Dallas Fuel 2 – Paris Eternal 1

Coming onto the stage today, the Fuel needed to continue the strong showing that they displayed against Toronto. This match would prove whether or not the Fuel’s victory the prior day was a fluke or if they are the real deal. Luckily for the Dallas boys, this win showed that they are on the right track and are a strong team this stage.

Busan (Dallas 2 – Paris 0)

On Downtown the Fuel won out the first fight and successfully took the point first. They held for quite a while, yet they lost OGE at 99% and finally relinquished control of the point. Retaking looked unlikely for most of the round, but right at the end a huge 3k from Lucas “NotE” Meissner’s D.Va bomb enabled a full teamwipe at 99%. Off the back of this, the Fuel secured round 1.

On Sanctuary, Roni “LhCloudy” Tiihonen went down early which opened up the point to be taken by Dallas yet again. Overall the Fuel gave up about 50%, but took the map in strong fashion. The map ended with Minseok “OGE” Son and NotE setting up another big combo to win it all.

Paris (Dallas 2 – Paris 2)

On the Dallas offense, Paris began with running a bunker composition. As a result the Fuel began with Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo on Sombra, Dylan “aKm” Bignet on Pharah, and NotE on Hanzo. Their push took some time but the Dallas Fuel finally took the point with only 30 seconds to spare off of smart plays by ZachaREEE and NotE. To take B they switched to GOATS and after more time was taken, they pushed through and secured the second point with a 1:30 time bank.

For the second round, Dallas ran a bunker comp of their own on defense with double main tank. A big dragonblade from Karol “Danye” Szcześniak finally opened up the point with even less time to spare. However, unlike the Fuel, the Eternal used this to snowball B and finished with double the time left in the bank.

On Fuel’s second offense they ran a standard 2-2-2 with Tracer and Sombra. However, the strategy failed and the Fuel were denied a single tick from Danye’s Bastion. On their second defense they attempted to play for the draw with another bunker comp. With over 3 minutes in the bank it looked dire. Yet off of several scrappy fight wins, Dallas held off Paris from taking even a single tick, tying the map.

Blizzard World (Dallas 4 – Paris 3)

By running a triple tank and McCree for their offense, Dallas took A with ease. They pushed through B and C in dominant fashion only being held once. Dallas finished the map with 3:04 in time bank, and the entire team experienced no deaths for the round.

On the second round, the Fuel gave up A in just over a minute themselves to Paris. Dallas drained a lot of time off the bank in their defense, preventing an Eternal advantage. In the end however, Paris did take the full map with only 25 seconds left.

For the first extra round, Dallas began with a winston goats defense and an early pickoff onto Soon allowed them to hold the point. For the Fuel’s attack, they built up ults over several fights. A big EMP and Shatter combo set up the point for being taken by the Fuel, securing the series.

Rialto (Paris 2 – Dallas 1)

On  offense the Fuel played a standard GOATS comp. They pushed through A despite being held near the archway and prevented the full hold. They continued to push through most of B as well but were halted by the staircase due to a strong Paris defense.

On the second round Dallas decided to run ZachaREEE on Baptiste for the defense. It started out well, but fell apart rather quickly for the Fuel, and they were forced to give up A in very little time. They went on to hold off on B for a while, but a well placed grav from Terence “SoOn” Tarlier gave Paris a bittersweet map victory in the end.

Conclusion

The Fuel are looking dominant so far this stage. It’s unlikely that they’ve attained the level of the so called “Big Three” of the league, but they’ve cemented themselves as being strong playoff candidates once again. They of course would have liked to win by a stronger margin, as they have already learned last stage why map differential is such an important factor. However it is clear NotE is fitting in smoothly on this team, and their tank line performed phenomenally today. If they continue this streak expect a top spot and a place for them in the Stage 2 playoffs.

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