Dallas Fuel: Stage 1 Week 5 Preview

Review: Stage 1 Week 4

Dallas had one match in week four against the Shanghai Dragons. This was the latter end of back-to-back matches against the Dragons and Dallas was even more decisive in this game. Dallas reviewed Shanghai’s strategies and tendencies to make a counter strategy. Shanghai failed to innovate their game play whereas Dallas learned and improved. This lead to a rather forceful 4-0.

Shanghai: 0-4

This game was all on the Sombra play, Richard “rCk” Kanerva showed up in a big way for Dallas. His Sombra play, most notably the synergy between him and Minseok “OGE” Son won Dallas team fights decisively. Not only that, but the support duo Wonsik “Closer” Jung and Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson played around Shanghai’s Sombra incredibly well. OGE would play passively when Shanghai had an EMP and the supports on Dallas would hide from the incoming Sombra ultimate. When Shanghai would EMP, uNKOE would quickly use Transcendence and fly over to OGE who was playing reserved. After being saved from the enemies EMP, Dallas would use their own on the now fully engaged Shanghai Dragons and cleanup the fight from there.

There were times when Shanghai would run traditional 3-3 with a D.Va, but Dallas looked better than them at that from the get-go. The Shanghai Dragons were completely outclassed in every aspect this game, their failure to bring a new plan and innovate gave Dallas a swift 4-0 victory.

Player of the Game: rCk

Typically a D.Va player, rCk pulled out an amazing Sombra this match in an attempt to outclass the Sombra player in the Shanghai Dragons, Jin-hyeok “DDing” Yang. This was successful because DDing played the same way in their previous match against Dallas. The Fuel studied how DDing played and abused his tendencies, this lead to rCk being able to shine on a Hero he would not typically play.

Preview: Stage 1 Week 5

This match is the most important for Dallas this stage. This is the last match Dallas will have this stage and winning it convincingly will lock them into Stage One Playoffs. Now on the other hand if they lose this match they still could make playoffs, but not likely. The other teams playing in week five could also get some much needed wins and take a playoff position over Dallas.

Boston Uprising: 3-3

Both teams need this win to make their chances at playoffs better. For Dallas to win they might to pull out rCk’s Sombra again. Boston runs a traditional GOATs composition without any changes, they pour all of their resources into their shot caller Cameron “Fusions” Bosworth. This aggressive main tank will likely outclass OGE due to how many resources Fusions gets, but Dallas can abuse this. Dallas could tailor a strategy to shutting down Fusions, or perhaps Dallas is confident that they could beat Boston in a mirror match.

The maps in this game are Ilios, Kings Row, Volskaya Industries, and Dorado. These maps don’t matter too much because GOATs is expected for the duration of this series from Boston at least. Volskaya and Dorado do tend to lean more into DPS compositions more than other maps, so Dallas might pull out a strategy on those maps if the mirror match isn’t going their way.

One region where Dallas looks to have the upper hand is Dylan “aKm” Bignet on Zarya, his statistics and overall performance looks way better than Kelsey “Colourhex” Birse on the Boston side. This entire match hinges on what Dallas wants to do, Boston has not shown any flexibility and has only played standard GOATs so far. This will be a very close game, but the flexibility on the Dallas side gives them an advantage.

Prediction: Dallas win 3-2

Player to Watch: OGE

This match could easily come down to the tank duel, OGE vs Fusions. OGE tends to play aggressively, so if Dallas opts for a mirror match, he could try to bully Fusions for fight wins. The Boston main tank prefers Reinhardt whereas OGE looks well rounded on all three, this could be difficult for OGE because many of the maps in this set will benefit from a Reinhardt. OGE is going to have to step up to the plate this game and give Fusions a run for his money. Don’t miss it.

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What are your predictions for week five? Tell Ethan what you think @Hearin_Voices 

Featured image courtesy of Robert Paul

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