After 2 decisive losses, the streaky Dallas Fuel could be at a season low. Can they mentally recover? - The Dallas Morning News

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Nolan “Paintbrush” Edwards felt “terrible” Sunday afternoon. His Dallas Fuel squad lost two matches over the weekend, both convincingly.

The Atlanta Reign (10-7) crushed Dallas 3-1 on Sunday, and the 3-0 roll from the Philadelphia Fusion (20-2) on Friday certainly didn’t help the morale.

There are a lot of questions surrounding the Fuel heading into the final stretch of the season. Why can’t they put it together against strong opponents after showing peaks in the weeks prior.

The biggest question is almost certainly, why aren’t the Fuel playing Jang “Decay” Gui-un? But the more pressing question could be, can the Fuel (7-10) reach a stable mental state in time to salvage an increasingly underwhelming third season?

“Honestly, the biggest thing was team morale,” Paintbrush told the Dallas Morning News in a phone interview. “Especially coming off a hard loss like Fusion, I think it affected some things internally. I think personally, for me, the loss to Fusion was such a bad showing that it made me angry and I snowballed that energy into today. It’s just tough. I feel like our coordination and overall decisiveness in the past was better than it was this weekend.”

The Fuel played seven maps over the weekend, with Stefan “Onigod” Fiskerstrand over Decay in each one.

Decay, who cemented himself as a damage superstar and made early-season MVP conversations through his dynamic play-making, hasn’t played a full match for the Fuel since July 4 against the Paris Eternal in the Summer Showdown.

Since then, Decay has appeared in three of 12 maps, all against Houston on July 17. Decay was not made available to The News after Sunday’s match.

“I don’t really have much to talk about on that topic,” Fuel head coach Aaron “Aero” Atkins said, “just that it was a staff decision to play the roster we were playing.”

Paintbrush didn’t have any additional information on the topic of Decay, but did say the Fuel had been practicing a lot with Onigod and were seeing success with that lineup.

But quality practice didn’t translate to results over the weekend.

“As a player I always take individual responsibility for my own play and whatever I can do moving forward,” Paintbrush said. “As a team I don’t know what we need to change. From a coaching aspect I think we had an amazing week of feedback. I think it’s on our own players to address mentality and who they are, come to terms with it, and get back on the horse.”

Aero added that execution felt inconsistent. Kim “DoHa” Dongha would have a monster dragonblade on Genji, or would chain multiple fights together as a start in the DPS role for Dallas, but then the Fuel would fall apart.

It wasn’t the Fusion or Reign exposing weaknesses within the Fuel, Aero said.

“I think it’s easy to say that because they were top teams and we didn’t play well,” Aero said. “But I think it’s more that we beat ourselves and our general synergy was way off going into Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Obviously the teams that we faced are really good teams … It was us beating ourselves and a lot of basics and fundamental things we have tried to work on.”

Really sorry to @DallasFuel and everyone else supporting the team, our last 2 games have an embarrassing and weak showing from us, will do everything we can to not play this next time ggs ☹️ also fk ping

— Onigod (@Onigod) August 2, 2020

The most concerning factor for the Fuel might be it’s mental state. Paintbrush praised the feedback from the coaching staff over the past week. He felt he learned a lot about his own gameplay and how the team can improve.

Paintbrush said that he had to triple his energy during a halftime chat with the Fuel after going down two maps to Atlanta on Sunday. He was frustrated that a speech like that was necessary for the Fuel to play at their own temp.

The Fuel’s only map victory of the weekend followed the talk, though Atlanta did substitute in two rookies.

Dallas can’t afford to lack confidence moving forward. It has the Countdown Cup, which starts Aug. 7, to compete in and four more regular season matches against formidable teams to close the season before playoffs.

Paintbrush discussed this with the Fuel coaching staff on Friday after losing to Philadelphia. He knew it could be an issue before Dallas lost again on Sunday.

“It felt like there was an invisible barrier that was stopping us from playing that game,” Paintbrush said. “All we had to do in the Fusion game was break through it once to start putting up a real fight. We weren’t able to break through it.”

The Fuel’s new leader in the support role wants his team to embrace the challenge. Though times are frustrating right now, Paintbrush said overcoming the “barriers” are part of what makes being a professional enjoyable.

That’s the mentality he wants to see for his group.

“I feel absolutely terrible. That’s part of it. I think as a player this is what can make it fun,” Paintbrush said. “Challenging yourself, getting through these hard emotions and getting that direct feedback is important. Having something that’s going to cut deep with a very tough loss, that’s the fun.”

To turn the season around, the Fuel may need to answer their own questions.

Find more Fuel stories from The Dallas Morning News here.

Find more esports stories from The News here.

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After 2 decisive losses, the streaky Dallas Fuel could be at a season low. Can they mentally recover? - The Dallas Morning News
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