Dallas 3 – Philadelphia 1
With two full sweeps against them so far, the Fuel came in with a lot to prove today. Additionally, their assistant coach, Justin “Jayne” Conroy, had trashed talked Philly at the beginning of the week and the Fuel needed to secure a win to save face. However, the same Fuel that played Seoul Dynasty last week showed up once again and took the match in dominant fashion.
Busan: Dallas 2 – Philadelphia 0
On MEKA base the Fuel started out by running a Sombra variant of GOATS. They immediately took out Simon “Snillo” Ekström and let up the first couple of percentage points, but managed to come back in and recapture it. The match was a long series of back and forth battles, yet in the end Dallas took the map with a strong lead.
On Downtown the Fuel ran a more standard GOATS, and this time were first to pick up capture percentage. After a series of strong team fights, most notably involving strong Brigitte play from Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo, they held the point up to 98%. After a single lost teamfight, a massive Graviton Surge from Dylan “aKm” Bignet allowed Dallas to retake the point and netted them the first map victory.
Numbani: Dallas 3 – Philadelphia 2
Starting on the offense, the Fuel ran a Winston GOATS and used it to achieve an unusual flank behind the Fusion. While Dallas hesitated after initial rollout, they managed to take point after the first fight. They continued the push into the payload phase of the map off of a big D.Va bomb from Richard “rCk” Kanerva, yet became stalled out for several minutes due to good stalling plays from Jae-hyeok “Carpe” Lee and Su-min “SADO” Kim. However, after Dallas’ Min-seok “OGE” Son charged an ulting Zen out of the fight, denying Philly crucial heals, the boys in blue came back and capped the point with only seconds left on the clock.
Dallas’ defense proved strong off of an early Primal Rage from OGE and a Graviton Surge eaten by aKm. After several minutes of stalling, they finally lost the first point in overtime. They were pushed back, but stabilized in the streets phase of the map. They kept this position for the rest of the map, and ended the first half up 2-0.
Horizon: Philadelphia 4 – Dallas 3
Starting on the offense, the Fuel capitalized on poor positioning by Sado and managed to take two ticks very quickly. Philly finally stabilized and burned most of the clock. It took a double kill from Hyeon “EFFECT” Hwang on Zarya to clear the point with very little time left on the clock. On second point, another opening pick on Sado opened up the Fusion to a big shatter, and the Fuel took the point with 2 minutes in the time bank.
On the second round, an overly aggressive defense caused early loss of Zachareee, and the Fuel lost the first point very quickly. Capitalizing on their momentum, Philly dominated on second point with a far larger time bank.
On the third round, the Fuel punished Sado’s aggression fairly quickly, and they used it to take a third point with time still in the bank. They began a slow push onto point B, which gained them a tick, but they were not able to cap the full point. Back on defense, an early de-mech on rCk allowed the Fuel to get rolled over by Carpe and Alberto “Neptuno” González Molinillo and they lost first point quickly. On second point the Fuel once again had an early loss of rCk, allowing Fusion to pick off the stragglers and finally take a map win.
Dorado: Dallas 3 – Philadelphia 2
For the first round, the Fuel placed rCk on Sombra, which bolstered their defense immensely. The Fuel managed to hold first point for several minutes, but eventually lost it to some strong Fusion plays. Their defense on the middle portion of the map was far weaker, and it wasn’t until a huge grav play from aKm on third that the Fuel saved the point. Once they stabilized they held the payload there for the rest of the round.
For Round 2, the Fuel burned through first point off of dominant combos from OGE and Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson. The Fuel were halted finally at the beginning of second point for several minutes. Dallas managed to reclaim the payload and cleared B very quickly and looked in place to roll the rest of the map at once. However, meters from the end Carpe used his famous Widowmaker to shut down the Fuel. Yet after Carpe swapped back to Brigitte, the Fuel pushed in and after a single strong teamfight, took the match with a victory.
Conclusion:
The Dallas Fuel are proving that they are a team which cannot be predicted easily. When everyone expects them to lose, they show up in strong fashion and take top notch teams off guard. And yet they also lose matches that many would consider easy wins for them. They also proved with this match that aKm is a far better fit for the Zarya role than EFFECT is, and while EFFECT is fun to watch, they might want to keep him on the bench for the current meta. Hopefully the Fuel nail down their inconsistencies in the next few weeks and come up with a way to perform on a more even level.
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