Vancouver Titans (18-0) vs Dallas Fuel (10-8)
Vancouver Titans Starting Lineup
Sangbeom “Bumper” Park
HyunWoo “JJANU” Choi
Seong jun “SLIME” Kim
Juseok “Twilight” Lee
MinSoo “SeoMinSoo” Seo
Hyojong “Haksal” Kim
Vancouver Titans 4-0 Dallas Fuel
For the third time this season, Vancouver was pitted against the Dallas Fuel in Week 2. Winning the match was probably out of the question for Dallas – seeing how they had yet to take a map off the Titans. Still, a respectable showing could save the Fuel reputation amidst a tough stretch to open Stage 3. Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards for Dallas, as the Titans dominated from start to finish to moke to 18-0 on the season.
Ilios: Titans 2-0 Fuel
The Titans were the dominant team on Saturday and set the tone early on Ilios. After losing JJANU early on Ruins, they gave ground and came back in quick to push Dallas away with just 14% on the board. The Fuel barely touched the point from that point on, eventually losing the final fight when JJANU ate Dylan “aKm” Bignet’s Graviton Surge.
Lighthouse was just as dominant for the Titans. Despite trading Bumper for Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo in the first fight, Vancouver was able to punish Dallas for playing Sombra and took the first fight. Lucas “NotE” Meissner’s EMP only hit the Vancouver frontline, and the Titans survived thanks to Twilight’s Transcendence. Vancouver was in control from start to finish, taking Lighthouse 100-0 to grab map 1.
Volskaya: Titans 3-2 Fuel
After losing every Assault map so far this stage, Vancouver finally put on the board. Bumper’s Earthshatter allowed them to take out aKm before Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson’s Transcendence, and Vancouver took point A. He built another Shatter early on point B. After taking out ZachaREEE he turned around to knock down Minseok “OGE” Son and NotE, who were advancing on two Titans OGE had laid out with his own ultimate. Vancouver finished with 4:21 left on the clock.
Dallas chose to run Sombra on their attack, and Vancouver got hyper aggressive to punish it. The fights were quick and NotE struggled to build EMP. After three failed pushes he cashed in to hit five Titans and secure point A. Point B went largely the same until Dallas broke through without NotE. They forced support ult’s from the Titans while Bumper was dead, and then capitalized with aKm’s Graviton Surge to force extra rounds.
Dallas had just 1:43 on the clock and they proceded to waste it. After wasting time with hero swaps to counter Twilight’s Ana, they still got hit by the Biotic Grenade and lost the first fight. Then a Nanoboost onto Bumper allowed the Titans to get aggressive to close out the point A defense. Vancouver opted for the 4-DPS attack to find the winning tick on Volskaya. They pressured the point before taking down aKm to kick things off and cruised to the 2-0 halftime lead.
Eichenwalde: Titans 3-2 Fuel
Vancouver kept the good times rolling on map 3, where they secured point A after trading Brigittes and collapsing onto OGE just before uNKOE got his Transcendence. They steamed through the rest of the map, winning every fight until they were in the castle. That proved to be just a speedbump as they powered through to finish the map with 2:19 remaining. SeoMinSoo was the difference toward the end, where he took over the high ground and capped the attack with a Graviton Surge.
After a rough defense, Dallas needed a strong attack and got off on the right foot when some favorable trades gave them point A in just over a minute. Vancouver’s point B defense was brief and lacked their usual punching power, and the Fuel had over four minutes for the final stage of the map. The Titans buckled down from there, cleaning things up before forcing a final fight as the clock neared overtime. Twilight hid behind the Fuel before emerging to kil uNKOE and using his Transcendence to save most of the Titans from a Grav. Vancouver closed out the ensuing fight to secure the win.
Dorado: Titans 3-2 Fuel
Map 4 saw the first Stage 3 play time for Jun Keun “Rapel” Kim as well as another showing for SeoMinSoo’s Sombra. The started slow, but Bumper got things going with an Earthshatter before an EMP guaranteed the first checkpoint. Vancouver carried the momentum through point B, where another EMP won the last fight. The Titans marched to the end of the map, but Dallas buckled down to prevent an insane time. It took Vancouver several attempts, but eventually, SeoMinSoo finished things with a Grav.
Vancouver attempted to hold just outside the attackers’ spawn, but Dallas broke through after fairly quickly. They kept up the pressure and finished point A comfortably. Point B was almost identical, with the Titans again pushing to the Dallas spawn doors. The Fuel’s luck and time finally ran out on point C. Another SeoMinSoo Grav sealed the deal, and Vancouver finished off the 4-0.
Conclusion
Vancouver is a far superior team to Dallas, and they showed it on Saturday. Nothing the Fuel tried, worked at all, and, frankly, they didn’t try much at all. A few attempts at Sombra, and four one-sided maps later, and Dallas continue to look a bit lost at the moment. For their part, Vancouver took it easy at times and still romped to another win, leaving their opponents in the dust yet again.
Featured image courtesy of Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment.
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