4 possible scenarios for the Dallas Fuel’s Saturday match against Toronto - The Dallas Morning News

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Losing to the Vancouver Titans may have opened up a thought chamber for Dallas Fuel fans.

They’ve seen their team collapse before at the end of a season and finish a year with underwhelming results.

2020 looked to be different, with the Fuel pushing elite teams to the limits and fielding a talented roster.

Getting swept by what may be the worst team in the league was a shell shock for the Overwatch League community, especially since the Fuel looked lost when their superstar damage-dealer Jang “Decay” Gui-un got the weekend off.

This opened up a realm of possibilities for the Fuel’s near future as Dallas takes on Toronto on Saturday at 4 p.m.

Here’s a breakdown of what four scenarios could look like:

Decay doesn’t play, and the Fuel win

This might actually be the best-case scenario for the Fuel. It would mean the team is fully capable of handling a weaker opponent without their star.

It could also suggest that getting swept by the Titans was a fluke of sorts. Head coach Aaron “Aero” Atkins didn’t even entertain the thought that Dallas lost because Decay didn’t play. He felt the Fuel were sloppy with their play, plain and simple.

“I think the important thing is, you have to pick yourself up and focus on what is next,” Aero told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday. “We really are just digging in and trying to make sure that doesn’t happen again. We’ve already been hitting review hard and trying to make sure our scrims are super productive so when we go into a match this weekend, we don’t have a repeat.”

If the Fuel pick up a victory with newcomer Stefan "Onigod" Fiskerstrand in for Decay, that would be a positive sign. If Dallas were to crush Toronto with that DPS line, it could suggest a more lethal Fuel team may be on the horizon with a flexible lineup that could include Decay, too.

Decay doesn’t play, and the Fuel lose

Fans know this is possible now because of last week. The Fuel could field a group that has not just Onigod, but two newcomers, including support player Nolan “Paintbrush” Edwards, and lose again.

Aero was clear about his reasoning for not playing Decay. Dallas wanted to rest its star and get Onigod caught up to speed with the team’s synergy and his role within the team.

If the Fuel got to a tournament match in the upcoming Summer Showdown and played Onigod without much practice, that wouldn’t play to the Fuel’s hand.

The biggest concern would be that Dallas can’t win without Decay. Aero said he knew that would be the narrative after the Fuel lost on Saturday, but again, he just felt the Fuel were sloppy. The Fuel were sloppy with Decay playing in a 3-0 loss to Paris on May 17.

That doesn’t mean losing to Vancouver and Toronto back to back without their star wouldn’t be disheartening for the Fuel.

Decay plays, and the Fuel crush Toronto

If Decay were to play, this could be a reasonable possibility. The Fuel more than handled their weaker opponents this season before the loss to Vancouver. They swept the Washington Justice twice and topped the Houston Outlaws in the rivals’ two meetings.

But it would feel like all is right in the world for Dallas Fuel fans.

That doesn’t mean Onigod shouldn’t play, too. Onigod told the Dallas Morning News that he’s quite confident in his abilities, but nerves came up early in his first OWL match.

“I know I have what it takes to play at this level,” Onigod said, “and I’m hoping to get that trust from the coaches as well. I feel like, especially if we need to run double-hitscan, we have a really good DPS lineup. I also have other picks. I play well on projectile heroes as well, I think me, Decay and (Kim “DoHa” Dongha cover most of the DPS roster.”

So while Fuel fans may be praying at their beds at night for a Decay return, they may want to see a lot of Onigod too. For the Fuel to reach their true potential -- and possibly defeat an elite OWL team -- Dallas will need all of its damage dealers to get hot.

Decay plays, and the Fuel lose to Toronto

The inverse of the first option, this could very well be the worst-case scenario. If Decay plays on Saturday, there’s really no reason the Fuel shouldn’t take care of business.

A Dallas Fuel downfall in its third season would look more like this scenario, where the Fuel lose steam and drop matches to teams they should defeat.

It may also be the least-likely scenario considering Dallas’ past against lower-ranked teams this season, but again, the loss to Vancouver may have brought bad memories back to Fuel fans.

“One of the things that kind of happened in that Vancouver match is we had a lot of people doing strategies that we had done previously in different metas, but not necessarily things that worked in that meta,” Aero said. “We needed to unify under one voice, but once we started losing we really didn’t get control back.”

Dallas reverted back to some of its style from previous hero pools. Might not have been the bad memories mentioned before, but the Fuel have to move forward to avoid their past.

Find more Fuel stories from The Dallas Morning News here

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4 possible scenarios for the Dallas Fuel’s Saturday match against Toronto - The Dallas Morning News
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