The Story of DDing, Shanghai Dragons

Full Name: Yang Jin-hyeok (South Korean: 양진혁)

Nick: DDing

Also known as: 찐띵이

Games: Overwatch

Current Team: Shanghai Dragons

Ex Team: Team KongDoo Panthera

Date of Birth: the 23rd of November, 1999 (22 years old)

Place of Birth: South Korea

Nationality: South Korean

Relationship Status/Partners: N/A

Here’s a story of Yang “DDing” Jin-hyeok, a former Overwatch flex DPS player for Shanghai Dragons.

Who is DDing?

Yang Jin-hyeok, AKA DDing, was a former flex DPS Overwatch player for Team KongDoo Panthera and Shanghai Dragons from 2016 until the end of 2020.

His favorite Overwatch heroes include Pharah, Sombra, and Hanzo. DDing’s main role was flex DPS, and although he retired at the age of 21, he was considered one of the most talented players.

He played around twenty big tournaments, mostly with Shanghai Dragons, and he was a part of the famous Shanghai Dragons losing streak.

It’s still unknown whether this great DPS talent will come back to the pro scene when Overwatch 2 kicks in, as it seems he hasn’t been active on his Twitch channel.

How Did DDing Become Famous?

​​If you want to talk about the player who can create the most pressure on the opponent, you can’t overlook DDing. 

His incredible knowledge of the game soon got him the opportunity to join the famous Shanghai Dragons. That’s where his Pharah skills really shined.

He has been using Pharah since his career began and is appropriately known as the “Top Pharah in Korea.”

For DDing, Pharah hero always been a part of his identity and game style. For instance, DDing’s Barrage play during Shanghai Dragons’ Stage 3 Playoffs made him famous.

To be fair, he played great throughout the complete Playoffs, utilizing laser-like precision with his rocket launcher. However, when the Shanghai Dragons set the stage for his Pharah ultimate, you could see how teamwork can do magic even against pros like San Francisco Shock.

DDing’s ultimate execution was a masterpiece. And who could forget Coma’s sacrifice when he body blocked DDing so he could execute the Barrage until the end?

The funny thing is that DDing was also famous with Shanghai Dragons before this marvelous play. Namely, he was a part of Dragons’ infamous losing streak.

Namely, Shanghai Dragons’ first regular season began with a loss to the same San Francisco Shock we mentioned earlier.

Although it’s the usual business for a pro eSports team to lose to another pro team, losing matches would become a trend for them throughout the season.

In 2018, the Dragons had opened the season with a 0–10, so they quickly signed new players, including the first female player in the Overwatch League, Kim “Geguri” Se-Yeon.

However, the Dragons’ continued to lose match after match, and after their 29th consecutive loss, they finally surpassed the Philadelphia 76ers, which previously held the most undesirable record for having the longest losing streak in professional sports history.

Given that they were heading to the worst finish of a season ever, they hired fresh blood in October 2018, and that’s when DDing came.

Unfortunately, even with DDing’s help, Shanghai Dragons kept losing games until the end of 2018.

When the team opened the 2019 season with another two losses, everyone feared this might be the beginning of another terrible season.

Luckily, on the 23rd of February, they managed to break their 42-game losing streak when they defeated Boston Uprising, 3–1, meaning DDing had a big part in breaking the team’s curse.

DDing Debut Teams

DDing first drew attention to him In July 2016, during his debut at the VSL Overwatch Korea: S1.

At that time, the Overwatch pro competitions were still in the making as Overwatch was not yet online. Players competed under the so-called rules of quick competition.

Team Escape, where DDing was at the time, played the first game of his career against Team SQUARE. He played good games with his favorite pick Pharah, although Team Escape still lost 2:3 to Team SQUARE. After this tournament, DDing knew he was on a good path to becoming an excellent DPS.

DDing was open for collabs with professional Korean Overwatch teams and soon received an invitation in 2016 to join the wNv.KR in China as a DPS player.

His time spent with wNv.KR earned him a lot of useful experience, especially matches against LGD and KongDoo Uncia, a team he later joined.

After joining KongDoo Uncia and KongDoo Panthers in 2017, he was scouted by the Shanghai Dragons, where he spent the most lucrative years of his career until his retirement in 2020.

DDing Streaming

Although DDing has a Twitch channel DDing_ow or 띠이이잉, and approximately 6k followers, he didn’t stream since 2021.

He also has a Twitter account under the name DDi n g. However, it seems that he isn’t active as much.

DDing Relationship

Given that DDing keeps his personal life as secretive as possible, there is no information regarding DDing’s love interests or the people he was or is currently seeing.

DDing Statistics

Throughout his short and strange Overwatch career, DDing only played in 20 or so pro tournaments.

Of course, the biggest tournaments he played were the Overwatch league (12 in total). However, he wasn’t unsuccessful.

He won multiple first places in: 

• Overwatch League 2020 – Asia Playoffs
• Overwatch League – 2020 Regular Season
• Overwatch League 2020 – Countdown Cup
• Overwatch League 2020 – May Melee
• Overwatch League – 2019 Stage 3 Playoffs.

DDing’s other extraordinary results also include 2nd place in Overwatch League 2020 – Summer Showdown and Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 2: Korea, and third place in Overwatch League 2020 – Playoffs – Grand Finals.

Perhaps the highest unofficial achievement that DDing had in his career was the title of the best Korean Pharah.

DDing Personal Info and Game Style

Yang “DDing” Jin-hyeok started playing shooters as a small kid. However, his first serious competitive efforts were witnessed in 2016, when he joined his first professional Overwatch team.

He was always an unforgivable player. Although his preference was for DPS roles, he always knew how to read his enemies instead of pointlessly spraying fire on them.

Soon after he joined the wNv.KR team, DDing really grew up as the core Pharah player, and the names DDing and Pharah became more and more inseparable.

As the competitive Overwatch scene grew and changed rapidly, DDing realized he couldn’t cling to Pharah all the time. He was facing difficulties and was thinking about leaving the pro scene.

That’s when he learned to play heroes like D.Va and Hanzo. As the game changed and more and more pro players around the world started competing on the Overwatch scene, DDing needed to learn how to play more versatile heroes.

That’s when he started practicing and picking Sombra intensively. That’s how he drew the attention of the Shanghai Dragons.

DDing’s gameplay style also reflects his mentality—it’s sharp. DDing is very good at challenging opponents in the game both mechanically and emotionally.

DDing’s game traits earned him the title of one of the most aggressive Korean DPS on the scene. He is good at finding opponents’ weaknesses but also relentless when he reveals them.

DDing had a lot of challenges when he needed to switch to Sombra. However, he is so persistent that even after switching to Sombra, everyone thought Sombra adopted DDing’s traits instead of the opposite.

Thanks to DDing’s ability to adapt to playing different styles of DPS, he became the Dragons’ DPS ace in the sleeve.

However, after his successful 2019 and 2020, DDing thought that the game was so different from when he started playing that he chose to focus on other activities and hobbies in his life.

By the end of 2020, he announced that he would be retiring from the Overwatch competitive scene to pursue some other interests.

He often advised his fans on how to play Overwatch. In this clip, you can see DDing explaining where to place various triggers and how to use hero abilities on maps.

Despite having powerful gaming setups, he still likes to set graphics on low and mouse sensitivity and rendering on 10.

DDing Net Worth and Finances

Although DDing was a part of Shanghai Dragon’s losing streak and only got the chance to compete and earn money in 16 tournaments, he still amassed a net worth of approximately 180,000 dollars.

Most of his earnings come from tournaments he played and won with Shanghai Dragons, the Overwatch League 2020 – Playoffs – Grand Finals winning him the most, with the prize of 450,000 dollars.

DDing Age

Yang Jin-hyeok is 22 years old as of the 23rd of November, 2021.

Where Does DDing Live?

Yang Jin-hyeok is originally from South Korea, although when he played competitively, he lived in China. His current place of residence is unknown.

DDing Weight and Height

Yang Jin-hyeok is approximately 1.73 tall and weighs about 65kg.

DDing FAQ