Overwatch coverage here for esports.gg. We have our Overwatch Contenders season left to cover, along with Collegiate tournaments as well. It’s been a fantastic season for us and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for competitive Overwatch.
