Before they were the Dallas Fuel, they were Team Envy--and before that, Team EnVyUs. One of the storied organizations in competitive gaming, Envy has been competing in Overwatch since 2016. Different variations on the roster have been signed to the team as the years have passed and competitive Overwatch developed.

EnVyUs signed its first Overwatch team in 2016 to play in a variety of monthly and weekly tournaments. That year, Envy disbanded its original team and signed the roster that's defined the organization.

The colors on Team Envy's Liquipedia page of tournament results says it all with regard to how dominating the team was. Look to 2016 and it's a long list of yellow--for first place--and you'll understand the legacy that's embedded in the Dallas Fuel.

EnvyUs signed team IDDQD's squad to start things off: Sebastian "chipshajen" Widlund, Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, Jonathan "HarryHook" Tejedor Rua, Christian "cocco" Jonsson, and Timo "Taimou" Kettunen.

Ronnie "Talespin" DuPree, who was on the previous roster, also joined the team again.

Dallas' history -- before the team was even headquartered in Dallas -- is still part of the roster's legacy, one tied to each and every player that's been signed to the team.

Here's how the team got where it is today, which, admittedly, is at a crossroads for the current iteration.

The beginnings

Guangzhou Charge's "Happy" eliminates Mickie and ZachaREEE during the Overwatch League match between the Dallas Fuel and Guangzhou Charge on Sunday, August 18, 2019 at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, CA. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News) (Patrick T. Fallon / Patrick T. Fallon)

The Overwatch League's preseason kicked things off in late 2017, but before that, the premier Overwatch event was held in South Korea: the OGN Overwatch Apex.

For a few seasons, the Korean company invited North American and European teams to compete against Korea's best Overwatch teams. Envy surprised fans by going 2-1 in the group stage, following Lunatic-Hai in second place. In the playoffs, Envy took on Rogue, KongDoo Uncia, and AfreecaFreecs.Blue to take the top spot in the event. (Season two and three didn't go as well for Envy in Korea.)

During this time, Envy was heralded for its focus on players and coaches; coaching is still a new concept in esports, but back in 2016, far fewer teams had the resources to sign on a coach. Former Cloud9 player Kyle "KyKy" Souder signed onto Envy in 2017 and helped the team in Korea and into the Overwatch League preseason. The team, which would later be signed to Dallas Fuel, participated in season one of Overwatch Contenders in 2017. It placed first, and then got signed by Dallas Fuel.

The team's golden year was 2016, a time before OWL or even its announcement. There were plenty of third-party tournaments and a healthy scene globally. But third-party events were significantly reduced when OWL was announced. Teams started reducing funding for Overwatch teams, opting for games with more certain futures.

OWL introduced the franchised system for the title, and smaller organizations weren’t sure they wouldn't be able to afford to field a team. But Team Envy didn't have that problem. They had investments.

The buy-in

TKTKTKTKTK during the Overwatch League match between the Dallas Fuel and LA Gladiators on Friday, August 9, 2019 at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, CA. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News) (Patrick T. Fallon / Patrick T. Fallon)

On October 5, the franchise slot in Dallas was revealed as Dallas Fuel, with $35 million in investments from Kenneth Hersh, a Dallas oil and gas magnate and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, according to an ESPN report. Later the team announced some new signings: Scott "Custa" Kennedy and Félix "xQc" Lengyel. To say the inaugural preseason went well for Dallas Fuel would be an understatement; the team dominated the meta and ended up in the first place, showing that legacy mattered once in the OWL.

Unfortunately for Dallas, that legacy didn't help as other teams adjusted to life on the big stage.

The team had some struggles in the inaugural season -- xQc was suspended many times before being released after multiple incidents, including for using an emote on Twitch "in a racially disparaging manner," Son "OGE" Min-seok was suspended for boosting and Taimou was fined for using homophobic language on his Twitch stream. Players left and others joined, the team trying to fix the internal issues that landed them in 10th place in the inaugural 12-team season.

Now in the 2019 season, only three of the team's original players on the OGN Overwatch Apex team remain: Taimou, HarryHook, and Pongphop "Mickie" Rattanasangchod.

The rest of the roster has been pulled from elsewhere in the Overwatch League and Overwatch Contenders, adding Dylan "aKm" Bignet, OGE, Benjamin "uNKOE" Chevasson, Jung "Closer" Wonsik, Zachary "ZachaREEE" Lombardo, Lucas "NotE" Meissner and Ashley "Trill" Powell.

Though the team looks different, the struggles have remained, and it feels unlikely that the Dallas Fuel will look the same heading into 2020.

In fact, Dallas Fuel and Envy CEO Mike Rufail tweeted that changes were coming in 2020.

The second half of our OWL season has been less than ideal. We have to do something about that and we will. That’s a promise. — Mike Rufail (@hastr0) August 16, 2019

Dallas' stark downfall isn't something that was easily predictable in stages one and two this season. The team landed in above average positions in both, ninth for stage one and sixth in stage two. The triple-tank, triple-support GOATS meta looked good on Dallas, and propelled the Fuel out of the bottom of the rankings.

But now they're back.

Stage three is where things went bad for the roster, finishing 1-6 and dropping out of the top 10. And that's how they landed in last place currently in stage four, and all the way down to 15th in the table.

Once the GOATS meta was gone, thanks to OWL's 2-2-2 role lock, Dallas started to struggle. The cracks started to show when Dallas was forced to play a different style, forced into flexibility where there was little.

The future

Dallas Cowboys players react to a 4-0 loss after an Overwatch League match between the Dallas Fuel and the San Francisco Shock on Sunday, August 11, 2019 at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California. (Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News) (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

Dallas has one more game Saturday at the Kit Kat Rivalry Weekend hosted by Los Angeles Valiant.

They'll face Atlanta Reign, one of two undefeated teams this stage (5-0). That means the team's season is effectively over, and what's important for the organization will be looking toward 2020

Dallas, as a team, is beloved by its fans. People love Mickie and Taimou, two of the original members, and it'll be hard to picture the team without them. But just because Dallas did poorly this season doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a whole wipe for 2020 -- Overwatch is volatile, and the meta could change back to something that suits the Fuel for the next season.

The thing that needs to change is that Dallas must have flexibility next year; whether that means nixing some old players for new or working out a new system, something needs to change.

The organization needs to find a balance between having a team full of personalities and a team that can produce solid results in 2020. There's no doubt that the organization's thinking about this already, but we'll just have to wait and see what that means for the current roster. What's for certain is that Dallas will want to draw from its roots as a solid, confident team as a way to brush off the terrible second half of the 2019 season.

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