Aaron “Aero” Atkins was sure the Dallas Fuel just needed more stage time to clean up errors after starting the third Overwatch League season with an 0-2 record. The Fuel’s head coach was working with a new roster of players with only a few months of practice as a group.
Then there was no more stage time to be had.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic eliminated any chance the Fuel had of playing in live events together. Everything changed for Aero and his team.
The Fuel are now nearly a month removed from their 54-day break from Overwatch League play that spanned from Feb. 9 to April 4. They suffered a 3-0 loss to the Gladiators in their return on April 4, but have since gone 3-1 with only improvement to show.
Dallas (3-4) can even its record to 4-4 with a win over the Washington Justice (2-8) at 2 p.m. While the 54-day hiatus is gone, and the Fuel got their fair share of official matches under their belt. Aero said that time frame with nothing to practice may have ended up being the team’s defining stretch.
“I think the big thing is we went through a lot of tough times,” Aero said. “Luckily it was when we weren’t having matches. I’ve talked a lot about what our weeks looked like during that time. We didn’t have a clear idea of what we were practicing for so we went through a lot of those things and got past that hump without having to play a match.”
The Fuel players felt lost. The hours they put into their craft felt squandered without a weekend result to pair them with. The limbo was taxing and Aero’s players were frustrated.
Now they exude confidence.
Dallas earned a 3-0 sweep the last time it played Washington on April 11. The Fuel are also coming off a 3-2 win against rival Houston Outlaws and feel their ability to adapt has never been stronger.
“I think this is more of a must-win because as our schedule starts to become hard we don’t want to have a loss to Washington right now,” Aero said. “I think Washignton is in kind of a weak spot right now and seems to be struggling. We don’t want to be the team that kicks off a win streak them. We want to get a win while they are going through what it is they are going through.”
Aero was right that the road gets bumpier. The Philadelphia Fusion (9-1) will be the Fuel’s next test on May 10 and they’ve looked nothing but elite in the top spot of the OWL standings.
Dallas needs a win, and they need to do it despite the game’s new hero, Echo, making a splash. Aero and Fuel support player William “Crimzo” Hernandez agree Echo has stirred the pot. She’s a mobile hero with great damage potential and abilities that make for explosive and diverse gameplay.
Even Washington can’t be trifled with that kind of variable.
“We feel like Echo in general is a pretty strong hero so no matter what team uses her, whether they are coordinated or not very coordinated,” Aero said. “I think every team has to be on guard this week. We don’t want to underestimate Washington this week.”
Jang “Decay” Gui-un and Kim “DoHa” Dongha are both capable Echo players, but Crimzo said DoHa’s range of heroes could make him a better fit with Echo. But the Fuel can make it work as long as they stay in-tune with each other’s thoughts.
“With hero pools there is a lot of adaptation to be ready for so we have to be able to talk about how we want to play every week,” Crimzo said. “We will keep improving because I think we have a high amount of talent on our team and once we get the teamwork down I think we will be unstoppable.”
Even with new heroes and tough opponents ahead, it’s important to go back to the days where the Fuel didn’t know when they were going to play again. A lot of teams, like the Fusion, were playing a standard schedule during that time. Adapting to hero pools and the new business of needing a brand-new game plan every week could be hiccup.
That doesn’t mean the Fusion or other top teams will have trouble with that process, but Aero said his Fuel certainly won’t have to worry about getting ducks in a row.
“I think it just works out for us that we are pretty good at changing our win conditions quickly,” Aero said. “We’ve already been through the weird stuff as a team so it feels good week to week going in and seeing other teams struggling with this stuff when we have already been there.”
A win over Washington could mean a clean slate on their match record, but Aero said they are far past a mental reset. They had that months ago.
It’s been an upward trend since.
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May 02, 2020 at 07:00AM
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The Dallas Fuel may have already experienced their deepest valleys — now they exude confidence - The Dallas Morning News
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