Dallas Fuel unable to beat top teams in 2020, end regular season with 3-1 loss to Paris - The Dallas Morning News

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The Dallas Fuel don’t have time to be satisfied. They went the entire 2020 regular season without defeating a top team.

No matter the talent, scenario or person in charge of the Fuel’s strategies, Dallas fell short against the Overwatch League elite.

The small victories, like taking a map over Paris in a 3-1 loss Sunday afternoon, don’t bring up the Fuel player’s spirits. What were some things Dallas interim head coach Kim “Yong” Yong-Jin thought his team did well against Paris?

“I can’t think of any,” Kim said via interpreter.

Kim was frustrated with the mistakes the Fuel made, because they were a continuance of problems that have plagued them all season. The main issue for Dallas on Sunday was its inability to win favorable fights.

Kim said this was a trend in weaker teams.

“It’s really not just our team, but also other weaker teams tend to have a trend where they win the first team fight,” Kim told The Dallas Morning News via interpreter Sunday evening. “Even if they are given a situation where they can snowball the map from there, they don’t know how to snowball or come up with a plan to win the rest of the map. That usually comes from not being aware that they are in an advantage and that leads to losing a team fight pretty pointlessly.”

He’s been working with the Fuel players on this for a while now, but it’s an ongoing issue the Fuel haven’t been able to shake. That’s led to the coach’s attitude of never being satisfied.

Dallas, which has won three matches since Kim took over for ex-Fuel head coach Aaron “Aero” Atkins, is slow to improve and can’t beat top teams.

That was a theme for the season even before Kim took over. Now the Fuel are short-staffed and a star-player short after Jang “Decay” Gui-un’s departure on Aug. 3, and Envy Gaming owner and Chief Gaming Officer Mike Rufail has pointed at significant changes in the offseason.

Dallas won’t look the same by any standard in 2021, so cultural and structural improvements were of focus.

When it came to playing a top team under a new look with Kim at the helm, the Fuel still couldn’t win, even with Paris not playing to their strengths.

“It was so clear that (Paris) didn’t give their all into this match, and yet we still lost,” Kim said via interpreter. “That makes me pretty upset.”

Dallas has to fix this problem, among others within its gameplay, to mount any significant run in the OWL playoffs, which start Sept. 3.

Fuel support player Nolan “Paintbrush” Edwards echoed Kim’s sentiment about being satisfied. He felt the most important thing the Fuel can do in the 10 days between Sunday and the start of the playoffs, is talk.

“More and more lately Yong has made us do player reviews without coaches or management. I think that’s healthy for us and is what we need to close out situations,” Edwards said. “There were some today where we were up a man and decided to take an unnecessary flank. By taking that flank we are creating a variable to lose the fight when we don’t have to do that.”

The Fuel squandered several opportunities against Paris. Kim felt the only map where the Fuel didn’t step on their own toes was the fourth map, Volskaya Industries. But Dallas could’ve opened the match with a 2-0 advantage. Failing to contest the objective in the closing moments of the third map wasn’t a favorable blunder, either.

Dallas was its own opponent as much as Paris was.

Kim doesn’t have to yell at the Dallas players for them to know that their play won’t stand against quality teams.

“I think we understand the team’s position pretty well even without Yong talking about it. We’ve had a lot of issues in the past and we are fixing them now and that’s all that matters,” Edwards said. “It’s going to be a grind and nothing will happen overnight. Even though we understand that, it still hurts to lose. You fight through the emotion.”

The Fuel will be better off in the future if they just set up for fights with more detail and communication. Snowballing one fight into continuously favorable situations was something Kim felt was impossible to accomplish overnight.

Dallas had quality moments against Paris, playing in three close maps. That didn’t stop Kim from being critical of his team.

“I don’t think we’ve ever won against a strong team,” Kim said. “So even if we do improve just a little bit, if we end up being satisfied with that, then we will never be able to move forward from there.”

Dallas may get one more shot at playing a top team in the OWL playoffs. If they can’t do it then, this Fuel lineup may never get another chance together.

Find more Fuel stories from The Dallas Morning News here.

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