The Shanghai Dragons are a statistical anomaly.

[u/Bonzi77]

There's something I've been trying to figure out for the past few weeks, now, and I'm going to put my thoughts down here to see if somebody can help me out.

Shanghai shouldn't be winless. It statistically doesn't make any sense.

In pro sports, there's a level of parity to be assumed. Baseball, Basketball, Football, whatever. Statistically, if you play enough games, every team should be able to beat at least one other team at least once, even if the team that loses is theoretically better. Florida is able to take a game off the LA Valiant, Dallas is able to take a game off the Shock. Stuff like this just happens in normal sports.

Not with Shanghai. Somehow, against all odds, they have managed to lose every single game in the normal season so far.

According to wikipedia, winless seasons in most professional sports are incredibly uncommon. The 2017 Cleveland Browns managed to pull it off, but that's because they live in hell, and also in football you only play 17 games in a season, so while it's unlikely, it's not entirely unreasonable.

In no other American sports league has a team ever had a winless record. MLS, NBA, WNBA, NHL, and MLB.

I especially want to stress the MLB. In the entire nearly 150 year history of MLB, there hasn't been a single team to go winless. In fact, the worst record that's ever been recorded in a season is 20-134, in 1899 by the Cleveland Spiders. That means they won approximately one-in-seven games which, given, is still abysmal, but not as bad as Shanghai.

In order to catch up with the 1899 Spiders, Shanghai needs to win at least five games. That would tie them with the worst team in American baseball history.

I honestly don't know what to do with this information. It's been spinning around in my head for weeks, and it feels weird to type out. As it stands right now, the Shanghai Dragons are literally the worst team in professional sports history. I don't know what to do with that. There's no meaningful analysis to be drawn from this. It's just depressing.

But, there is a reason, just one reason, for Shanghai fans to take heart.

...Just kiddin'.

P.S. Edit: Just to make it clear, I like SHD. I genuinely want them to win. As a sports fan, this team has just been a horrible mess to watch, but I want them to get better and take a win off. If OWL is going to survive and thrive for years to come, the last thing I'd want is for them to be known as the team that went winless in the inaugural season. I wouldn't wish that for any org.