'Overwatch' pro team forces players to train to an unhealthy degree

The Shanghai Dragons have yet to win a single game in the first season of Overwatch League, and to appease fans who may be wondering what exactly is going on behind the scenes, the team's manager revealed the Dragons' practice schedule.

What was meant to be a reassuring post about how hard the Dragons are practicing to achieve their first win (the team is currently 0-32) turned out to be a shocking revelation of a brutal and intense training regiment that is likely detrimental to the players' health.

In a detailed Twitlonger post from Shanghai Dragons team manager Yang Van, the public learned that Dragons players are forced, at times, to practice six days a week for more than 12 hours a day.

"We have the most intensive training scheme among all the teams, ever since we arrived last December," Van wrote. "Our daily schedule starts at 10:30 a.m. as we leave for training facilities and return to our houses around 10:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., with a possible training extension to [midnight]; we train six days a week with one day off."

At best, that's a 72-hour work week, for five weeks straight. That is an insane amount of time to be sitting and playing a game, making repetitive movements, and staring at a screen. It's not healthy, either physically or mentally, to put that much time into training.

Van notes that between the season's five-week-long stages, players will get three or four days off (of a total 10-day break).

It's apparent that this kind of regiment is not doing the team any favors. With zero wins since the season began in January, perhaps the team should try a new approach, such as giving its players ample time to rest and relax so they aren't constantly burnt out.

In his post, Van concedes that there should be a discussion about how players relax, but doesn't seem to grasp the fact that this discussion should be about players playing too much, not about how they use their limited time off. Apparently some fans were worried that Dragons players were playing games other than Overwatch.

"I think it’s worth a discussion on how players, who are passionate about games, should relax themselves when living in [the] U.S. and having a daily schedule almost nothing but training and rest," Van wrote. "But this does not mean that we’ve ever let up on training on Overwatch. We are still putting every minute during training days into Overwatch, in order to solve existing problems of the team."

Perhaps the team should let up a little bit, let players chill out for a little bit and turn down the pressure.

The Overwatch League did not respond to a request for comment.