Seoul Dynasty 1 – 3 Dallas Fuel
With both teams having high expectations coming into the season, the first matches have been a tale of two teams. Dallas disappointed as they were swept by the San Francisco Shock in their first matchup. The Seoul Dynasty shocked the league, providing a dominant 3-1 victory over the LA Gladiators. In their second matches, Dallas looked to turn things around while Seoul tried to keep their success going.
Busan: Dallas 2 – 1 Seoul
The first control point ran two ways, giving several exciting team fights to watch. With Dylan “aKm” Bignet creating havoc with Sombra, Chan-hyung “Fissure” Baek and Byung-sun “Fleta” Kim struggled early. aKm’s EMP ultimate took away three Seoul players to give the advantage on point back to Dallas. Hyeon “EFFECT” Hwang sealed the deal for the Fuel with an essential Graviton Surge, ending the round on a score of 100% – 89%.
The second round was quick, all in favor of Seoul. Out of the gate, Dallas ran a solo tank (Hammond) only to quickly suicide and move to a GOATs composition. Je-hong “ryujehong” Ryu switched from Moira to Ana and laid a nasty bio grenade on Dallas’ main tanks to keep them off the point. Lastly, the two teams traded EMPs, but Seoul ran away with the team kill, 100% – 0%. At this point, ryujehong had slept six Dallas Fuel players so far in the match.
aKm started out the map on Sombra and created a high amount of damage with some crucial hacks. With impeccable timing, aKm laid down a massive EMP to take away a Seung-soo “Jecse” Lee beat ultimate on Lucio. After taking out the Dynasty players, Dallas sealed the point for a Map 1 win.
King’s Row: Dallas 4 – 3 Seoul
Seoul came onto attack first and Min-hyuk “Michelle” Choi worked Sombra like a madman. Five of the eight team fights on this attack contained a Michelle EMP, totaling an average of 4.8 Dallas Fuel players affected per EMP. A Fissure shatter secured the push to the finish, and the Dynasty moved onto defense.
Despite a trade of rally ultimates to kick off this round, Richard “rCk” Kanerva sent an EMP to put Seoul into a panic to cap point A. Well organized play from the Fuel continued to move the payload across the map, as they secured point B easily by an rCk D.Va self-destruct. Fissure wasn’t giving up, as his shatter on Reinhardt smacked down three Dallas players. This monster ultimate left 1:30 on the clock for Dallas to make their move. As Michelle laid down a nasty six-member EMP, all hope seemed lost for Dallas. Ryujehong nanoed Fissure for the final fight of the night, but it was denied quickly to cap the point and send it to overtime.
Overtime was fast and went well for the Fuel. aKm smacked Fissure and Fleta as he ran a full charge on Zarya. aKm’s Zarya was incredible, as he averaged 60% energy in King’s Row. This led a flustered Seoul to have to play perfect defense, as Dallas only needed one tick to win the map. aKm surprised the crowd as he came out on Widowmaker, proving the dominance he can have on a game with three quick headshots to cap the point.
Volskaya: Seoul 4 – 3 Dallas
This map seemed to be all about the D.Va self-destruct bombs. Perfectly placed, rCk shot one into the Seoul defense to take out Sang-beom “Munchkin” Byeon, Fleta, and Fissure to cap point A. The Fuel made quick work of point B, as EFFECT came in on Zarya to lay a perfect graviton surge to combo with a late Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson transcendence to steal a quick run.
Seoul wouldn’t go down without a fight, as they too took point A with dominance on offense. Ryujeong placed his discord orbs effectively on Zenyatta, taking out Min-seok “OGE” Son, Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo, uNKOE, and rCk in the first fight. Michelle had a resurgence on D. Va, as he ate a crucial graviton surge from EFFECT to ultimately help Fissure and Fleta take down two Fuel players. This crucial play sent the map into overtime.
Dallas attacked first in overtime, and Munchkin fell quickly to an rCk D.Va self-destruct. Fissure came in clutch on defense, throwing down a Reinhardt shatter that stunned four Fuel players. Furthermore, EFFECT threw down a panicked graviton, only for Michelle to eat it through the defense matrix once again. When Seoul came out for overtime on offense, the first two fights didn’t work in their favor. It wasn’t until the Dynasty took out OGE and EFFECT in the third fight before they capped point A. Point B went quickly, as EFFECT played way too aggressive, only to come down and let Seoul overcome the Fuel and win the map.
Rialto: Dallas 1 – 0 Seoul
Rialto was quick and was burning blue. aKm came back into the game and smacked two Seoul members for a quick team fight victory for Dallas’ defense. Despite yet another graviton surge of the night being consumed, aKm once again pulled through for the Fuel and took two more Dynasty players in the next team fight. The great defense would hold Seoul’s payload just before point A. All Dallas needed was a quick rCk Sombra hack and EMP to put the win in Dallas’ hands. After that first team fight, Seoul quickly switched to rush back onto the payload, as Dallas only needed a short distance. OGE provided a big-time shatter that was the icing on the cake, as Dallas once the match 3-1.
Conclusion
Though Seoul came out in their first match to stomp the Gladiators, they struggled to get things rolling against the Fuel. The Dynasty’s only map win came when Michelle was playing Sombra, as the Fuel had no answer to the hacks and EMPs into their backline. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see how teamcompositions start to take a turn. Week 1 was filled with Sombra to shake things up, and it worked well when teams like the Seoul Dynasty used it.
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