Dallas 4 – 0 Toronto
This was Lucas “Note” Meissner’s first match with the Dallas Fuel and he wanted to impress. Note ended up playing Tracer, Hanzo and Zarya. While not blowing everyone’s expectations out of the water on those picks, he did well. The Dallas roster and Note looked like they had been playing together for a whole season, despite Note only being on the roster for a few weeks. Overall great team play pushed Dallas to a swift 4-0 in the most dominant match the Fuel have had all season.
Oasis: Dallas Fuel win 2-0
Dallas played a DPS composition for the first time in a while and surprised the Defiant to start. Control was eventually taken by Toronto and it was time for Dallas to go back to their tried and true. Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo picked up the Sombra and built two EMPs very quickly, but eventually went back to Brigitte jail. Dallas took the first map off of a Nanoboosted Minseok “OGE” Son.
No shenanigans on map two, as they went back to Winston GOATS with an Ana. After an unfortunate C9 for first control, Dallas took control off of a fast Graviton from Dylan “aKm” Bignet. This map went back and forth but the Fuel put their hope in the aKm carry. The Zarya from aKm was outpacing Toronto’s consistently, so Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson stayed on Ana and pocketed aKm for the map win.
Paris: Dallas Fuel win 5-4
Dallas pulled out a unique bunker composition with Bastion, Winston, Orisa, Baptise, Pharah and Mercy. After a scrappy fight, Dallas’ bunker composition fell and they swapped to Sombra, Winston, Ana GOATS. Oddly enough it was aKm on Sombra, building EMP after one fight. Toronto eventually got an ultimate advantage and took second point with two and a half minutes left.
To counter Toronto’s old fashioned bunker composition, Dallas ran their special double sniper, Orisa and Roadhog composition. The Widowmaker came out from aKm and he ended up picking up two quick kills for first point. Dallas wiped the second point with good old fashioned GOATS after a less than amazing first push.
The Fuel ran the same composition from their defense to run down Toronto’s clock. Dallas’ defense fell in overtime and swapped back to the tried and true. However Toronto ran a McCree for more burst damage as they didn’t have enough time for a slow fight.
Two clean headshots from @DF_aKm!https://t.co/RRcyuYfGU0 pic.twitter.com/WjibvM8T7W
— Dallas Fuel (@DallasFuel) April 13, 2019
After a shakey first push, Minseok “OGE” Son made a huge primal rage play to lock in first point. This first point quickly snowballed into second as Dallas rushed forward and deleted Toronto’s Zarya to deny a Graviton Surge.
Dallas ran three DPS to counter Toronto’s panic Bastion bunker. Note flexed over to Hanzo and the Fuel slowly corralled the Defiant onto the point and surrounded them with damage from all angles. Dallas went up 2-0 and into Halftime.
Kings Row: Dallas Fuel win 3-0
On a great GOATS map, aKm started on Sombra and Note moved over to Zarya. The first point was taken in a flash, Toronto’s Lucio was spawn camped and an effective EMP won the next fight. Point B was captured as fast as point A, but Dallas was temporarily stopped at point C. The Fuel ended up capturing all three points with more than three minutes left off the back of aKm’s Sombra.
Dallas played the defense with ZachaREEE on Baptise. He looked amazing on this character, he was building Amplification Matrix every minute and getting good value out of it. With the combination of Baptise and amazing stall from Note, Dallas full held on Kings Row for the 3-0.
Rialto: Dallas Fuel win 3-2
Much like Kings Row, Rialto is a great GOATS map. This was good news for Dallas as they rolled through point A without much of a fight. OGE started to stunt on Toronto’s Reinhardt, wiping them with huge Earthshatters three times. Point B went in a flash and C was captured with 3:49 left in the bank.
ZachaREEE pulled out the Baptise again and kept his team alive with amazing heals. Eventually Toronto captured point A and momentum shifted away from the Fuel for a short while. Dallas played around Toronto’s Sombra well until the end of point B. Note picked up a 4k D.Va bomb on point C with uNKOE as a distraction. Dallas stopped Toronto in their stumble to point C and pulled off a 4-0.
Conclusion
Dallas was the better GOATS team, without question. Toronto decided not to experiment and try new things, rather to take Dallas at their own game. The Zarya duel clearly had aKm as the winner and OGE styled on Toronto’s main tank as Winston and Reinhardt. There isn’t much to pick at here, just great positioning, ultimate usage, engages/disengages, stalling and communication. Fans are looking forward to see what else Note can flex to in future matches.