WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.899 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today we are looking 00:00:01.899 --> 00:00:05.759 at one of the most unprecedented cross -cultural 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:08.679 experiments in modern sports. It really is. Yeah, 00:00:08.759 --> 00:00:12.439 it's the brief, frankly wild, 10 -year lifespan 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:16.100 of Oriental Dragon FC. And if you're listening, 00:00:16.140 --> 00:00:18.160 you need to know this wasn't just some grassroots 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:20.800 team where locals gather on a Sunday. Right, 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:23.079 definitely not. It was a highly engineered project 00:00:23.079 --> 00:00:26.019 dropped into a small Portuguese town, and it 00:00:26.019 --> 00:00:29.969 had this massive global agenda. So our mission 00:00:29.969 --> 00:00:32.770 today is to explore this unusual sports experiment, 00:00:32.990 --> 00:00:35.829 which was basically an incubator meticulously 00:00:35.829 --> 00:00:38.530 designed to hack development and fast track success. 00:00:38.909 --> 00:00:41.210 It really is a remarkable case study for anyone 00:00:41.210 --> 00:00:44.549 listening right now who has ever, you know, been 00:00:44.549 --> 00:00:46.729 part of a corporate incubator. Or maybe you've 00:00:46.729 --> 00:00:49.549 watched a company try to aggressively fast track 00:00:49.549 --> 00:00:52.329 its R &D by just throwing capital at a foreign 00:00:52.329 --> 00:00:54.229 market. Oh, absolutely. Because this 10 year 00:00:54.229 --> 00:00:57.109 timeline. is essential studying for you. It shows 00:00:57.109 --> 00:00:59.350 exactly what happens when you try to apply massive 00:00:59.350 --> 00:01:02.369 resources to artificially engineer success within 00:01:02.369 --> 00:01:05.030 a system that is traditionally very organic and 00:01:05.030 --> 00:01:07.849 slow moving. Okay, let's unpack this. Because 00:01:07.849 --> 00:01:11.650 to truly understand Oriental Dragon FC, we really 00:01:11.650 --> 00:01:13.569 have to look at the architect who built it. We 00:01:13.569 --> 00:01:17.129 do. So we are going back to 2014. The club is 00:01:17.129 --> 00:01:19.670 founded in Moira, Portugal by a company called 00:01:19.670 --> 00:01:22.870 W Sports 7. Right. And at the head of this organization 00:01:22.870 --> 00:01:26.560 is an investor named Keith Chen. Now, Chen had 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:28.659 not just appeared out of nowhere with a massive 00:01:28.659 --> 00:01:30.900 checkbook and a fantasy. He actually had a highly 00:01:30.900 --> 00:01:33.719 credible track record in this specific market. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:35.760 You knew exactly what he was doing. Yeah, he 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:37.599 had been operating within the Portuguese football 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:40.900 system since around 2006. And more importantly, 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:43.379 he was the mechanism behind the transfers of 00:01:43.379 --> 00:01:46.560 Chinese players, specifically Yudabao and Wang 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:49.359 Gang. Right, the Benfica transfer. Exactly. He 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:52.219 brought them to SL Benfica back in 2006 and 2007. 00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:54.620 Which is a crucial detail to underline here. 00:01:54.890 --> 00:01:57.629 I mean, SL Benfica is not just any club. It is 00:01:57.629 --> 00:02:00.870 an absolute titan in European football, completely 00:02:00.870 --> 00:02:03.010 renowned globally for its talent development. 00:02:03.150 --> 00:02:05.670 Oh, for sure. And orchestrating a transfer for 00:02:05.670 --> 00:02:07.909 international players into a system like that 00:02:07.909 --> 00:02:10.569 requires way more than just making a phone call. 00:02:10.650 --> 00:02:13.669 It requires a deep understanding of visas, work 00:02:13.669 --> 00:02:16.310 permits, cultural integration. The bureaucracy 00:02:16.310 --> 00:02:19.650 alone is wild. Exactly. Plus the intense tactical 00:02:19.650 --> 00:02:22.919 demands of the Portuguese game. Chen understood 00:02:22.919 --> 00:02:25.699 the structural machinery of European football 00:02:25.699 --> 00:02:29.159 inside and out. He really did. He knows the landscape. 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:31.419 He knows the major power brokers. And he has 00:02:31.419 --> 00:02:34.659 these deep established ties to one of the most 00:02:34.659 --> 00:02:37.319 prestigious academies in the world. But here 00:02:37.319 --> 00:02:39.800 is the twist. What's fascinating here is the 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:42.979 true underlying purpose behind the creation of 00:02:42.979 --> 00:02:45.319 Oriental Dragon FC. Because if you were starting 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:47.219 a football club in the Portuguese lower leagues, 00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:49.400 the natural assumption is that your ultimate 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:51.400 goal is domestic glory. You know, you want to 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:53.620 win local trophies, climb the national pyramid, 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:56.039 maybe secure a lucrative television contract. 00:02:56.180 --> 00:02:58.139 That is the standard playbook. Right. But that 00:02:58.139 --> 00:03:00.539 was not Key Chen's objective at all. Oregon McGregor 00:03:00.539 --> 00:03:02.840 FC was essentially a factory. It was created 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:06.180 specifically to train Chinese players under elite 00:03:06.180 --> 00:03:08.800 Portuguese coaching. Which is so unique. The 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:11.860 grand vision was to eventually export these highly 00:03:11.860 --> 00:03:14.840 trained players back to China with the expectation 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:18.780 that this imported European expertise would elevate 00:03:18.780 --> 00:03:21.379 the quality of the Chinese domestic league and 00:03:21.379 --> 00:03:24.539 ultimately the Chinese national team. It is essentially 00:03:24.539 --> 00:03:26.780 the sports equivalent of an offshore development 00:03:26.780 --> 00:03:29.870 team. That's a great way to put it. If you work 00:03:29.870 --> 00:03:32.449 in tech or finance, you see this model all the 00:03:32.449 --> 00:03:35.729 time. You take your raw talent, you move them 00:03:35.729 --> 00:03:38.409 to an environment where the infrastructure, the 00:03:38.409 --> 00:03:41.409 daily competition, and the mentorship are just 00:03:41.409 --> 00:03:43.490 light years ahead of what you have locally. Right. 00:03:43.509 --> 00:03:45.629 You immerse them in it. Exactly. You let them 00:03:45.629 --> 00:03:47.830 absorb all that institutional knowledge for a 00:03:47.830 --> 00:03:49.650 few years, and then you bring that polished, 00:03:49.770 --> 00:03:52.930 highly competitive asset back home to dominate 00:03:52.930 --> 00:03:55.509 your domestic market. That is the theory on paper, 00:03:55.650 --> 00:03:58.650 certainly. But managing human athletes is very 00:03:58.650 --> 00:04:00.449 different from managing software developers. 00:04:00.629 --> 00:04:03.229 You cannot just drop a group of teenagers into 00:04:03.229 --> 00:04:05.930 a foreign country, put them on a pitch and expect 00:04:05.930 --> 00:04:08.270 them to compile perfectly. No, not at all. You 00:04:08.270 --> 00:04:09.909 have to account for the physical environment, 00:04:10.069 --> 00:04:12.870 the profound culture shock and the reality that 00:04:12.870 --> 00:04:16.189 development requires actual high stakes competitive 00:04:16.189 --> 00:04:18.670 pressure. They couldn't just practice. They needed 00:04:18.670 --> 00:04:21.250 to be battle tested. And that need for battle 00:04:21.250 --> 00:04:24.360 testing immediately collided with reality. Let 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:26.279 us look at the squad they assembled in Moita 00:04:26.279 --> 00:04:30.740 in 2014. The club was composed exclusively of 00:04:30.740 --> 00:04:33.680 Chinese footballers, every single player on the 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:35.939 roster. Which is incredibly rare. And crucially, 00:04:35.959 --> 00:04:40.040 they were all young, aged 15 to 19. Initially, 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:42.360 they started out as a second team to an existing 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:45.480 local club, CD Pinholm Events, just to get a 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:47.259 foothold in the region. Lifted started, yeah. 00:04:47.339 --> 00:04:50.339 Right. But... They hit a massive bureaucratic 00:04:50.339 --> 00:04:52.620 roadblock right out of the gate because so many 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:55.120 of these players were under 18. They were legally 00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:57.860 barred from playing in the official sanctioned 00:04:57.860 --> 00:05:00.319 Portuguese leagues. Which is an absolute disaster 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:02.800 if your entire business model is based on gaining 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:04.939 competitive minutes. Yeah, it completely stalls 00:05:04.939 --> 00:05:07.220 the project. The whole point of spending the 00:05:07.220 --> 00:05:09.480 capital to bring them to Europe was to subject 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:12.139 them to the tactical rigor of European match 00:05:12.139 --> 00:05:14.920 days. You simply cannot develop elite players 00:05:14.920 --> 00:05:17.779 just by having them run passing drills in a vacuum. 00:05:17.829 --> 00:05:20.589 They need real opponents. Exactly. They needed 00:05:20.589 --> 00:05:24.170 real matches against varied opponents. But the 00:05:24.170 --> 00:05:26.269 governing bodies have strict age and registration 00:05:26.269 --> 00:05:29.269 rules, and those rules stood squarely in their 00:05:29.269 --> 00:05:31.410 way. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:05:31.949 --> 00:05:34.129 Because Keechin's group did not just pack up 00:05:34.129 --> 00:05:36.389 and accept defeat. They didn't just sit around 00:05:36.389 --> 00:05:38.449 for three years waiting for these kids to turn 00:05:38.449 --> 00:05:41.329 18. No, they got creative. Very creative. They 00:05:41.329 --> 00:05:44.629 engineered a workaround that is, frankly, staggering 00:05:44.629 --> 00:05:48.029 in its scale. They literally funded and created 00:05:48.029 --> 00:05:51.490 their own bespoke U21 youth league, which they 00:05:51.490 --> 00:05:54.089 dubbed the Future Stars League. And this highlights 00:05:54.089 --> 00:05:56.209 the sheer financial leverage of the Oriental 00:05:56.209 --> 00:05:58.529 Dragon Project. They didn't just rent a pitch 00:05:58.529 --> 00:06:00.870 and play friendlies. This future stars league 00:06:00.870 --> 00:06:04.269 included actual established clubs from both the 00:06:04.269 --> 00:06:07.110 Lisbon and Setúbal football associations. But 00:06:07.110 --> 00:06:09.029 because Oriental Dragon was footing the bill 00:06:09.029 --> 00:06:11.550 for the league's operations, they were in a position 00:06:11.550 --> 00:06:14.329 to dictate the terms of engagement. Which is 00:06:14.329 --> 00:06:16.430 wild. And the primary condition was entirely 00:06:16.430 --> 00:06:18.350 self -serving from a developmental standpoint. 00:06:18.949 --> 00:06:22.069 They required every single participating team 00:06:22.069 --> 00:06:25.480 to field at least one Chinese player. during 00:06:25.480 --> 00:06:27.939 the matches. Think about the audacity of that 00:06:27.939 --> 00:06:30.500 leverage. You are paying for the league, so you 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:32.500 essentially buy the rulebook. You make the rules. 00:06:32.699 --> 00:06:35.779 Yeah. You are forcing the local Portuguese teams 00:06:35.779 --> 00:06:38.879 to integrate Chinese players into their actual 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:41.879 competitive lineups. It forces cross -cultural 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:44.060 play on every side of the ball, ensuring your 00:06:44.060 --> 00:06:46.399 players are constantly immersed in the local 00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:48.839 tactical style, even when they are playing for 00:06:48.839 --> 00:06:51.139 the opposition. It is incredibly clever from 00:06:51.139 --> 00:06:53.759 a strategic standpoint. But we also have to consider 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:56.439 the friction this inevitably caused. Put yourself 00:06:56.439 --> 00:06:59.220 in the shoes of a local club manager in Setúbal. 00:06:59.339 --> 00:07:01.620 You were trying to develop your own local academy 00:07:01.620 --> 00:07:05.040 kids. You were trying to win matches. And suddenly 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:07.600 the league's financier is dictating your starting 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:09.800 11. It must have been so frustrating for them. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:12.279 You are mandated to alter your tactical setup 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:14.819 to accommodate a player from the Oriental Dragon 00:07:14.819 --> 00:07:17.579 project. While it solved Ki -Chen's immediate 00:07:17.579 --> 00:07:20.470 problem, It introduced a massive competitive 00:07:20.470 --> 00:07:23.930 distortion into the local ecosystem. It was a 00:07:23.930 --> 00:07:26.850 purely transactional relationship. A transactional 00:07:26.850 --> 00:07:28.930 relationship that they reinforced by bringing 00:07:28.930 --> 00:07:31.149 in the absolute best teachers money could buy. 00:07:31.430 --> 00:07:34.350 Because Chen had those old, deep -rooted ties 00:07:34.350 --> 00:07:36.870 to SL Benfica from his transfer dealings years 00:07:36.870 --> 00:07:39.970 prior, he leveraged those relationships to stack 00:07:39.970 --> 00:07:43.050 Oriental Dragon FC with former Benfica B coaches. 00:07:43.430 --> 00:07:45.790 This cannot be overstated. For a newly formed 00:07:45.790 --> 00:07:48.990 club of 15 to 19 year olds to be trained by technicians 00:07:48.990 --> 00:07:51.610 who used to run the reserve squad for one of 00:07:51.610 --> 00:07:53.970 the most prestigious academies in world football 00:07:53.970 --> 00:07:57.610 is practically unheard of. It's a huge advantage. 00:07:58.009 --> 00:08:01.490 The Benfica B system is designed to produce Champions 00:08:01.490 --> 00:08:05.189 League level talent. By securing that specific 00:08:05.189 --> 00:08:08.139 coaching staff, Oriental Dragon ensured that 00:08:08.139 --> 00:08:10.139 the daily tactical instruction their players 00:08:10.139 --> 00:08:13.379 received was elite. They controlled the roster, 00:08:13.579 --> 00:08:15.540 they bought the league to circumvent the rules, 00:08:15.699 --> 00:08:18.500 and they hired top -tier professors. It was a 00:08:18.500 --> 00:08:21.199 vertically integrated talent laboratory. Exactly. 00:08:21.459 --> 00:08:23.660 So eventually, the players age up. the bureaucracy 00:08:23.660 --> 00:08:25.980 clears, and the club can officially enter the 00:08:25.980 --> 00:08:29.279 actual Portuguese football league system. This 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:32.720 happens in the 2015 -2016 season. Right. They 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:34.960 make their debut in the fifth tier of Portuguese 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:37.799 football, specifically the Setúbal Football Association's 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:40.480 second division. They finish eighth out of nine 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:43.159 teams in their phase, and the record shows they 00:08:43.159 --> 00:08:45.419 had nine Chinese players on the roster at that 00:08:45.419 --> 00:08:47.840 point. So a bit of a slow start. Yeah, it is 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:51.379 a modest, slightly rocky start. But then... The 00:08:51.379 --> 00:08:53.820 engine really starts to catch gear. The early 00:08:53.820 --> 00:08:56.559 growing pains begin to fade. You have to remember 00:08:56.559 --> 00:08:58.740 that the fifth tier of Portuguese football is 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:01.679 not glamorous. It is physical. It is grueling. 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:03.980 And it is played on rough pitches against hardened 00:09:03.980 --> 00:09:06.519 local veterans. It's a tough environment. Very 00:09:06.519 --> 00:09:09.940 tough. For a team of young, imported players 00:09:09.940 --> 00:09:12.000 to navigate that requires serious adaptation. 00:09:13.069 --> 00:09:16.649 But by the 2017 -2018 season, the tactical discipline 00:09:16.649 --> 00:09:19.409 instilled by those Benfica coaches start paying 00:09:19.409 --> 00:09:21.649 dividends. They finish second in that division, 00:09:21.769 --> 00:09:24.129 which earns them a promotion up to the Satubal 00:09:24.129 --> 00:09:26.049 FA First Division. And they prove it wasn't a 00:09:26.049 --> 00:09:29.340 fluke. The very next year, the 2018 -2019 season, 00:09:29.539 --> 00:09:31.960 they reach the finals of the AF Setúbal Cup. 00:09:32.179 --> 00:09:34.940 They are climbing the ranks, figuring out the 00:09:34.940 --> 00:09:37.500 specific algorithm required to win in the Portuguese 00:09:37.500 --> 00:09:39.399 lower leagues. They are establishing a rhythm, 00:09:39.539 --> 00:09:41.600 the players are absorbing the physical demands 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:43.879 of the game, and the infrastructure WSports 7 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:46.419 built is operating at maximum efficiency. Which 00:09:46.419 --> 00:09:49.559 brings us to the 2019 -2020 season. This is the 00:09:49.559 --> 00:09:51.379 moment where the project looks like an unstoppable 00:09:51.379 --> 00:09:54.399 juggernaut. Oriental Dragon FC is playing in 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:57.159 the Setúbal FA First Division, and they are absolutely 00:09:57.159 --> 00:09:59.519 dominating the field. Just crushing the competition. 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:02.100 They are tearing through it. By the time the 00:10:02.100 --> 00:10:04.340 COVID -19 pandemic hits and forces the premature 00:10:04.340 --> 00:10:06.419 cancellation of the season, they are sitting 00:10:06.419 --> 00:10:08.960 in first place. And they aren't just winning, 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:12.440 they are an incredible 11 points clear of the 00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:15.779 second place club, FC Barance. An 11 -point lead 00:10:15.779 --> 00:10:18.299 at the time of cancellation is a massive statement. 00:10:18.669 --> 00:10:21.710 It shows they had completely outgrown the regional 00:10:21.710 --> 00:10:24.549 district level. Because of that overwhelming, 00:10:24.789 --> 00:10:27.669 undeniable dominance, the governing bodies officially 00:10:27.669 --> 00:10:30.870 awarded them promotion. A huge milestone. This 00:10:30.870 --> 00:10:33.269 is a massive inflection point. They move up to 00:10:33.269 --> 00:10:35.669 the national third tier, the Campeonato de Portugal. 00:10:36.149 --> 00:10:38.610 They are out of the localized regional scrap 00:10:38.610 --> 00:10:40.950 and stepping into the national spotlight. They 00:10:40.950 --> 00:10:43.379 are swimming with much bigger fish now. And they 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:45.720 immediately prove they belong in those deep waters. 00:10:45.940 --> 00:10:47.899 We have to look at their runs in the Taça de 00:10:47.899 --> 00:10:50.139 Portugal during this era. The domestic cup. Right. 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:53.600 In the 2020 -2021 season, they make it to the 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:56.419 third round and draw Lake Soins, a highly experienced, 00:10:56.639 --> 00:11:00.519 hardened second -tier side. Oriental Dragon pushes 00:11:00.519 --> 00:11:02.720 the second -tier team all the way to a penalty 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:05.259 shootout before finally being defeated. To take 00:11:05.259 --> 00:11:07.480 a second -tier professional team to penalties 00:11:07.480 --> 00:11:10.200 when your club has only existed for a few years 00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:13.490 is a stunning achievement. It validates the entire 00:11:13.490 --> 00:11:16.350 incubator concept. It really does. It proves 00:11:16.350 --> 00:11:18.009 that the controlled environment, the top -tier 00:11:18.009 --> 00:11:21.009 coaching, and the systemic hacking actually produced 00:11:21.009 --> 00:11:24.070 a squad capable of absorbing immense pressure 00:11:24.070 --> 00:11:27.690 on a national stage. But they weren't done. The 00:11:27.690 --> 00:11:30.690 next year, the 2021 -2022 season, they again 00:11:30.690 --> 00:11:33.309 make the third round of the Cup. This time, they 00:11:33.309 --> 00:11:36.429 draw Morenz. Wow. Morenz is a first -tier side. 00:11:36.889 --> 00:11:39.690 a top -flight premier club. And Oriental Dragon 00:11:39.690 --> 00:11:42.730 drags this top -tier team into extra time, eventually 00:11:42.730 --> 00:11:45.629 losing a heartbreaking 3 -2 match. For Chichen 00:11:45.629 --> 00:11:47.830 and his investors, this had to feel like absolute 00:11:47.830 --> 00:11:50.450 vindication. Your highly engineered project from 00:11:50.450 --> 00:11:52.429 Moida is taking top five Portuguese clubs to 00:11:52.429 --> 00:11:55.169 the absolute brink. It is the zenith of the Oriental 00:11:55.169 --> 00:11:57.110 Dragon experience. It is the peak of the mountain. 00:11:57.250 --> 00:11:59.190 Yeah. And the system rewarded them for it. Right. 00:11:59.269 --> 00:12:02.970 During that same 2021 -2022 season, the Portuguese 00:12:02.970 --> 00:12:05.090 football pyramid underwent a structural change, 00:12:05.289 --> 00:12:08.610 creating a brand new lead called Liga 3. This 00:12:08.610 --> 00:12:11.269 was to serve as the new, highly competitive third 00:12:11.269 --> 00:12:13.970 tier. Yeah, shifting everything around. Because 00:12:13.970 --> 00:12:16.490 of their strong standing, Oriental Dragon was 00:12:16.490 --> 00:12:18.809 placed into this newly created League of Three. 00:12:18.950 --> 00:12:21.529 They were at the highest competitive point in 00:12:21.529 --> 00:12:24.500 their entire history. But as anyone who studies 00:12:24.500 --> 00:12:27.559 complex systems knows, the margins at the absolute 00:12:27.559 --> 00:12:30.639 top are incredibly thin. So what does this all 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:33.220 mean? Because this is the exact moment the fairy 00:12:33.220 --> 00:12:35.000 tale shatters. We just talked about them taking 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:38.500 top tier teams to extra time. But in that very 00:12:38.500 --> 00:12:42.500 same 2021 -2022 season, in the newly created 00:12:42.500 --> 00:12:45.159 League of Three. They completely and utterly 00:12:45.159 --> 00:12:48.000 collapsed. They finished dead last in their division 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:50.080 in the series south. They are forced into their 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:52.000 relegation series, and they finish dead last 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:54.679 there too. And that failure triggers a devastating, 00:12:54.980 --> 00:12:58.340 uncontrollable relegation cascade. It is important 00:12:58.340 --> 00:13:00.779 to understand the mechanics of this fall. When 00:13:00.779 --> 00:13:03.440 a traditional, deeply rooted community club suffers 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:05.879 a bad season and gets relegated, they have a 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:08.240 safety net. Right. They have the fans. Exactly. 00:13:08.419 --> 00:13:10.480 They have local fans who will still buy tickets. 00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:12.940 They have a massive local youth academy where 00:13:12.940 --> 00:13:14.980 they can pull up free talent to replace expensive 00:13:14.980 --> 00:13:18.159 players who leave. They have generations of local 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:20.360 goodwill to sustain them through the storm. But 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:23.019 Oriental Dragon didn't have any of that. Precisely. 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:25.799 They were a prefabricated structure. They were 00:13:25.799 --> 00:13:28.399 a top -down incubator. When the momentum broke 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:31.480 in Liga 3, there was no foundational bedrock 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:34.129 to catch them. Nothing to fall back on. The external 00:13:34.129 --> 00:13:36.730 capital could only insulate them for so long 00:13:36.730 --> 00:13:39.950 against the brutal reality of sustained multi 00:13:39.950 --> 00:13:43.470 -year professional competition. From Liga 3, 00:13:43.750 --> 00:13:46.129 they are immediately relegated back down to the 00:13:46.129 --> 00:13:48.669 Campeonato de Portugal, which had now been pushed 00:13:48.669 --> 00:13:50.669 down to become the fourth tier of the pyramid. 00:13:50.889 --> 00:13:52.730 The momentum is completely working in reverse 00:13:52.730 --> 00:13:56.590 now. The next year, 2022 -2023, they manage a 00:13:56.590 --> 00:13:59.169 ninth -place finish out of 14 teams in their 00:13:59.169 --> 00:14:02.350 series. But the bleeding doesn't stop. The structural 00:14:02.350 --> 00:14:05.350 integrity of the project is failing. Once a project 00:14:05.350 --> 00:14:08.110 built entirely on rapid upward momentum begins 00:14:08.110 --> 00:14:10.970 to slide backward, the internal logic of the 00:14:10.970 --> 00:14:13.389 investment starts to unravel. The elite coaches 00:14:13.389 --> 00:14:16.009 move on, the top -tier talent looks for better 00:14:16.009 --> 00:14:18.389 opportunities, and the massive financial output 00:14:18.389 --> 00:14:21.470 required to sustain a falling club becomes impossible 00:14:21.470 --> 00:14:24.820 to justify. And the fall is rapid. By the 2023 00:14:24.820 --> 00:14:27.860 -2024 season, they are all the way back down 00:14:27.860 --> 00:14:30.240 in the fifth tier, the AF Satubo 1 and Mir division. 00:14:30.659 --> 00:14:33.620 They are right back in the very regional, localized 00:14:33.620 --> 00:14:35.740 leagues they had engineered their way out of 00:14:35.740 --> 00:14:38.519 a decade prior. Full circle. Yeah. They finished 00:14:38.519 --> 00:14:42.559 fifth that year. And then, the sudden... Absolute 00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:45.620 end. By 2024, the club completely ceases operations. 00:14:46.419 --> 00:14:49.080 Dissolved. Ten years after T -Chen brought a 00:14:49.080 --> 00:14:51.399 group of teenagers to Moita, the Oriental Dragon 00:14:51.399 --> 00:14:54.519 FC experiment is simply over. It is a stunningly 00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:57.539 rapid unraveling. To climb so high, so fast, 00:14:57.580 --> 00:14:59.159 and then completely evaporate in the span of 00:14:59.159 --> 00:15:02.309 three years. But there is one final, almost surreal 00:15:02.309 --> 00:15:04.610 footnote in the documentation. Oh, the stadium 00:15:04.610 --> 00:15:07.289 thing? Yes. Even though the club has ceased operations, 00:15:07.750 --> 00:15:09.450 there's higher speculation that Oriental Dragon 00:15:09.450 --> 00:15:11.950 could theoretically be renewed and re -entered 00:15:11.950 --> 00:15:14.490 into the lower leagues. However, this potential 00:15:14.490 --> 00:15:16.750 renewal is entirely contingent on the construction 00:15:16.750 --> 00:15:19.289 of a hypothetical dedicated club facility. And 00:15:19.289 --> 00:15:20.889 are they building it? As the record strictly 00:15:20.889 --> 00:15:24.809 notes, to date, absolutely no construction of 00:15:24.809 --> 00:15:27.409 such a facility is underway. It is a phantom 00:15:27.409 --> 00:15:30.629 clause. A hypothetical stadium for a club that 00:15:30.629 --> 00:15:33.889 no longer exists, keeping the name on life support 00:15:33.889 --> 00:15:36.490 on a piece of paper somewhere in a filing cabinet. 00:15:36.730 --> 00:15:38.850 If we connect this to the bigger picture, the 00:15:38.850 --> 00:15:42.049 10 -year lifespan of Oriental Dragon FC serves 00:15:42.049 --> 00:15:45.750 as a brilliant, multifaceted lesson on the limits 00:15:45.750 --> 00:15:49.519 of engineering success. Qi Chen and WSports7 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:52.320 proved that external capital and elite connections 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:55.440 can absolutely bypass the initial hurdles of 00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:57.659 a traditional system. They really did. You can 00:15:57.659 --> 00:15:59.879 leverage old favors to hire world -class tactical 00:15:59.879 --> 00:16:02.399 instructors. You can literally fund your own 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:05.019 leagues to circumvent age restrictions and dictate 00:16:05.019 --> 00:16:07.799 competitive terms to local clubs. You can buy 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:09.399 your way up the initial steps of the ladder. 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:11.600 They proved you can hack the climb. They went 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:13.620 from the fifth tier to taking first tier teams 00:16:13.620 --> 00:16:15.779 to extra time. They absolutely hacked the climb. 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:18.100 But what their sudden collapse demonstrates is 00:16:18.100 --> 00:16:19.820 that sustaining a club at the elite national 00:16:19.820 --> 00:16:22.179 level requires something fundamentally different. 00:16:22.279 --> 00:16:25.029 It requires roots. Yes, it requires resilience. 00:16:25.370 --> 00:16:28.789 It requires deep, local roots and an organic 00:16:28.789 --> 00:16:31.909 foundation that can survive a brutal season without 00:16:31.909 --> 00:16:34.509 the entire organizational structure dissolving. 00:16:34.590 --> 00:16:37.090 You can engineer the peak, but you cannot easily 00:16:37.090 --> 00:16:39.350 engineer the safety net. It is the difference 00:16:39.350 --> 00:16:42.230 between building a sleek, expensive house out 00:16:42.230 --> 00:16:44.409 of prefabricated materials on top of the soil 00:16:44.409 --> 00:16:47.809 versus spending decades pouring a concrete foundation 00:16:47.809 --> 00:16:50.850 deep into the bedrock. When the storm finally 00:16:50.850 --> 00:16:54.190 hit in Liga 3, the prefab house just blew over. 00:16:54.330 --> 00:16:56.789 This raises an important question, and it is 00:16:56.789 --> 00:16:58.669 something I think is deeply relevant for anyone 00:16:58.669 --> 00:17:02.879 analyzing modern business tech. or sports ecosystems. 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:06.240 If a highly funded, meticulously connected, and 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:08.720 tactically brilliant incubator club ultimately 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:10.640 collapsed after just 10 years in traditional 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:13.319 football, does that mean the slow burn model 00:17:13.319 --> 00:17:15.559 of grassroots building is the only sustainable 00:17:15.559 --> 00:17:18.279 way? Or... And this is the thought I want to 00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:20.299 leave you with. Is there another highly technical 00:17:20.299 --> 00:17:22.700 industry out there where this exact Oriental 00:17:22.700 --> 00:17:25.160 Dragon franchise model would actually work flawlessly? 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:27.440 That's a great point. Could you apply this exact 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:31.220 blueprint to a global esports organization or 00:17:31.220 --> 00:17:34.640 a highly modular motorsports academy where capital 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:38.539 and elite instruction can completely bypass grassroots 00:17:38.539 --> 00:17:41.869 tradition and actually sustain a dynasty? That 00:17:41.869 --> 00:17:44.890 is a fascinating angle. Taking the Oriental Dragon 00:17:44.890 --> 00:17:47.130 playbook, stepping away from the hundred year 00:17:47.130 --> 00:17:49.630 old traditions of European football and applying 00:17:49.630 --> 00:17:51.910 it to something like a League of Legends team 00:17:51.910 --> 00:17:54.809 or a Formula Racing Academy. Exactly. Is it the 00:17:54.809 --> 00:17:57.089 incubator model that failed or was it simply 00:17:57.089 --> 00:17:59.470 the wrong environment to test it in? I want you 00:17:59.470 --> 00:18:01.630 to really ponder that idea as you look at how 00:18:01.630 --> 00:18:03.710 companies and teams are being built around you 00:18:03.710 --> 00:18:06.450 today. Think about where else this kind of top 00:18:06.450 --> 00:18:08.890 down engineered success is being deployed right 00:18:08.890 --> 00:18:10.730 now and whether they have built a foundation. 00:18:11.079 --> 00:18:13.539 to survive the fall. That is all the time we 00:18:13.539 --> 00:18:15.839 have for today's exploration. Keep questioning 00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:18.000 the structures around you, keep looking for those 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:20.480 hidden systemic connections, and we will see 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:22.259 you next time for another deep dive.