After an exciting trash talk exchange between the Philadelphia Fusion’s Jae-hyeok “Carpe” Lee and Dallas Fuel’s assistant coach Jayne earlier this week, fans were eagerly awaiting this matchup. Here’s how things went down!
Courtesy of Gamepedia.
In an exciting albeit confusing move, the Philadelphia Fusion decided to start Simon “snillo” Ekström tonight over Gael “Poko” Gouzerch. Philly took some significant risks with their team compositions on Busan. Rather than conforming to the meta, we saw Snillo on Tracer, Carpe on Widow and McCree, and Josh “Eqo” Corona on D.Va on MEKA Base. While these comps did not work in their favor, it was refreshing to see the Fusion trying out something different. Dallas also dominated on Downtown – while Philadelphia managed to cap for a little while, Dallas was able to flip things back in their favor. Dallas took the map 2-0.
Deciding to swap Poko back in, the Fusion’s defense on Numbani was feeble in comparison to Dallas’ GOATS composition. After capping the point, Richard “rCk” Kanerva managed to land a crushing self-destruct on three members of the Fusion, obliterating their entire defense. The Fuel managed to push the payload to the end of the map. When it came time for Philly to attack, they were unable to push past Dallas’ defenses until the last second. Dallas managed to regain their footing, and the Fusion couldn’t push the payload very far. Dallas took the map 3-1.
Image courtesy Red Bull
In a matter of days, fans could see a significant difference in Elijah Hudson “Elk” Gallagher’s Zenyatta play. Many tried to place the blame on Elk as being the problem during the Fusion’s game against the Florida Mayhem on Thursday, but Elk was regularly seen popping off in the kill feed. He also consistently out-healed Alberto “neptuNo” González. Both he and Su-min “SADO” Kim had some incredible gameplay on Horizon Lunar Colony When it came time for the Fusion to defend the second time around, he popped off, effectively putting an end to Dallas’ attack strategy. Only needing a tick, Philly managed to roll right on through Dallas’ defenses and took the map 4-3.
On Dorado, the Philadelphia Fusion struggled against Dylan “aKm” Bignet’s Zarya and rCk’s Sombra. The Fusion managed to push the payload past the second point but were unable to take it all the way home. Dallas steamrolled through the Fusion’s defense when it came their time to attack. Carpe ended up swapping to Widow once Dallas hit Point B and immediately proceeded to pop off. However, the Fusion not being able to push the payload all the way ended up being their downfall. All it took was one last push, and the Fuel took the map 2-3.
This was a rough week for the Philadelphia Fusion. While fans could appreciate the creativity on Busan, losing to Dallas overall was disheartening. With Isaac “Boombox” Charles being out sick, Elk was forced onto a role he was uncomfortable with. Communication seemed to be a major issue between the Fusion’s healing lineup and SADO, who continues to struggle with feeding. The Fusion need to start being more flexible in regards to their tank lineup. While SADO is a great Winston, the Fusion needed their Reinhardt specialist tonight against Dallas. Winston Goats is not as strong as Traditional Goats; once the Fusion figure that out, they should get right back on track.
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