Stat-High Dragons: Do The Numbers Say Shanghai Will Win?
Anything can happen in the playoffs, including a team completely shutting down their opposition. The Shanghai Dragons are looking to do just that. Everyone loves an underdog, but it can be just as satisfying to watch a team like Shanghai completely outclass their opponents.
With the sort of stats that the Dragons put up this season, it wouldn't be surprising. With Role-Stars basically composing their entire lineup, insane stat lines across their roster, and an almost perfect regular-season record, the numbers say that Shanghai Dragons have a fantastic chance of coming away with a Grand Finals victory.
Role-Stars
When the Overwatch League announced the Role-Star rosters, it wasn't surprising to see that the Dragons featured several players. But, it wasn't just "several." It was five. That's essentially an entire starting lineup that proved they were some of the best in the world, all playing for the same team. Most notably, of course, is Byung-Sun "Fleta" Kim, who also won the MVP award. Everyone already knows that Fleta had a great season, so take a look at some of the pieces surrounding him. Jae-won "Lip" Lee was first in the entire league for team fight win rate on Sombra (58.7%) and second on Ashe (59.2%). With a resume that continues to impress, he put up the most damage/10 minutes on Sombra and the second most on Ashe. The significance of these two heroes can't be overlooked. They were two of the most influential heroes throughout the entire season and the fact that Shanghai can boast numbers like that from a player that didn't win MVP? It's terrifying for any DPS line that has to face them.
The tank-line was the other full role duo that made it Role Stars for Shanghai. Eui-Seok "Fearless" Lee and Jun-Woo "Void" Kang were spectacular all season. Specifically, Fearless shined on Winston with the second-best final blows/10 minutes and team fight win percentage. Void was dominant on Sigma with the highest damage/10 minutes on the hero and the second-highest team fight win percentage (53.6%). Those numbers are great, but it becomes truly scary when the numbers show how good they are when not on their main heroes. Fearless had a 55.8% win percentage on all tanks, the highest in the league, and his partner Void finished with a 54.6% win percentage, good enough for third in the league.
In the support role, Jae-gon "Leejaegon" Lee absolutely lit up the stat board, specifically on Brigitte and Lucio. On those two heroes, he placed top-five in the league in nine different statistical categories. Support characters have extremely high carry potential, and you don't have to look past the playoffs to see that Leejaegon absolutely makes the most of his characters playmaking ability. One of the more interesting stats that he posted was first in the league on knockback kills on Lucio and fourth on Brigitte. On Lucio, the numbers were 10.5 kills/10 minutes. More than one per minute.
It's hard to look at the numbers that this Shanghai roster put up and say that their opponents in the Grand Finals will be able to beat them by simply getting a better grasp on the meta. The stats that earned these players their spots on the Role Stars roster says that, if anything, the Dragons are going to perform better on any meta than their opponents by the way the Dragons demonstrated their flexibility all season long.
Click to enlargeWin/Loss Record
If the individual stats weren't enough to make you double guess your bracket if you said the Dragons weren't going to win, maybe this will. The Dragons won as many tournaments as they had losses throughout the entire season. Yeah, that's right. They won both the May Melee and the Countdown Cup. Oh, and they also made the finals in the Summer Showdown. They finished the season with a 27-2 record. They posted a 78.7% Map W/L percentage. The Dragons posted this record over 21 series and only lost 15 maps. That makes for a lot of clean sweeps. This team is obviously composed of a bundle of big-time playmakers, but what really makes this team dangerous is their ability to funnel this talent into a tactically solid team rather than just a group of great players. They went 22-9 in playoff series, so that invalidates the argument that they posted such great numbers against just the worst teams in the league.
This entire postseason is loaded with talent all around, and it is difficult to say with confidence who will come out on top. Shanghai has made its case though, and it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone if they came away with some massive performances on their way to a Grand Finals victory. It will be interesting to see how the North American teams face off against this star-studded roster after not playing against them in months. Only time will tell, but fans should expect some entertaining matches whenever Shanghai is playing.
Images via @ShanghaiDragons | Blizzard Entertainment