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The Dallas Fuel haven’t been as sharp with their Overwatch League play over the past month. The No. 1 overall seed in the west for the upcoming OWL playoffs in September crawled past the finish line in a 3-1 win over the London Spitfire Saturday afternoon.
The Fuel looked less polished in the match, and that’s almost by design. Confused? Well Fuel head coach Yun “RUSH” Hee-Won has scaled back on the Fuel’s dedicated scrimmage time.
“I recently lessened the amount of practice we’re having,” Yun said via interpreter. “It’s because everybody has been running, and it’s really exhausting having to go to Hawaii and the exhaustion builds up.”
The Fuel want to win a world championship and don’t particularly care about a Countdown Cup win if taking home the ultimate prize doesn’t follow. The trips to Hawaii are tiring for the players. The long plane rides, lack of prep time in Hawaii before playing the top teams in the East and the jet lag once the Fuel landed back in Dallas took a toll.
And Dallas has done that three times this season already, maximizing its tournament appearances to this point.
“We have to prepare for the playoffs, and going to Hawaii definitely cuts down our time off,” Yun said. “In turn, that might have a negative effect on us, actually. Winning every match is important and maintaining a good performance is always vital, but what comes after might honestly harm us more.
“It might actually be better to take a break and make sure we are ready for the playoffs.”
So when the Fuel looked disjointed against a winless Spitfire team, it made sense. Now the Fuel aren’t trying to lose matches. They are working through the growing pains of hopping off comfort picks and expanding their own meta. Lee “Fearless” Eui-Seok is playing more Wrecking Ball. Kim “Doha” Dong-ha and Kim “Sp9rk1e” Yeong-han are trading matches on Pharah and Tracer. Moira is almost unpickable at the OWL level and Lucio is banned, so Lee “Jecse” Seung-soo and Kwon “Fielder” Jun are playing Brigitte and Zenyatta.
They aren’t used to any of that yet, and the Spitfire took advantage of the Fuel’s mistakes. London won Route 66, which Dallas is now 0-4 on for the season, and tied the Fuel on Volskaya Industries. All the maps besides King’s Row were close.
“Nobody assumed today’s match would go as difficult as it did, but I think the main reason was the lack of players’ focus,” Yun said. “We are trying to piece things together so that they could make up a plan in certain situations and figure out what their individual tasks are.”
Yun was quick to make sure he didn’t consider the Fuel players to be burnt out. He added that every Korean team other than the Seoul Dynasty were away from home in a pandemic and dealing with their own hurdles.
He wanted his Fuel players to be more physically healthy. Yeong-han mentioned to The Dallas Morning News that he’d been working out more because he wasn’t as physically fit as he was used to.
While it might make the Fuel’s gameplay look scrappy in a league match against the London Spitfire, the Fuel are making strides in other areas.
Make no mistake, Dallas is playing to be the best team in the world, and won’t be giving away any wins. The Fuel will take their new strategies and put them to the test against the battle-hardened Atlanta Reign team at 3:30 p.m Sunday.
Going to Hawaii is important, Yun said, but it can’t be at the cost of a world championship.
Find more esports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
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August 08, 2021 at 04:54AM
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After defeating London, Dallas Fuel head coach ‘RUSH’ reveals team is practicing less on purpose - The Dallas Morning News
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