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The Dallas Fuel could’ve been in a worse spot. Capturing the No. 8 seed in the Overwatch League’s North America playoff bracket gave the Fuel a small amount of control in their postseason path.
Losing a head coach, assistant coach and best player at the start of August wasn’t the premiere setup for a postseason run that the Fuel anticipated heading into the season. But interim head coach Kim “Yong” Yong-Jin helped the Fuel salvage the final quarter of their regular season by picking up three wins against some of the weaker teams in the Overwatch League.
Dallas isn’t primed for a championship run, but it could make some racket. Here’s a look into the Fuel’s playoff prospects.
The likely matchup
Dallas (9-11) will have defeated its first opponent in the postseason. Whether it’s Houston (6-15), Boston (2-19), Toronto (8-14), Washington (4-17) or Vancouver (6-15), Dallas has a strong track record against the bottom teams of OWL, holding a 9-1 record against those five teams in the regular season.
Houston plays Boston while Washington plays Vancouver in the first round of the playoffs. The winner of those two will enter the pool with Toronto, granting the teams with a bye to the second round a chance to select their opponents.
The Fuel will be left with the scraps. After the Los Angeles Gladiators (11-10) and Atlanta Reign (10-11) select, the Fuel will know their opponents. Many fans have guessed Dallas could get another battle for Texas against the Outlaws.
The Fuel have been succesful in their matches against Houston, going 3-0. The concern may be that Dallas may look different in some of these matches after the departure of damage superstar Jang “Decay” Gui-un.
Even so, Stefan “Onigod” Fiskerstrand has won both maps he’s played with the Fuel against Houston, so that matchup should still favor Dallas.
The most dangerous team to play would be Washington. That would mean a matchup between Dallas and Jang. If Washington and Jang look particularly strong in their first-round matchup, that could mean Los Angeles and Atlanta take a pass on playing them.
What if the Fuel win?
If the Fuel pick up a win against their first opponent, it would likely be their last. Dallas failed to defeat any of the top four teams -- Philadelphia (24-1), San Francisco (25-3), Paris (16-6) and Florida (17-7) -- the Fuel were 0-10 against those squads.
That doesn’t mean Dallas couldn’t make life harder for a team like Philadelphia. The Fuel would likely be selected first, as it may be the weakest team to extend its season that long.
Dallas could potentially take a map, as it proved it could against Paris on Sunday.
The Fuel actually had a serious opportunity to go up two maps against the Eternal before stepping on their own toes.
Kim has been adamant that this team needs to learn to adapt in order to improve. He wasn’t satisfied with the progress made under his ongoing term as the team’s leader, citing that this may be the first time the Fuel players ever learned to adapt to opponents in matches.
“If you look at the entire season in summary, we were never that satisfactory,” Kim said via interpreter on Sunday. “We are not a strong team. We are considered a weak team. For a weak team to be satisfied, I feel like that hinders us from growth.”
If the Fuel can improve on that even slightly, their star-powered damage lineup could grab them a map or two against a top team.
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August 26, 2020 at 02:57AM
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How far can the Dallas Fuel make it in the Overwatch League playoffs? - The Dallas Morning News
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