The Dallas Fuel’s second last match of the regular season saw them go up against the NYXL, one of the league’s most formidable opponents. Expectations of Fuel’s performance were set low, but they ended up taking NYXL to a tiebreaker map whilst also rocking a revitalised line up that saw Mickie play main tank and Seagull play D.Va. Although they ultimately lost, the match gave hope to Fuel fans who now look ahead to further improvements in Stage 3.

I sat down with Custa after the match to figure out how Fuel had managed to bounce back.

So tell me — you’ve been struggling against mid-tier teams throughout the stage and today, you pull out that amazing performance against arguably the top team in the league. How did you guys, against all odds, take NYXL to a fifth map?

You know, there’s a lot of things in the background going on. It’s been really hard with Taimou on Winston because he never really embraced the role, so it was hard to improve as a team. Bringing in Seagull on D.Va and Mickie onto the Winston, they feel a lot more comfortable. There’s a lot more communication and everything just seems to flow a lot better. So hopefully, this shows the fans that we do have what it takes, we just need to get it all together and then hopefully we can compete with the best.

With the return of Seagull today, you look re-energised. I thought on Lijiang Tower, you looked especially confident and refreshed. Why do you think having Seagull on off-tank and Mickie on main tank seemed to click really well? Why do you think that refreshed things?

I think it’s bringing in new play styles, because before with Mickie on D.Va, he played differently and it wasn’t working too well. We had Mickie on Winston today, which is sort of creating a new front and back line synergy and it seems to be working really well for us. On top of that, coming into a match like today, where we’ve been doing really badly and that sort of stuff, we had nothing to lose. We came in with confidence and to show the best that we’ve got, so we had that. All the pressure was on New York in that match and unfortunately they got it in the end, but we can’t be disappointed with the performance, all things considered.

It was so close though. I was really hoping you would get it.

Yeah.

You haven’t had consistent play time over the season, you’ve been subbed in and out a lot. What’s the deciding factor on who gets switched in when and what do you think each of the team’s supports’ strengths are?

We’ve really been doing a mix and match because of so much movement in the team. It’s been really hard to find consistency in the team, in the support roster especially. We’ve been really trying to work out what works best for us. Unfortunately, we had a lot of sickness and we’ve just wanted to keep some consistency. The difference between our supports… Chips is a very mechanically-skilled player, that’s why we have him back on Zen. He was really good back in the day. Unfortunately, he had to play eight months of Mercy, so he’s getting back in the mood. But I think he played incredibly well this evening. He got a lot of picks today on Zen, he played really well. So hopefully he’s starting to come through with some confidence. Me and Harry have a very similar hero pool, so we’re just trying to work out the balance of what that is. Whether or not I’ll be playing next stage or Harry will be playing next stage, we haven’t worked it out. We haven’t worked all the keys to success yet.

Have you been happy with your performance lately on a personal level and what do you think you could improve heading into Stage 3?

Not too happy, because the hardest thing I’ve done is all the role switching. I haven’t had consistency. I played Zen for a bit. I was really happy with how I played in the first week of this stage, but the second week I really suffered, so that’s probably also one of the reasons we brought in Chips as well, other than him being a very good player. So now I’m on a completely new role that I haven’t really played much of in my life, but it gives me the opportunity to call more and that kind of stuff. So I think over time it’ll feel more comfortable, but right now there’s definitely some teething issues. I’m making some mistakes, some bad decisions, but my team are working with me and trying to work through it.

And what do you think the team as a whole needs to work on for next stage?

Just consistency. Once OGE comes in and we have a proper dedicated main tank, I think we’re just going to try and find a core six that can really work and that should allow us to find where everyone stands and what the best plan is moving forward.

What are your thoughts on Brigitte? Do you feel at a professional level you might end up playing her in the support category or do you think she’s more likely to be used as a third tank or off-tank.

I think she can’t really count as a main support. Her healing is too inconsistent, based off that you have to be in melee range or using your shift. Her E ability is a nice heal, I think it has nice armour, but it has a six second cool down. So because of the inconsistency of her heal, I can see her being used in a triple support line up or something like that, but I don’t really know where she stands. Some people say she’s overpowered and some people say she’s useless, so I honestly can’t say either way right now. I’m hoping she changes things up. She’s kind of counter-dive, so maybe we’ll see her break the dive meta, that would be nice.

Cover photo by Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment. Some quotes were edited for flow and clarity, but the original intent remains the same.