The Overwatch League is halfway through Season 1 and yet it has already seen its fair share of controversies. It is a new league and there are definitely going to be hiccups for the players and the management. However, a recent episode involving Dallas Fuel has put the importance of support staff in esports in the public domain.

Dallas Fuel is one of the few teams with the most players in public eye. The team which has players such as Taimou, Seagull, Custa, who are all big streamers, has a lot of fan following. Their former player, XQC, still remains one of the biggest streamers in Overwatch.

As is the case with many of the Overwatch league teams, Dallas Fuel has also added Korean players to their roster. Effect and Rascal are two of the best DPS players in the Overwatch League. However, they have not been able to help the new players ease into the team. Cultural and linguistic differences have created misunderstandings and problems for the players as well as the coach. The latest incident really puts the focus back on the organizations and their efforts to help the players adjust to each other.

Dallas Fuel – Strong Contender, Weak Performer

Dallas Fuel was one of the favorites prior to the start of the Overwatch league. One of the most successful teams before the start of the League, Dallas Fuel was formerly known as EnVyUs. Their performance, especially in the OGN Apex and other tournaments earned them a lot of fan following as far as the Korean mainland. The inclusion of likable personalities such as Taimou, Mickie also is a big determining factor.

However, the team has not had any good results in the Overwatch League. After ten weeks of the Overwatch League, we have seen the team slowly slide in their performance and results. They are now placed third from the bottom just above Florida Mayhem and Shanghai Dragons at the end of Stage 2. For a team which was considered to be a top contender before the start of the season, this downfall has been rapid and abrupt.

Dallas Fuel still has the same talented individuals on their roster. Indeed the team’s average skill level has increased dramatically after the inclusion of AKM and Rascal in the team. But as we have throughout the history of esports, skill is not the only relevant factor. Their results have not improved. They are making more news outside of the game rather than with their performances inside the game.

There are two separate incidents which have put Dallas Fuel firmly as the most controversial team in the Overwatch League. The first part deals with outbursts from XQC and his behavior on social media. However, the second incident showcases the inefficiency of the team management and coaching staff. The misunderstanding between players on the team and the subpar coaching seem to have no intention of actually helping the team to improve.

The XQC era

Félix “xQc” Lengyel has a unique personality as well as a huge fan following. His Twitch stream is one of the biggest Overwatch streams till date. It has been his dream to be a professional player in the Overwatch league and he was picked up by Dallas Fuel.

But repeated public outbursts on social media put him square against the Overwatch League rules of conduct. The vague Rulebook and its implementation notwithstanding, Felix has definitely been at fault. However, the fact is that Dallas Fuel was not able to bring about any substantial change in the way XQC presents himself to the community. Repeatedly making mistakes, XQC was finally let go of the team.

He was punished multiple times in the Overwatch League. The first punishment saw him being suspended for a few weeks in Stage 1. The second punishment was for the use of an emote amongst other things. While the reasons for the punishments can be debatable, Dallas Fuel seemed unable to make XQC fall in line. Of course, the blame for this episode definitely lies more with the player rather than the organization itself.

The Drama Continues with new players on the team

But the problems for the team did not stop with XQC. Dallas Fuel added Rascal and AKM, two world-class DPS players who have proven their worth in other teams. We did see an improvement in their performance, but it was not a consistent feature. The team soon slipped in its results and there was a vivid lack of chemistry amongst the players.

Dylan “AKm” Bignet is a Hitscan player and is probably one of the best Soldiers in the entire League. However, when he played the Genji on a map despite Dallas Fuel having Rascal in their roster, it raised a lot of eyebrows. His subpar Genji play definitely did not help matters as the community started blaming AKM for ‘hoarding’ a spot on the team. The Coach takes the decision on which players to field on which maps. While fans were obviously wrong to blame AKM, a leaked comment by the player did not help matters.

AKM is clearly seen blaming Rascal for pulling out of the match at the eleventh hour. Indeed, AKM feels Rascal should be the one apologizing to him for the fans’ reactions.

Rascal’s Statement

A subsequent stream by Rascal set the record straight wherein, he denied ever refusing to play for the team. He mentioned that he was actually ‘punished’ by being banned from participating and watching the Dallas Fuel scrims. He had no idea of the planned team composition before their match. AKM was the player supposed to play in the match and he had been practicing with the team beforehand.

What happened the day of the Shock match was that besides Route 66, there was no decision as to who would play what on each map. I got pretty angry watching my teammates decide what they would play map-by-map instead of deciding before. So after the Shock match, I told them off. I said that we should prepare properly for the Mayhem match, and then I wouldn’t say I don’t want to play or anything like that. Because I really didn’t want to go into a match with no preparation. I think I played most of the Mayhem match. I think only AKM came in on Nepal to play Soldier.

The team had no preparations before going into their match against San Francisco Shock. They had no idea of the heroes and specific gameplay strategy to adopt against SF Shock. This does put up a big question mark on the coaching of the team. The community has been severely criticising KyKy ( Head Coach for Dallas Fuel ) for the incoherent performances by the team.

Rascal & KyKy

The cause of the misunderstanding between the coach and the players seems to be the language and cultural barrier. Rascal wanted the team to improve their communication and synergy. He specifically mentioned it to KyKy and felt that they should be practicing more on improving their communication with each other. The coach thought Rascal was angry at the other players and wanted them to practice more by cutting down on breaks. This was definitely not what Rascal wanted and the misunderstanding seems to be the core of the problem.

Subsequently, Rascal was punished for his behavior and was forbidden from the team scrims. He was not even allowed to watch the team scrims. The Dallas Fuel resorted to banning one of their best players from scrims as a form of punishment. This seems to be extremely counterproductive to the development of the team. A punishment should not really be about banning a player from scrims. It only serves to fan discord between the players and create a gap in the strategies.

I asked Kyky what he meant about that and he said it was about how westerners consider taking breaks important, and clearly separate practicing and resting, whereas Koreans go super hard into practicing. But I never tried to force my teammates to practice or anything like that. All I wanted to stress was the difference between waiting for problems to resolve themselves, and actively working to solve those problems.

How KyKy and the coaching staff proceed from here on is still unknown. Their current style leaves little room for improvement as a team. Dallas Fuel seems to be a team with individual performances, which pale when compared to the team chemistry on the other OWL teams.

Dallas Fuel Management needs to step up their game

Most of the underlying problems in the Rascal-KyKy drama are the responsibility of the Dallas Fuel management. When you buy a player of Korean origin, you accept potential cultural and linguistic differences. As a premier esports organization, it is the responsibility of the management to ensure the seamless integration of the players into the team. If steps are not taken to build the team and it’s synergy misunderstandings are bound to happen. Such misunderstandings are the sole reason why some other teams have decided to hire psychologists, translators etc.

Dallas Fuel has a lot of work on their hands and the primary focus has to be to help the team in its communications. The team also needs a better coaching style which can help the team form strategies and practice according to their opponents. For a 19-year-old, Rascal has shown a lot of maturity in his approach to this problem. The usually fun natured DPS player seemed very sad and morose in his stream statement.

Dallas Fuel has players from several parts of the world. They include players from Asia, Korea as well as several western players. Helping the team synergize, practice and spend time with each other falls in the realm of the coaching duties.

The Dallas Fuel players have already proven themselves on the big stage before on several teams. The team has the potential to match up to the best teams in the League. But with internal problems gnawing away at their gameplay, it seems to be a very difficult prospect right now. Teams are slowly realizing the importance of support staff who are crucial to the players’ progress.

The Importance of support staff and Player Integration

Support staff is the most important aspect of building a team. From psychologist to physical yoga and exercise; the overall development of the players should be the OWL teams’ focus. Approximately 40% of the Overwatch league players are of Korean origin and they form a big part of the success of Overwatch. But their integration into the teams will take effort and time on the part of the team management. It is easier for teams such as Seoul Dynasty who have players familiar with each other. But even then, we have seen teams like Seoul, Philadelphia put in efforts to have the necessary support staff.

Overwatch has an abundance of Korean players

Korean players are visible throughout the Overwatch league. The majority of the teams feature one or more Korean players on their roster. However, the integration of new Korean players into the teams is a recurring problem for the teams. Players from Korea are inadvertently used to a different work ethic & different practice regimens. While these are issues that can be easily worked on, the language barrier is something that should be the top priority for Overwatch League teams. Ensuring smooth, correct and seamless conversations between the players can help them share ideas, provide feedback and ensure the development of the team.

Dallas Fuel obviously failed miserably when it comes to ensuring open and correct communication between the various players and KyKy. If anything, this controversy will only serve as a warning to other teams who have not yet hired the requisite support staff.

Few examples of Support staff for OWL teams

Not all the teams in the Overwatch league have shunned support staff for the players. We have teams such as Seoul Dynasty, Philadelphia Fusion amongst others who lead the way in player development and support staff.

Seoul Dynasty was one of the first teams to hire a Physical Trainer for their team. Ensuring physical fitness helps the development and exercise of the brain and reflexes as well. It also keeps the players involved and refreshed.

Beyond excited to welcome Chef Heidi as our full time team chef 🙏 #pdomjnate pic.twitter.com/CphC0VAgms — Philadelphia Fusion (@PHL_Fusion) February 26, 2018

Philadelphia Fusion hired a chef for their team to provide adequate nutrition content for the team. All of these support staff ensure that the players do not have to worry about anything other than the game itself. They can focus on their preparation, their scrims and on achieving results.

There are more examples of teams helping the players integrate into the team and being comfortable in the new environment. With the Dallas Fuel controversy, every team will be looking at player development in a new light.

Egos, Language Barrier and the Cultural Barrier

Teams also tend to ignore the importance of ‘Player Ego’ while building a team. As Overwatch league teams sign big names one after the other, they can only play six players in a match. The decision on which players get to play in the match is always a difficult one as every player is very talented.

I think that in the long term, yes. But it still has to be figured out, because the one thing that fans don’t notice is the players’ egos. It seems like that’s been overlooked by everyone. As soon as you hit seven players, the egos come in. It’s like, “oh why am I not playing, I want more playtime.”

It’s one thing if you have six main players that are big names that have been playing for a while and then six players that are rookies, up and coming players. They’ll be happy to play with the big names and learn from them. They just get to be a part of the team and then get better. But for our team, it’s much harder. The ego clashes were insane. A lot of teams will have to go through that right now because there isn’t really that many up and coming players that aren’t Korean. It seems that the Western player pool is pretty slim.

KyKy

So when a coach takes a decision on the starting roster, there are times when the remaining players begin to ask the question ” Why not me?”. It’s difficult to explain the concept of player rotation and substitution as esports historically has had fixed rosters for teams.

Teams need to focus on building the roster rather than performances

If Dallas Fuel has taught us anything it is that teams need to focus on the team building exercise first. While winning is a very important aspect of the Overwatch league, it is not the sole criteria. Let’s face it, the Korean teams seem to dominate the first season of the Overwatch League. While the teams strive to reach the playoffs, they are also focussing on other activities such as fan engagement, support staff, and team chemistry.

This bodes well for the teams in the long run and they can develop a storyline with the players achieving a huge fan following. Fans can identify themselves with their teams and good results just help with the process. The Players’ job is to focus on their game and perform better. The management’s job, on the other hand, is to ensure the players’ are in a conducive work environment.

Sources :

AKM on hate received: Reddit

Translation of Rascal’s stream : Reddit

KyKy Statement: Medium