The Hangzhou Spark Electrifies The Overwatch League

Published: November 15, 2018 11:30 AM /

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overwatch league hangzhou spark

The fourth (and final) Chinese team in the Overwatch League has been announced on the league's official website as the Hangzhou Spark.

The Hangzhou Spark is the latest reveal of the eight expansion teams being added to the Overwatch League for its second season in 2019. It is one of three Chinese teams that were added in this expansion round, joining the Shanghai Dragons for a total of four from the land of the three kingdoms. The other two teams revealed this year were the Guangzhou Charge and the Chengdu Hunters.

The team's colors are comprised of something that fans had been hoping to see for some time. Hangzhou Spark players will duke it out in a mix of pink and light blue with white accents. This particular color combination is meant to represent the rapidly growing home city of Hangzhou.  Their logo, however, happens to have an interesting nerdy story behind it.

overwatch league hangzhou spark magical railgun
The Hangzhou Spark logo was likely inspired by A Certain Scientific Railgun.

Officially, the logo simply states that it shows "a spark element shooting from a hand". The real inspiration is very likely a bit deeper than that, and it all has to do with the team's parent company bilibili Esports Company.

bilibili (who are, unsurprisingly, the owners of bilibili Esports Company) is a video-sharing site with a particular focus on animation, comics, and games. The site's initial prototype was eventually changed into a video-sharing site that took on the name of bilibili. "Bilibili", or "Biribiri", is the nickname of Mikoto Misake, the protagonist of A Certain Scientific Railgun. It's an interesting little bit of trivia for the nerdier weebs out there (a group of which I am very much a part of).

This team is the sixth of eight teams joining the league next year. A leak of team names and logos has now been all but confirmed - every single one of the teams revealed after the leak has matched up with it exactly. The final two remaining teams are the Washington Justice and the unnamed Vancouver team.

The Hangzhou Spark will be representing their own little corner of China in style when the second season of the Overwatch League kicks off in February 2019. You can keep up with the team by following them on Twitter, Instagram, Weibo, and bilibili.

What do you think of the Hangzhou Spark? Do you think the color choices are nice or are they a bit too gaudy? How do you think this team will do compared to the other three Chinese teams in 2019? Let us know in the comments below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


A photograph of TechRaptor Senior Writer Robert N. Adams.
| Senior Writer

One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N

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