Last week was classic Dallas, next week will probably be classic Dallas. The Fuel have made a tendency this season to win one game and lose one game on weeks where they have two games; it’s better than losing both games though. One difficult opponent followed by an easier one seems to be the schedule for Dallas this stage. This will make it difficult for the Fuel to enter stage playoffs, however season playoffs are still possible.
Stage 3 Week 1 Review
The Dallas roster was doing their best slinky impression last week, all of the energy they absorbed against the Gladiators match was dished back out onto the Justice. To be fair neither match was expected to be close, still interesting how it happened though.
Dallas Fuel vs Los Angeles Gladiators
This was reminiscent of Dallas’ first game of the season against the San Francisco Shock; getting steamrolled, flattened, dunked on and demolished. The only time in the match where the Fuel had fire was on Hollywood, where they held on C for four minutes to put LA into overtime, then played Sombra and pushed with relative ease. But even that was not enough to get a map win, Minseok “OGE” Son in particular was getting punished hard for his aggression. The whole roster was trying to emulate the Titans’ playstyle by never imagining losing, committing ultimates in fights where they are down players and aggressive tank play. However it didn’t pay off in this match, OGE’s aggression never gets enough support. Perhaps it just isn’t how the rest of the team wants to play.
Player of the match: Surefour
Lane “Surefour” Roberts started the entire match, which hasn’t happened since stage one. His return made fans remember why they love him, his Bastion and Sombra were welcomed back into OWL as well as his Brigitte. The decisions to put him on Brigitte was a surprise, but nobody is complaining about it.
Dallas Fuel vs Washington Justice
People said the Justice were on the rise, well not to the level of Dallas yet. Perhaps the Fuel roster took their anger out on Washington after losing to the Gladiators so badly. The entire match was clinical, by the numbers play that the Justice didn’t have an answer to. While the Boys in Blue looked like a regular GOATS team, the Washington roster was so disjointed and lost, only having a few moments of actual team play. It was not particularly difficult for Dallas, almost like a day at the office.
Player of the match: Note
Consistently clutch, the assassin, hungry hungry hippo, Lucas “Note” Meissner. This D.Va player has been a great addition to the team, he saved Volskaya and Eichenwalde at the very end with Self Destruct kills. Not only that but the amount of Graviton Surges eaten by him was amazing, also his ability to get backline kills and punish a lack of peel was incredible.
Stage 3 Week 2 Preview
It looks like another win, loss week for Dallas. First against the Chengdu Hunters, then the Titans. The Fuel has not played Chengdu on stage before, so it will be interesting to see if they can shut down the DPS compositions from the Hunters or not. As for the Titans, close your eyes and wait the storm out, it will be ugly, just like every other time.
Dallas Fuel vs Chengdu Hunters
This match boils down to “What will Chengdu run and how will Dallas counter it?”. Teams and fans alike never quite know what the Hunters will do, it is up to their opponents to either play their game better, or change their style to shut down the shenanigans. Fuel fans can expect more Winston, Ana and Sombra to come out to counter DPS compositions from Chengdu. There’s the DPS and there’s also the GOATS mirror, now that the Hunters have their Reinhardt player, GOATS has been coming out more from them.
The map pool can sometimes help predict what the Hunters will run. Starting out on Ilios means Pharah, Mercy, Hammond/Orisa, D.Va, McCree or Widowmaker, after that it gets blurry. Pretty much Bunker or Dive will come out from the Hunters, Dallas can run GOATS, Dive or Bunker on these maps so it is possible Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo will be off of Brig duty for parts of the series. Paris has been bunker central in OWL so far, expect it on defense from Dallas, but attack and defense for Chengdu. Also triple DPS can capture point A consistently, sounds like heaven for the Hunters.
The other two maps in the series are Hollywood and Dorado, a lot of different things can happen on these maps, but GOATS will likely be prominent on these two. In the GOATS mirror, Dallas should have the advantage, but if they end up playing catch up with Chengdu’s wacky compositions then the series wont go their way. Controlling the pace in particular can shut down the Hunters’ typical game plan, so look for that in their match.
Prediction – Dallas Fuel win 3-2
Dallas Fuel vs Vancouver Titans
Oh no. Vancouver is back and wants Dallas’ lunch money. These two teams have faced off twice already and it has not been pretty for the Fuel. Both previous matches were 0-4 losses for the Boys in Blue, they were never even close. After this third face off the rosters’ nickname will have to be changed to the Boys in Red.
The map pool for this series is Ilios, Volskaya, Eichenwalde and Dorado, it doesn’t really matter for these teams. Both of these teams will be running mirror GOATS, maybe a Winston or an Ana somewhere, perhaps a Sombra, but GOATS. There isn’t much else to say about this match, Dallas have a lot to learn from this team so buckle down and pray it ends quickly.
Prediction – Dallas Fuel lose 4-0
Player to watch – ZachaREEE
He might get to play DPS, at least against the Hunters. ZachaREEE has been in Brig jail all season long, he’s been doing a decent job too. If ZachaREEE actually gets to play DPS characters, definitely keep an eye on him.
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Featured image courtesy of Overwatch League
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