This is rough for Dallas. The schedule took a turn for the worse after the first half of the season and the Fuel started to crumble. It doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better either, the possibility that the Dallas Fuel go winless for the rest of the season is entirely possible. The Spark and Chengdu games went as expected, more so with the Hunters’ game because Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson was out on medical leave. If Dallas wants to make season playoffs then something needs to change in the team dynamic and soon.
Review Stage 3 Week 3
The tides of the meta have shifted in OWL. This shift left the Fuel in a rough spot, not knowing what to play and not being particularly good at any strategy due to coordination. That coupled with the fact that they are playing teams that have these things figured out led to them being swept twice.
Dallas Fuel vs Hangzhou Spark
The Spark are a top tier team this stage, the chances that Dallas took a win in this match was nearly impossible. That on top of the Fuel fielding a new main tank in Ashley “Trill” Powell meant that coordination, team play and personal play all went way down. The Hangzhou Spark took the sweep, with a draw on Horizon Lunar Colony. The Dallas roster looked like a platinum team that just learned the heroes in GOATS, there were only a select few moments of team play from the Boys in Blue during the entire series.
Player of the match: Guxue
Xu “guxue” Qiulin showed Trill what being an OWL level main tank meant. His Earthshatters were better and he denied more than Dallas’ main tank all series long. His timing for aggression was impeccable and he stayed alive longer. A great performance from the Spark’s main tank.
Dallas Fuel vs Chengdu Hunters
In this match both Trill and Johnathen “Harryhook” Tejedor Rua played, uNKOE had vision problems and was unable to play. Some people will chalk it up to them not having their best roster, but this match, in particular, showed flaws in the team that one or two roster changes can’t fix. The number of disjointed plays and frankly hilarious lack of coordination led to another sweep. At least with GOATS the Fuel roster died as a team and played together more. This match saw swap after swap and random deaths, wasted ultimates and half-hearted pushes. Honestly, a well-deserved loss from Dallas and this made it apparent that changes have to happen.
Player of the match: Jinmu
Yi “JinMu” Hu had free reign as Pharah all series long. Dallas never had an answer to the damage he put out and remained uncontested for most of the series. Jinmu’s Hanzo was besting the DPS from Dallas and his team allowed him to pop off.
Preview Stage 3 Week 4
Last week was bad, this week won’t be as bad, but only because Dallas faces one team and not two. Unless some major team changes happen in a week the Fuel will be walking away winless again. Their only opponent is consistently above average and has found their place in the slight meta shift, definitely a difficult task for Dallas.
Dallas Fuel vs New York Excelsior
NYXL have adapted to the meta shift by fielding Jong-ryeol “Saebyeolbe” Park on Sombra GOATS and running other DPS compositions. While SBB’s Sombra may not be the best in the league, the team behind him can carry their own weight as well as others. Dallas, on the other hand, are struggling to even find a composition that works in any capacity.
The maps in this are Oasis, Paris, Hollywood and Watchpoint: Gibraltar. However the map set wont matter much, Sombra will most likely be played on all maps and Bunker could come out on Paris and Hollywood. So long as NYXL plays their game, Dallas will likely struggle to break their strategies. To be fair if the Fuel can pull themselves together for one good game then they could run strategies that work for them and throw NXXL off.
Prediction – Dallas Fuel lose 4-0
Player to watch: Closer
He might only be a little Lucio in a big pond, but Wonsik “Closer” Jung has been the most consistent player on the Fuel roster. He is never in the kill feed and nobody ever notices him, because why should they? A Lucio that’s doing his job should never be noticed or caught out and that’s what Closer has been doing all season long. Just because players don’t see him doesn’t mean viewers can’t, keep an eye on the frog.
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Featured image courtesy of Overwatch League
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