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After a sea of expansion teams debuting with team colors and in-game skins made in reds and blues, one new franchise bucked the trend and emerged with the colors we’ve all been waiting for: pink and baby blue. The Hangzhou Spark have joined the fray, and their branding is wonderful.
I’m not a huge fan of the finger gun, but that’s fine; I will no doubt end up wearing a ton of their team skins, and maybe even a jersey, just because they’re the first team to go for it and pick pink as a primary color.
We are Hangzhou Spark! ✧*。٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و✧* pic.twitter.com/yq63oaseQw
— Hangzhou Spark (@Hangzhou_Spark) November 15, 2018
The Spark is owned by Bilibili, a Chinese video sharing company. The company has since expanded into esports via League of Legends and now Overwatch, although they’ve noted that the site has hosted a fair amount of esports content in the past. The team has announced their first player, Xu ‘Guxue’ Qiulin, on Weibo; an announcement is likely coming on English social media as well. Guxue made a splash at the Overwatch World Cup, where he showed that he was capable of playing with the best tanks in the League.
Season 2 of the Overwatch League is set to kick off in February, with 20 teams competing from around the world. Hangzhou is the third Chinese expansion team, joining Guangzhou and Chengdu.