Wolf “Wolf” Schröder started casting the Overwatch League in 2019 and has specialized in analyzing teams. He hopped on a call with The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday to discuss the Dallas Fuel, where they stand and their upcoming match Saturday against the Washington Justice.

Answers have been edited for clarity and length.

Question: Just so people can gauge where the Fuel may be at, how much stock do you put in their win over the Valiant? Are the Valiant good enough to consider that a statement win, or is it far too early?

Wolf: “The most important thing about Dallas’ win vs. the Valiant is that they did it running Tracer against the Torbjorn composition and (Jang “Decay” Gui-un) looked really good. I think people should really be focusing on the fact that Dallas was able to force that composition to work and do it against a composition most people strongly believe counters what Dallas was running. I think that really makes a statement on the Dallas coaching staff’s ability to come up with a strategy like this that people didn’t really expect to see because most teams agree it was countered.

“I think it was indicative of Dallas getting over the big losing streak and really pushing themselves toward a brighter future.”

Question: What did you think of the Fuel’s gameplan last weekend? They didn’t play the Torbjorn comps and that ended up with both positive and negative results, so was it effective enough?

Wolf: “I think when you look at the compositions that teams run in general right now, because obviously each week we have a different hero pool, each team comes up with an idea of their own meta. I think outside of the Asia region, I think most teams kind of just do the same things and form their own meta that tends to be universal. I think teams deciding that they were going to do something different, like Aero and the Fuel deciding to run the Tracer comp even though it wasn’t ideal, is good for the game.

“When you make a coaching decision like that it’s brave and impressive. I like teams that are willing to take risks like that, especially teams that are struggling. I think winning that series against the Valiant in said fashion, as we saw last week was indicative that as hero pools change, teams will form strategies that people won’t expect.”

Question: Based on the hero bans for this week, do you think the Fuel place Decay on Tracer again and work around that?

Wolf: “I think there is a possibility that we see that. Brigitte slipping back into the pool makes it a lot harder, but on Control I think there is a world where he could make that work. I think what a lot of people don’t understand about Tracer is that they think she is just this hero that goes in the backline and eliminates a support and that’s her function. But I think Decay and Dallas understand how to get value out of Tracer by playing slowly with her and waiting until a target goes below half health and clips them down and eliminates them that way. That makes it harder for a Brigitte to counter her because Tracer isn’t always necessarily in the backline.

“There’s a chance we see a little bit of Tracer from Decay. I think he’s a very smart Tracer and I really respect Decay a lot. But I think sometime’s people just think he’s this god-tier flanker but I think he’s just really intelligent with how he plays.”

Question: How important is this match against the Washington Justice? Every match is of equal value of course, but considering the Justice have struggled, does this seem like a match the Fuel should win?

Wolf: "I think if the Fuel win this one, it’s a pretty good sign that they’re on the up and up. I think more of the fans, especially since it’s been so long since Dallas had a resurgence, they won’t be too impressed necessarily if they beat Washington because they are kind of struggling. But I think if they lose to Washington people might discount the last win as a fluke. For Dallas’ sake I hope they do well this weekend because I think it’s important to keep your mentality up and keep the ball rolling.

Question: Where do you think the most separation is between teams in the current standings? Is it top and bottom heavy, or are things closer than some may perceive?

Wolf: “It’s hard to say especially because, even in the Asia region, they seem to be the strongest teams but they even have bad days in matches only against each other. That makes it difficult. We aren’t at a point yet where we can set tiers, for example, especially with the Valiant beating the San Francisco Shock and the Fuel beating the Valiant, it becomes complicated.

“With hero pools it’s a lot tougher to make those stark distinctions like we had last year. It was pretty obvious where teams stood after every stage. Right now I’m looking at Asia as the strongest, and I don’t think it’s biased just because I’m the Korea guy, but it’s hard to draw lines towards the bottom half because I think anybody could rise out as long as they can be consistent through the second half of the season.”

Question: Finally, where do you plug the Fuel? Record aside, where do you think they belong in the power rankings?

Wolf: “I would still have them at the top of the bottom five, but I think that could change depending on how they do against the Washington Justice. If they dominate the Justice this weekend and take a 3-0 or something like that, I think that could really change. If they have a really dominant win and look like they are back on their way in, Decay plays well and they come up with another cool composition for the hero pools, which I think there’s a good chance they will, then they could break into top 12.

“I think that match is going to decide how I answer that question. At the moment I feel like the top of the bottom five, but there is a lot of potential.”