It wasn’t sadness, despair or self-pity. The Dallas Fuel players knew what they were doing wasn’t enough prior to a convincing 3-0 sweep of the Toronto Defiant Saturday afternoon.
No, the Dallas Fuel were mad. They let a match against a weaker team get away from them on June 20, with the Vancouver Titans bringing out the brooms themselves.
The Fuel didn’t have that Overwatch League team synergy or polish. Dallas was disjointed, confused and unstable in it’s game play.
That’s what made the Fuel’s turnaround to Saturday all the more impressive to head coach Aaron “Aero” Atkins. Dallas looked like a well-oiled machine as it ripped apart Toronto and looked to be a team at the peak of it’s gameplay.
So how did the Fuel transition from a season-low to sharpened blade?
“We showed up mad,” Aero told The Dallas Morning News Saturday evening. “We were embarrassed by our performance last week so we sat down and had a bunch of coach meetings.”
The Fuel had everything to prove all over again. They were projected to be one of the worst teams in the league prior to the season and made some noise. Then the Fuel crashed against Vancouver, a group that had to completely remake it’s roster in the middle of the 2020 season.
Dallas rested it’s superstar Jang “Decay” Gui-un and appeared scrambled to find plays to make up for it. Two newer players in Nolan “Paintbrush” Edwards and Stefan “Onigod” Fiskerstrand -- both of which were signed in June -- needed time to fit into their new roles.
So much had to be solved in just a week for the Fuel to prove to fans, and themselves, that they weren’t going to just roll over and die.
So Aero and the coaching staff got the team together for a hard conversation.
“Look, last week we sucked,” Aero said he told his team. “We messed up bad and we went in this week with very clear goals and directions and wanted to make sure we had a very clear plan for how we were going to improve and plan. Man, did we work our butts off this week.”
Toronto took the first round, as the Fuel still appeared jumbled in their team play again on Saturday. That was the last of that scene, though.
Dallas crushed through Toronto the rest of the way, playing around a masterful performance from damage star Kim “DoHa” Dongha on Genji. It was important for the Fuel to pick up a team win, because they were battling their own critics.
Not that the Fuel cared about outside perspective, but the notion was, without Decay, the Fuel couldn’t win. Decay exploded this season as one of the best damage-dealers in the world. So flopping with him resting against Vancouver was like throwing gasoline to the fire for Fuel doubters.
All of a sudden, Dallas wasn’t really proven anymore. Perhaps it was the Decay show.
The sweep against Toronto may have delayed those talks. The Fuel’s starting six worked in tandem. Paintbrush, the team’s new main shot-calling on the support line, and Onigod, a fresh set of DPS legs, shined.
And DoHa slashed through the Defiant on Genji.
Good bounce back win vs @TorontoDefiant. There was a lot of reflection since last week and I truly believe if we keep up this pace we can be a really dangerous team. Also @Doha_OW is my hero.
— Crimzo (@Crimzo) June 27, 2020
“It was our first scrim of the week and I think we identified at some point in the first block,” Paintbrush said. “I think it was either a coach’s decision or DoHa just decided to play Genji, but it just clicked.”
For Aero, Saturday was the first time in a while that the pieces were fitting together instead of falling off the table. Decay rested again all week for personal reasons, and the Fuel coaching staff felt strongly that his decision needed to be respected.
So it was up to the Fuel to be their own carry.
“I don’t want to say the play style with Decay is just let Decay pop off because there are obviously other things going on in the game,” Paintbrush said. But when we take a piece out that people believe is so critical, it puts more pressure on the rest of us to make plays.”
Aero said he didn’t see any risk in having Decay out again. The Fuel were actually confident heading into their match against Vancouver last Saturday, and that there was promise in their scrims.
That didn’t pan out how they liked, but there was assurance that Dallas could make a Decay-less lineup strong.
Against Toronto, the no-Decay look was lethal.
V happy about the 3-0 today // everyone worked super hard & things are coming together.
— Nolan Edwards (@paintbrush) June 27, 2020
GGs @TorontoDefiant
The Fuel tank line of Noh “Gamsu” Youngjin and Lucas “NotE” Meissner commanded the space on maps and took initiative. That was something Paintbrush said the Fuel were frustrated within their past outings.
Dallas was playing passive, and that’s not how they wanted to play Overwatch.
And while the Fuel want to play to their own style and their own comfort, outside of the match, there can be no such thing. The Fuel still have a hill to climb if they want to have a successful run in the upcoming Summer Showdown tournament in July.
They don’t want to be complacent with a win over Toronto.
“That’s my mindset going into the rest of this season,” Aero said. “I’m not satisfied, man. I really want to be the best and we are doing what we have to do to make sure we get there.”
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