San Francisco Shock


San Francisco Shock is an American professional Overwatch esports team based in San Francisco, California. The Shock compete in the Overwatch League as a member of the league's Pacific West Division. They are currently the defending Overwatch League Grand Finals Champions.
Founded in 2017, San Francisco Shock is one of the twelve founding members of the OWL and is one of three professional Overwatch teams in California. The team is owned by Andy Miller, co-owner of the Sacramento Kings and NRG Esports. In the upcoming season, the team will play their home matches at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley and the San Jose Civic in downtown San Jose.
Park "Crusty" Dae-hee was appointed as the team's head coach in 2018 and guided the Shock to three consecutive stage finals appearances, including one stage championship, before securing the team's first season championship in their second season by winning the 2019 OWL Grand Finals.

Franchise history

Beginnings

On July 12, 2017, Overwatch developer Activision Blizzard officially announced that Andy Miller, chairman of the American esports organization NRG Esports, had acquired a San Francisco-based Overwatch League franchise spot for an estimated $20 million. "The local aspect of the league was the biggest attraction ," said Miller in an interview. "One of the biggest issues with esports, and also part of its charm, is that you can create a global audience. You can have fans all over the world. But it’s always become a big challenge for fans to actually see their favorite teams. You have to fly to a major event or a finals somewhere in a major city. And there was never a hometown team."
On September 28, 2017, NRG Esports announced its official inaugural roster including of eight players and head coach Bradford Rajani. A month later, on October 16, the franchise name was revealed as the San Francisco Shock.

Inaugural season

San Francisco Shocks first regular season OWL match was a 0–4 loss against the Los Angeles Valiant on January 10, 2018. The team's first victory came two days later in a 3–1 win over the Shanghai Dragons. The Shock did not find much success in the 2018 Overwatch League season; they finished with a 17–23 record and were 9th of 12th in the overall league standings.

Championship in two years

Looking to qualify for their first stage or season playoffs, the team made several roster additions in the preceding offseason of the 2019 season, including acquiring main tank Yoo "Smurf" Myeong-hwan from the Houston Outlaws academy team, promoting Kim "Rascal" Dong-jun from their academy team NRG Esports, signing Park "Viol2t" Min-ki from Korean Overwatch Contenders team O2 Ardeont, and acquiring DPS Kwon "STRIKER" Nam-joo from the Boston Uprising.
The Shock's first match of the 2019 regular season resulted in a 4–0 sweep over the Dallas Fuel. The team followed the win by splitting the next six matches to finish Stage 1 with a 4–3 record and the sixth seed in the Stage 1 Playoffs. The team made it to the Stage 1 Finals, but they fell to the Titans. San Francisco hit their stride in Stage 2, as the team completed the "perfect stage" with a 7–0 record and 28–0 map record. Qualified as the top seed in the Stage 2 Playoffs, the Shock defeated the Titans in the Stage 2 Finals. San Francisco dropped two matches in Stage 3, against the Houston Outlaws and Chengdu Hunters, and fell to the Shanghai Dragons in the Stage 3 Finals. The team finished the regular season with seven straight wins to post a 23–5 record, the second best in the league, and the third seed in the season playoffs. Jay "sinatraa" Won, Matthew "Super" DeLisi, Choi "ChoiHyoBin" Hyo-bin, and Grant "Moth" Espe were awarded the Role Star commendation for DPS, tank, tank, and support, respectively. Both sinatraa and Super were nominated for the league's most valuable player award, which sinatraa won for his ability to flex onto a multitude of different heroes and hold his own as a championship team member.
San Francisco faced the sixth-seeded Atlanta Reign in the first round of the season playoffs, but the team fell in a heartbreaking 3–4 loss to drop to the losers bracket. The Shock responded to the loss by pulling off a dominant run in losers bracket; the team swept the London Spitfire in the first round, the Los Angeles Gladiators in the second round, the Hangzhou Spark in the third round, and the New York Excelsior in the losers finals to secure a spot in the Grand Finals. The Shock swept the Titans 4–0 in the Grand Finals to claim the title of Overwatch League Champions.
For the 2020 season, the Shock debuted new colors, trading the orange, grey, and gold color scheme that the team had used for two years in favor black and silver, with orange as an accent, as an homage to the Oakland Raiders.
In the middle of the 2020 season, amid the release of Valorant, 2019 MVP Sinatraa decided to retire from the team to pursue a career in Valorant with Sentinels.

Team identity

On October 16, 2017, the San Francisco brand was officially unveiled. The franchise name was revealed as San Francisco Shock. The team's logo features a seismograph in the shape of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in the team's colors of orange, grey, and gold. The name "Shock" and the logo were chosen to represent the large amounts of seismic energy that is present in the San Francisco area. The color gold was chosen to honor the 1849 California Gold Rush that swept the city. "We took great care to choose a logo and identity that would both represent the attributes and traditions of San Francisco, yet at the same time speak to the future of sports and the Shock’s ambitions to take its place as a fixture next to the Bay Area’s championship sports teams," Andy Miller, CEO of NRG Esports, said in a statement. Prior to the 2020 season, the colors were changed to black, silver, and orange, with the black and silver paying tribute to the Oakland Raiders.

Partnerships

In January 2019, San Francisco Shock announced an official partnership with German audio company Sennheiser. The team features the Sennheiser logo on the team jersey's arm.

Personnel

Current roster

Head coaches

Awards and records

Seasons overview

Individual accomplishments

Season MVP
Grand Finals MVP
Role Star selections
All-Star Game selections
On February 26, 2018, the Shock formally announced their academy team would compete under the "NRG Esports" name for Overwatch Contenders North America. They also revealed the team would live, train, and play in Washington, D.C., operating under a training home provided by partners Events DC.
On May 8, 2019, NRG Esports announced that the organization would no longer field an Overwatch Contenders roster.

Seasons overview