Following, the Dragons overturned their roster, claimed at least one midseason tournament title in each of the next three seasons, and won the 2021 Overwatch League Grand Finals after shutting out Atlanta Reign.

"[2] On September 27, NetEase revealed the franchise name as the Shanghai Dragons and was the first OWL team to release its branding.

[13] In hopes of not reliving the 2018 season, the Shanghai Dragons released eight of 11 members of their roster in the offseason, leaving only Geguri, Lee "Fearless" Eui-seok, and Lu "Diya" Weida.

[16] The team also acquired tank player Noh "Gamsu" Young-jin from the Boston Uprising late in the offseason, after Fearless became inactive due to unspecified health reasons.

[21] The team took down the top-seeded New York Excelsior, 3–1, and the second-seeded Vancouver Titans, 4–1, in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively,[22][23] before defeating the third-seeded Shock, 4–3, in the finals to claim their first-ever stage championship.

[24] Prior to the start of Stage 4, the team acquired support player Kim "Izayaki" Min-chul from the Los Angeles Valiant.

[25] Shanghai's success did not last, however; after the implementation of a 2-2-2 role lock by the league in Stage 4, the Dragons only won one of their final seven matches, finishing the regular season in 11th place with a 13–15 record.

[27] Their second match, against the London Spitfire, went to an OWL record eight maps, but the Dragons fell 3–4, ending their playoff hopes.

[32][33] The Dragons finished the regular season atop the Asia region standings with 27–2 record, including bonus wins.

[34][37] In the offseason preceding the 2021 season, the team elected not to re-sign all five of their free agents, which included Geguri.

[38] Additionally, the Dragons transferred Fearless to the Dallas Fuel;[39] team found his replacement in tank player Koo "Fate" Pan-seung, who was acquired from the Florida Mayhem.

[44] In the final tournament cycle of the regular season, the Countdown Cup, the Dragons went 2–2 in the qualifiers, failing to advance to the regional knockouts for the first time in the season; Dragons' head coach Moon stated that they were "resting" their players during the tournament cycle.

[50] In the Grand Finals match, the Dragons swept the Reign by a score of 4–0 to win their first OWL championship.

Season MVP Grand Finals MVP Role Stars selections All-Star Game selections All-Star Game head coaches On January 10, 2018, the Dragons revealed "Team CC", their academy team for Overwatch Contenders China.