Dallas Fuel [2-2] vs Shanghai Dragons [2-2]
Dallas were looking confident going into week three. Shanghai were on a winning streak for the first time in the organizations history. Neither team wanted to lose their momentum. For Dallas, the key to beating the Dragons was shutting down the Sombra from Jinhyeok “DDing” Yang. Dylan “aKm” Bignet was the linchpin for Dallas. Being able dish out insane damage on Zarya has worked in previous matches, it worked again here. Shanghai could not match the damage from aKm, but that wasn’t the Dragons’ only focus, they shut down Dallas Main tank a lot, but not enough. After a nail biting series, Dallas beat the Dragons again in game five.
Ilios: Dallas Fuel Win 2-0
Minseok “OGE” Son started the map on Winston, whereas Gamsu started on Reinhardt, a match up favored by Reinhardt. Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson opened up the fight with a pick onto his counterpart, recapturing the point quickly after Shanghai took control. OGE showed his prowess on Winston, collecting three kills with his primal rage. Wonsik “Closer” Jung ended the last fight decisively with three kills himself. The Fuel won the map without much resistance from the Dragons.
The mirror match of Winston came out on map two where OGE collected the opening fight with a kill onto the Zarya. After taking the high ground outside the Dragon’s spawn, Dallas was sent back to spawn. Youngjin “Gamsu” Noh managed to split up the Fuel who had switched onto the Reinhardt. It looked dire until Richard “rCk” Kanerva picked up two with a D.Va bomb to shift the momentum back to the Fuel. After a long, scrappy last fight, Dallas took the win with great focus fire. This map went to the boys in blue.
Numbani: Shanghai Dragons Win 3-2
Dallas took the defense, but rCk played too far forward and was slept for an easy pick. Point one seemed done and over, but aKm came in clutch with a fast Graviton Surge. Sombra came out from the Dragons, Dallas returned with Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo on the Ana. Sombra proved to be strong, winning the Dragons fights with EMP’s. Shanghai closed the attack with two minutes left off the back of DDing.
On the attack, OGE started on Winston, trying to dive the high ground. Dallas rotated around the point and split Shanghai, they captured the point with smart rotations. Streets phase went extremely quickly with Min “DDing” Sung Bae switching to Sombra, having no charge on the EMP. Dallas was halted on the last phase of Numbani and Shanghai rotated ultimates very well. Dallas were unable to break the EMP, Graviton ultimate rotations from Shanghai as they lost Numbani.
Volskaya Industries: Shanghai Dragons Win 5-4
Dallas opted for the Defense, rCk came out on the Sombra to contest DDing. A slow fight from the Dragons lead to picks and a capture for Shanghai. The Fuel’s Zenyatta played smart against DDing, but he was unable to bring his Transcendence to OGE fast enough. Shanghai captured Volskaya with 4:51 in the time bank.
The Reinhardt and Sombra came out for Dallas on the attack. Dallas played slow and built an EMP, they captured first point slowly and moved onto the second point with haste. Another quick EMP for rCk opened up point B and aKm followed up, Dallas captured with more time than the Dragons.
Both teams opted for the Sombra GOATS matchup. DDing bested rCk on the Sombra, building it faster and captured point A. This lead to rCk using his EMP to stop the snowball potential for the first fight. The battle of Sombras favored the defense for several minutes until DDing rushed in and EMP’ed Dallas. With no support ultimates on the Fuel, Shanghai steamrolled with 1:03 left in the bank.
Now with a D.Va, Dallas fought to get the high ground. Uncharacteristically, aKm missed a Graviton Surge on the attack, it did not seem to matter as OGE found value on the Reinhardt. Gamsu overextended with his Primal Rage, he was sniped out by Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson. This pick lead to a point be capture with one minute left.
The attack for Dallas proved to be unfruitful as uNKOE got separated on the engagement. The Winston from Gamsu did an amazing job splitting up the Fuel. Dallas left the attack with nothing for their efforts. Moira came out from uNKOE for the defense, but that left the Sombra on Shanghai with a free EMP. The lack of a Transcendence allowed DDing to build up an EMP and capture the point for Shanghai. Volskaya Industries went to Shanghai 5-4.
Dorado: Dallas Fuel Wins 4-3
The defense for Dallas went for rCk on the Sombra again, trying to output more utility than DDing. OGE was caught out of position on point one and left the Fuel without a shield, point A was captured with ease. DDing focused on shutting down aKm, hacking him meant no bubbles for OGE. A standoff on point B Dorado meant a battle of the Reinhardts, OGE was hacked by DDing and point B went to Shanghai. The Dragons punished OGE’s positioning and all three points went to Shanghai with 49 seconds left in the bank.
Point A showed the Sombra mirror match again where Shanghai is more practiced. The Fuel attempted to play around the Sombra, only capturing the point after DDing used his EMP. Some good positioning by Zachary and Closer saved uNKOE from the EMP as point two was captured with more time than the Dragons. A huge aggressive EMP and Earth Shatter pushed Dallas through point C with 2:21 left in the bank.
Aggression from rCk put him with an ultimate advantage over DDing, however ZachaREEE was separated and picked off. Point A was captured from the Dragons, followed by a huge C9 from Shanghai, the cart stopped there.
Zarya from aKm were on fire for this last attack. Closer found DDing on the Sombra and Point A was their’s. A Graviton came out from the Dragons, met by OGE’s Earth Shatter. Dallas Fuel punished a huge mistake from the Dragons, taking the map 4-3 and forcing a game five.
Nepal: Dallas Fuel Wins 2-0
Winston GOATs was the pick for Sanctum. The first fight went to Dallas after an over extension from Gamsu. Environmental kills came out for everyone, Shanghai captured it back after a scrappy fight, only for Dallas to quickly return and captured it back. An amazingly timed Sound Barrier from Closer saved the Fuel while in a Graviton, that saved them in their last fight and map one went to Dallas.
Dallas started on Sombra, this proved unfruitful as Shanghai punished OGE without a Defense Matrix. First control went to Shanghai but Dallas returned with a Shatter into Bomb combo for control. A well timed Transcendence saved OGE in a Graviton, followed by a huge Shatter by OGE in the next fight. The final fight broke out and it was scrappy, but the main damage dealer from the Dragons was killed off, leaving aKm to shine and clean up the last fight. The Dallas Fuel won a very close series 3-2.
Conclusion
A close series, very close. Dallas shined on the traditional GOATs composition against Shanghai, however DDing’s Sombra bested the Fuel’s. When DDing could play Sombra and Gamsu could play Winston, Shanghai shined, but struggled with traditional 3-3. Dallas never learned how to shut down the Sombra from DDing, but he couldn’t play it on all maps. Whenever Dallas was on a level playing field, aKm shined on the Zarya over his counterpart on the Dragons. In future games Dallas will have to adapt to shut down Sombra, as for now they can hope for another huge C9.