The Shanghai franchise in Overwatch League will be called the Shanghai Dragons, the team announced Friday.
The team’s colors will be yellow, red, white, and black. The Dragons also announced a themed skin for Mei, the Chinese hero in Overwatch, which features all four of the team’s signature colors.
“We aim to create more high-quality and innovative products for gamers around the world. The Overwatch League is an opportunity we didn’t want to miss because of the opportunity to earn audiences’ excitement and loyalty through world-class esports competition,” NetEase CEO William Ding said in a news release.
The Shanghai Dragons are the first franchise to announce a new name and brand, as Blizzard has required for all 12 teams that will compete in the first season of Overwatch League. The preseason exhibition matches start Dec. 6, and the regular season will begin Jan. 10 and continue into June, followed by the playoffs in July. All of the matches will be played in Blizzard’s new esports Arena in Burbank.
Shanghai was one of the first seven teams to join the league, and NetEase, the official Overwatch distributor in China and the server operator for all Blizzard games in China, owns the franchise. That relationship represents a direct conflict of interest because a team will be owned by a company that had a previous relationship with Blizzard, publisher of Overwatch, and subsequently made money for Blizzard.