Dallas Fuel end preseason tournament run with win over Seoul Dynasty in 3-2 thriller - The Dallas Morning News

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The Dallas Fuel have their first win of 2021. Kim “Yong” Yong-Jin and the Fuel coaching staff still aren’t concerned about results.

The Fuel assistant coach still felt that way following Dallas’ 3-2 win over the Seoul Dynasty in a NeXT Cup exhibition Saturday morning.

The win came before the sun made its first appearance for the day. The win also held no true stakes, because the Overwatch League season starts in April.

That doesn’t make this insignificant.

GGS. It's just the beginning. We're going to make more progress.

— OW_Rush (Hee-Won Yun) (@rush_coach) January 30, 2021

Dallas won one match against a team with a winning record in 2020, a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Valiant (12-10) on April 5. Before that, it was on Feb. 23, 2019 that the Fuel defeated a Philadelphia Fusion team that finished the season at 15-13.

The wins over top teams have been few and far between, but the Fuel just defeated a loaded Seoul roster coming off a trip to the OWL championship series against the San Francisco Shock. The Dynasty could very well be one of the best teams in the league against this season.

But again, the results weren’t the focus for Yong.

“I’m not sad or anything about our victory obviously, but it’s not reassuring yet because there are two months left and there are so many things that we have to fix,” Yong told The Dallas Morning News via interpreter. “We have a long way to go and ultimately I want to say that it’s too early for us to relax now.”

The Fuel won’t get to play again on Sunday because they were swept by Shanghai and Guangzhou a week ago. Yong wasn’t confident the Fuel would have another live-streamed exhibition again before the start of OWL play.

But Dallas made serious strides in its gameplay over the last week. The newly formed team looked lost and out of sync against Shanghai and Guangzhou. The support line was getting caught out of position and the Fuel were getting rolled in fights when DPS player Jung “Xzi” Ki-hyo wasn’t hitting all his shots.

Our teamwork and skills were not good before the match in Seoul, but we are growing after losing the match.
Bigboss is back
I will do my best. Thank you

— Xzi (@xzi_ow) January 30, 2021

Support player Jun “Fielder” Kwon didn’t even make an appearance that weekend. All eight Fuel players competed against Seoul, and the Fuel were cleaner in every way.

The Dallas coaching staff, led by head coach Yun “RUSH” Hee-Won, harped on the Fuel players for lacking “the basics.” They weren’t fighting in the right areas of the map and weren’t playing for each other.

Support player Lee “Jecse” Seung-Soon took the brunt of the criticism, Yong said. But he was masterful in the fifth and clinching map for Dallas on Saturday.

“(Jecse) stood out the most on our last map. He did very well, but I do have to mention that during the entire week last week he was the one that was getting scolded the most,” Yong said. “He honestly took up most of our time regarding feedback sessions during practice.”

For the Fuel to look so night and day in the span of one week was something Fuel followers aren’t used to, Contenders League caster Kevin “AVRL” Walker told The News in a phone interview. AVRL, who co-streamed the event with English commentary throughout the tournament thus far, was adamant that this was significant, even if it was preseason.

“Yeah, it’s preseason and the results don’t matter themselves, but there’s reputation on the line and Dallas fans needed a morale boost,” AVRL said. “Not just last year, but from every year Dallas has had.”

This goes back to results. Dallas has three underwhelming seasons of OWL under its belt. No winning seasons, but 2020 ended in collapse as the Fuel struggled with team culture and the team’s star player, head coach and an assistant coach were released with a month left until the playoffs.

The current rendition of the Fuel may have the most potential of any other Dallas group. And while a win over a quality team was solid, Dallas still wasn’t polished.

“I feel like it’s too dangerous to speak regarding what is going to happen in the future. So I can’t really be confident in regards to a burst of momentum,” Yong said. “But one thing I can confidently say is, compared to what you’ve seen during this preseason, what you will see during the season once the league starts will be much better.

“You can count on me for that.”

AVRL was most impressed by the Fuel coaching staff. The difference in the week was a resounding response to the Fuel’s wakeup call against Shanghai and Guangzhou. The Dragons and Charge revealed Fuel weaknesses seamlessly.

The Fuel cleaned themselves up, and that may be enough to believe Dallas has barely scratched its own surface.

Find more esports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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Dallas Fuel end preseason tournament run with win over Seoul Dynasty in 3-2 thriller - The Dallas Morning News
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