The Spark are a top tier team right now. Dallas is a mid tier team and declining. Every team this stage has gotten better, but the Fuel have been stagnant and this makes them look worse. The series predictably went the way of the Spark as the whole Dallas roster looked to be falling apart.
Nepal: Dallas Fuel lose 2-0
Ashley “trill” Powell. Courtesy of Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment.
For the first time Ashley “Trill” Powell started as main tank. As both teams stormed onto the point, the Fuel were bullied off, and on the retake Dylan “aKm” Bignet was picked off. After the Spark took control they held it through everything, even after only having support characters on the point.
Winston GOATS was the choice on both sides to avoid falling off of the map. This didn’t stop Trill or Lucas “Note” Meissner from falling off in the first fight though. The stage jitters were on from Trill as he panic ulted after winning a fight. This led to him dying first in the following fight and another capture for the Spark.
Horizon Lunar Colony: Dallas Fuel draw 4-4
Image Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
2CP for Dallas has been difficult so far this season. After two pauses to fix Trill’s ping, the map started and Reinhardt GOATS came out from both teams. After Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson died to a Firestrike, point A was toast. For point B Dylan “aKm” Bignet used Graviton first, which lead to them having no cooldowns in the postfight. The Dallas roster was rightfully run over.
The Fuel decided to run aKm on Sombra for attack. Two ticks were grabbed without single kill and aKm got a huge pick onto the enemy Zenyatta for point A. The point B push was a twelve ultimate fight. However the engagement was pristine, forcing out Transcendece with a hack and bash, then negating Sound Barrier with EMP. This was a good attack from Dallas.
Image Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Playing slightly slower this time, the Fuel forced space with hacks, two ticks were grabbed without any ultimates used. The Fuel finished A, but overcommitted ultimates. This meant the B attack was not going their way the first time. The Boys in Blue did have enough time to finish in overtime though.
3-3 came out from both teams, uNKOE was forced to use Transcendence early and point A was done again. Since Transcendence was used early, Spark’s Graviton was uncontested and Dallas had to hold for three minutes.
Bunker composition with Bastion and Sombra came out to try and make a miracle. The immortality field came out late and Bastion died first. However in the mid fight aKm won with EMP and Soldier: 76 came running back into the fray. In a super close last fight, EMP was traded with Transcendence, but Wonsik “Closer” Jung saved uNKOE from a primal rage Winston. The miracle came through, the draw was real.
Numbani: Dallas Fuel lose 3-1
Reinhardt defense came out from the Fuel, not normal on Numbani, but the Spark matched. Hangzhou sped into Dallas, Note was de-meched and the fight was over. Note swapped to Zarya and aKm went to Sombra, but the aggression from the Spark pushed Dallas back and only one fight took place on B. Not quite a 1:12 but darn close from Hangzhou, the Fuel’s defense had one fight win.
Triple DPS came out on Dallas’ attack, and Trill went over to Hammond. It didn’t look terribly practiced because uNKOE got walked on and deleted by Brigitte. After two minutes the Fuel swapped to Sombra GOATS again. It did work out in the end with a huge EMP, but their ultimate economy went down the gutter. Things were not looking great, misused ultimates and overcommitting. Tunnel vision came out from Note’s Zarya, aKm tried his hardest to drag his team out of the gutter. The Fuel was stopped on B and the series went the way of Hangzhou.
Havana: Dallas Fuel lose 3-1
Sombra EMP
Map score matters, especially for mid tier teams. During Dallas’ defense, Note was critical health the entire attack. Despite eating a Graviton Surge, uNKOE getting two Transcendeces and a painfully long point A fight, Dallas lost. Point B saw the Fuel get held in the doorways and bullied off cart for a speedrun. Sombra came out on Hangzhou’s side and Trill was bullied some more on the last point, Spark finished with 40 seconds left.
The only thing that looked good from Dallas this game was Sombra GOATS, so that’s what they ran with on attack. The aggressive hold from Spark did not pay off, Trill finally hit a good shatter and A was history. The Dallas roster relied on EMP to win fights, when aKm started dying first on point B, things looked dire. After an aKm EMP was met with Transcendence, the fight broke out and the Fuel fell apart. The series ended for Dallas on point B of Havana.
Conclusion
Despite trading Richard “rCk” Caverna and giving up on Sombra GOATS, Dallas returned to it begrudgingly. The team looks to be in an identity crisis, not knowing what to play and not being particularly good at anything. If the team can find their footing and rediscover who they are, they could take wins again.
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Featured image courtesy of Overwatch League
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