This offseason, many teams had a goal of improving their rosters based on their performance last season. The Dallas Fuel made many changes during the first season of the Overwatch League and made more this offseason. There are new players and coaches brought to the team to make the Dallas Fuel a hard hitter this year.
Season One Recap
Last season Dallas Fuel struggled to find wins until stage four. Dallas ended season one with a record of 14-29, six of those wins coming from stage four. The win-loss ratio does not tell the whole story though, Dallas went through a number of hurdles within the player roster and coaching staff.
To start season 1, Félix “xQc” Lengyel was suspended for the duration of stage one after making homophobic remarks towards another player while streaming. This left Dallas without their starting main tank, forcing other players to fill that role at a much lower skill level.
The Fuel signed two new DPS players Dylan “aKm” Bignet and Dong-jun “Rascal” Kim. They also added Main Tank player Min-seok “OGE” Son in light of xQc’s suspension. These additions did not bring much relief as the team could not figure out their starting roster, leading to inconsistency. Later xQc was suspend again and released by the team. Not only that, but OGE was still on his way from South Korea, only to get suspended for four games. All of this roster drama caused the team to crumble from the inside, and drama from within the team looked like the end of the Dallas Fuel.
Scott “Custa” Kennedy, the team’s main support player and shotcaller was traded to the LA Valiant for Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson. This trade at first seemed to be the “nail in the coffin” as it were, but later proved to be beneficial for both parties. On April 16 both Rascal and Head Coach Kyle “KyKy” Souder were released from the team.
For the last stage of the season 1, Dallas picked up Head Coach Aaron “Aero” Atkins and Assistant Coach Kang “Vol’Jin” Min-Gyu to whip the team into shape and end the season strong. Dallas made it to the stage 4 playoffs where they fell to the New York Excelsior, but it was an amazing ending to a rather awful season.
Returning Roster
Despite new pickups, the Dallas Fuel have kept many of the players and staff from the first season.
Head Coach : Aaron “Aero” Atkins
Assistant Coach : Kang “Vol’Jin” Min-Gyu
Assistant Coach : Christian “Cocco” Johnson
Main Tank : Minseok “OGE” Son
Flex Tank : Pongphop “Mickie” Rattanasangchod
Main DPS : Hyeon “Effect” Hwang
Main DPS : Timo “Taimou” Kettunen
Main DPS : Dylan “aKm” Bignet
Main Support : Jonathan “HarryHook” Tejedor Rua
Flex Support : Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson
This roster brings a strong main tank and support duo, as well as decent flexibility in the DPS role. The coaches, despite not being on the roster for very long, are capable and were able to bring the team together quickly during stage 4 of season 1.
The previous Flex DPS Brandon “Seagull” Larned and Flex Support Sebastian “chipshajen” Widlund have left the team. Seagull has retired from professional Overwatch and turned into a full-time streamer, Chipshajen is currently LFT (Looking For Team). Christian “Cocco” Johnson has moved from the Main Tank role to an Assistant Coach. Emanuel “Peak” Uzoni was an Assistant Coach and Interim Head Coach during the first season, he is now LFT.
New Pickups
Assistant Coach : Justin “Jayne” Conroy
Assistant Coach : Louis “Tikatee” Lebel-Wong
Flex Tank : Richard “rCk” Kanerva
Main DPS : Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo
Main Support : Wonsik “Closer” Jung
Coaching Background
Jayne is a coach that became well-known in the Overwatch community through Twitch, where he regularly streams and uses his knowledge of the game to help his viewers. He would review VODs of games that his viewers submitted to help them improve and rank up on the competitive ladder. Jayne has also coached a number of Open Division and tier two teams like Pantheon Esports and Tainted Minds in Australia. Most recently, Jayne was made the head coach of Team Canada for the Overwatch World Cup, where his team finished in third place.
Tikatee was a Coach/Analyst for FNRGFE, a team that consisted of coach Aero and many players now on the Houston Outlaws. Tikatee’s team placed 3-4 in Contenders Season 0 and Season 1, then the Overwatch League started and the coaches went their separate ways. Head Coach Aero has previous experience working with Tikatee, so hopefully they will revitalize their previous synergy.
Player Background
The Finnish Flex Tank rCk played in Contenders Season 1 and 2 for Team Giganti. Team Giganti placed second in season 1 of Contenders Europe, and 3-4 in season 2. This Finnish Flex plays mostly D.Va and Zarya, but also claims to be a formidable Genji, so it is entirely possible we could see that during the second season of the Overwatch League.
Zachary Lombardo comes from Fusion University, the top Contenders team in North America. Zachary also played under Coach Aero with Fusion University, before Aero was picked up by the Dallas Fuel. Fusion University went undefeated in season 2 of Overwatch Contenders, where Zachary played Flex DPS. He is known most for hitscan characters like Tracer, McCree and Widowmaker, but is also able to play characters like Genji, Bastion, Sombra, and anything else the team needs.
Lastly, Closer from the London Spitfire moved to the Dallas Fuel during the off-season. He was mostly a sub-in for NUS, but is still a very consistent and reliable main support. Closer also has a talent most players only dream of, he is able to calculate an enemies Ultimate charge within a few percent. This talent will prove very useful for the Dallas Fuel, especially at this time in the game’s life, where an ultimate is what wins games.
Team Schedule
Dallas have a well rounded schedule for season 2. With the new format of the schedule, there are 28 games, playing against every team at least once.
These are the teams Dallas faces one time this season:
- Philadelphia Fusion
- Boston Uprising
- Toronto Defiant
- Paris Eternal
- Houston Outlaws
- Florida Mayhem
- Washington Justice
- New York Excelsior
- London Spitfire
- Atlanta Reign
What To Take Away From This
Dallas faces Philadelphia, London and New York once. These teams were the best last season, and are shaping up to repeat that, so Dallas got lucky there. The rest of the teams in this list are ranked near the middle or bottom, which is good news for the boys in blue.
Dallas Fuel will face these teams twice during season 2:
- San Francisco Shock
- Seoul Dynasty
- Guangzhou Charge
- Shanghai Dragons
- Vancouver Titans
- Los Angeles Valiant
- Los Angeles Gladiators
- Chengdu Hunters
- Hangzhou Spark
What To Take Away From This
San Francisco is shaping up to be a high level competitor and could be troublesome for the Fuel. Not only that, but they face both LA teams twice with both teams looking to be a top contender this season. Dallas’ matches against Seoul, Shanghai, Vancouver and Hangzhou are expected to be evenly matched, so those eight games could go either way. The Guangzhou and Chengdu teams are new and Dallas shouldn’t have too much of a struggle against the new blood.
Game To watch
This season, the game to watch is the Dallas Fuel versus the Houston Outlaws. Dallas will be hosting home games in their own arena, where they will face the LA Valiant and the Houston Outlaws. The Fuel and Outlaws are rivals, Team Envy vs Optic Gaming, Dallas vs Houston. Don’t miss this game, it will be one to remember.
Player To Watch
Fuel fans want to keep an eye on zachaREEE this season. He has a lot to prove to the fans as well as the other players in the league. Zach will be looking to prove that he can stand up to players like Surefour, Eqo, and Fleta. His role on the team is still up in the air, but it can be assumed that he will be mostly flex DPS. Zach could be what ultimately makes or breaks the Fuel this season, so don’t sleep on him.
Playoff Potential
In order for the Fuel to make playoffs, they need a consistent roster. There isn’t as much time to experiment with the starting six, so Dallas needs to figure out the game plan before the season gets in gear. All of the pieces are there for the team. The individual skill is up there with the best, but teamwork and strategy are what they need to work on. Not only that, but confidence plays a factor for this team as well. Many of the players have a streaky play-style, so they need to get into a good flow. If, they start the season slow, it could be hard for them to find their footing. These players can show off all of their skill and be a force to be reckoned with, if they have a stable roster and coaching staff.
Need More?
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Featured Image Courtesy of Dallas Fuel
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