"We have to ask one more time, since we've been saying it so many times: Is today the day?"

On the final day of Overwatch League regular season, host Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez posed this question to his compatriots on the analyst desk, Jonathan "Reinforce" Larsson and Brennon "Bren" Hook. Was today the day for the Shanghai Dragons' first victory, or would they end the season 0-40, winless for the entirety of the league's inaugural season?

To a chorus of Shanghai cheers, fan club-supplied #FireOn banners and light-up homemade signs in English, Mandarin and Korean, Bren opened his shirt to reveal an iron-on photograph of Park "Crusty" Dae-hee, predicting a San Francisco Shock victory. A little more than an hour later, the Shanghai loss was confirmed. The Shock took Lijiang Tower, cementing the Dragons' 0-40 year.

How did this happen? How could a team, even after talent upgrades in several positions going into Stages 3 and 4, possibly lose every single match?

It wasn't supposed to be this way. In fact, before the preseason started, Shanghai ranked in the middle of most tier lists, which perhaps says more about tier lists than anything else. Shanghai wasn't considered a good team, but the Dragons weren't thought of as an awful team either. They occupied a nebulous space in the middle of the pack.

When Shanghai first stepped onto the Overwatch League stage at the Burbank Arena, they became the Fang "Undead" Chao show. Undead was the team's greatest strength and weakness, and when Shanghai ended the first two stages without a victory, Undead was released at the end of Stage 2, followed by his coach, Chen "U4" Congshan. Shanghai pivoted to a hybrid lineup for Stage 3 when their mid-Stage 2 pickups -- He "Sky" Junjian along with three South Korean players, Kim "Geguri" Se-yeon, Lee "Fearless" Eui-seok and Chon "Ado" Gi-hyeon -- were able to play. This team was better than the previous iteration, but struggled mightily with in-game communication.

Members of the winless Shanghai Dragons team enter Blizzard Arena during Stage 3 of the Overwatch League. Robert Paul/Blizzard Entertainment

With their 29th straight loss, the Shanghai Dragons surpassed the Philadelphia 76ers' 28-game losing streak for the worst losing streak in professional sports history. Beating juggernaut New York Excelsior seemed like an impossible task for the Dragons that week. But the series was a bit closer than most anticipated. The Dragons tied the series 1-1 on Numbani before losing the match 3-1. The most disappointing thing about the Dragons' losing streak is that there were brief moments in Stages 3 and 4 when it could have been argued that the Dragons weren't the worst team in the league based on their in-game performances. Yet, they never picked up that first victory. As the season wore on, it became a more visible millstone around their necks as they battled their way through Stage 4, still without a victory.