The Dallas Fuel aren’t waiting until the offseason for a big shakeup.
With only four regular-season matches, the Countdown Cup and playoffs separating the Fuel and the offseason, Dallas made two personnel moves Monday with hopes of reclaiming a once-promising season.
The Fuel, which sit with a 7-10 record on the year after two weekend losses, announced the release of superstar Jang “Decay” Gui-un. An hour later, they parted ways with assistant coach Louis “Tikatee” Lebel-Wong.
In a statement, the Fuel said they granted Decay’s request for his release. Though Decay played like an MVP candidate during parts of the season, he had fallen out of favor recently, playing in three maps out of the last 12. He hadn’t played a full match since July 3.
A statement released by the team said the Fuel were focused on “building a cohesive team that will be positioned for future success.”
We have granted the request of Gui-un "Decay" Jang to release him from his contract prior to the end of the 2020 OWL season. Our management is focused on evaluating changes and building a cohesive team that will be positioned for future success.
— Dallas Fuel (@DallasFuel) August 3, 2020
Envy Gaming owner Mike Rufail offered insight into the move: First on Twitter, and later in an interview with The Dallas Morning News.
Ultimately, it came down to lack of professionalism, said Rufail, an industry veteran who recently moved into a newly created position of chief gaming officer. A source indicated that maturity issues were also to blame.
“For him to come out and flat out refuse to practice, at that point I just knew,” Rufail told The News in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “He actually said this to us, that he would refuse to practice but would show up to matches. At that point I knew we had to let him go. That doesn’t work for us.
“From the get-go it didn’t seem like he was very receptive to working with our team.”
This wasn’t the first time Rufail and the Fuel dealt with issues among the DPS staff, or even the maturity level of players. Rufail brought up the problems between the team and former damage players Hyeon “Effect” Hwang and Kim “Rascal” Dong-jun.
The team also famously parted ways with Felix “xQc” Lengyel early during OWL’s inaugural season in 2018 due to violating multiple Overwatch League Code of Conduct violations.
While there were similar maturity issues from Fuel’s past, Rufail said the scenarios all felt different from the last.
“Effect had a lot of personal things going on in his life and different things that happened that prevented him from playing,” Rufail said. “It’s a completely different situation. Rascal was being very difficult, but I think Rascal actually learned from us and went on to have a successful career, which is great. We are happy to see that.”
The Fuel and Decay mutually terminated the remaining three months left on his contract, so Dallas isn’t on the hook for the remaining salary. That’s what Decay wanted, Rufail said.
It was important for Rufail and the Fuel to sort out these problems, because the team is still eyeing a strong push in the Overwatch League playoffs at the end of the season.
Tikatee’s release was a part of the franchise’s future goals as well, Rufail said.
“The fans always expect you to be the best team in the league, but there are plenty of teams, so only a few can be at the top,” Rufail said. “We have to seize our moment and look for our opportunity to make the team better. I think stepping into the 2021 season we have a great chance to rebuild our team and we are eyeing that opportunity.”
Rufail didn’t speculate on the future of head coach Aaron “Aero” Atkins, but the pressure could be on during the remaining weeks of the season.
Tikatee, meanwhile, expected there to be a change in coaching, though he was surprised it came down Monday.
“There were a few things on the staff where restructuring [that] was needed and expected,” Tikatee told The News on Monday. “I wasn’t expecting the release to happen this soon, but in the offseason most likely. I was surprised at the same time, but from seeing the results from this year we as a staff were disappointed and understandably management was disappointed.
“So there needed to be some level of changes.”
Now the question is: will Monday’s shakeup pay dividends in time for the rabid Fuel fan base?
Dallas’ recent collapse, evident in the pair of blowouts suffered over the weekend to the Philadelphia Fusion and Atlanta Reign, started before the losing.
Tikatee, who said he was told the main difference was philosophical differences between him and the Fuel staff, added that the team informed him that it would be parting ways with the assistant coach shortly after the Fuel’s 3-1 win over the Boston Uprising on July 25.
He said he assumed the decision was made before then.
“There were times where I didn’t agree with the direction of the team,” Tikatee said. “I can accept that. It did come as a shock. I didn’t feel like I was a big problem or anything, but they wanted to take a new direction with the team.”
Dallas can kick start the rest of its season in a winnable affair against the Washington Justice in the knockout round of the Countdown Cup on Friday at 6 p.m.
Amid a disruptive shift within the Fuel lies an opportunity for a relatively fresh start. The Fuel may not have it’s most talented player or a complete coaching staff, but they’ve never lacked a clear, outspoken goal from Rufail and Envy.
“We are still going to try and be a force in the playoffs,” Rufail said. “That’s the basis for the moves. We can’t keep somebody around that is hurting the team. We are trying to make the changes that allow our players to have a comfortable position to make a playoff push.”
Lots of fuel added to the fire today (pun intended). We will make some major changes and get the @DallasFuel back into the fray. Thankful for all of you have the patience. Working hard. Expect a lot of news for the team and sweeping changes.
— Mike Rufail (@hastr0) August 3, 2020
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