Hello Overwatch League fans, and welcome to The OverSeer, where you can catch a ton of OWL content, including but not limited to roster reviews, power rankings, and match predictions, all from a fan/self-proclaimed amateur analyst's perspective. Before we begin the meat of today's post, I want to make it clear that everything I write here is my own opinion, and all such opinions have been formed by personally studying the League to the best of my ability, given the time I've had to do so. I'm certain that we will disagree on certain points, and I welcome you to express those disagreements in the comments section; I just urge you to be polite and respectful when doing so. With that said, let's move on to the main topic of discussion of this post: Dallas Fuel's Season 3 roster.





Now when I talk about rosters, I like to go over how they look on paper, and at least initially, disregard how they've been performing thus far. Don't worry though, the past always catches up, and we'll also touch on how they look overall, combining their current look with their latest competitive performances, to provide a more comprehensive and realistic feel of their chances in the 2020 season.





I'm not going to lie, I feel that the Dallas Fuel were the weakest team of the 2019 season, considering factors like their consistency, skill level, adaptability, and strength of schedule, but now, with the changes they've made to their lineup, I must say they look formidable on paper. They've currently got 4 tank players, 5 DPS players, and 3 support players, forming a complete 12-man roster. Let's now take a look at all these players on the basis of their roles.

















TANK

The Fuel's tank line consists of Trill and Gamsu on main tank, and Mickie and NotE on off-tank. I honestly think this is a very solid tank line on paper. Gamsu proved to us in Season 2 that he can play every single main tank to a very competitive level. He solo tanked a fair bit as Orisa, played Ball alongside his fellow Dragons in Triple DPS, and naturally played Reinhardt and Winston during Goats, showing the audience that he was comfortable on each and every hero he was expected to play. His co-main tank, Trill, also has a great deal of experience on the role, and although he wasn't able to do very well in his brief time on stage during Season 2, he's got a pretty good track record in the Australian Overwatch scene as well as with Team Envy, which is the Fuel's Contenders counterpart. His only hurdle is probably his lack of experience in the League, which most of his current teammates have aplenty.

On off-tank, we've got Mickie, who spent almost the entirety of Season 2 on the bench, being fielded for just one map at the end of Stage 4 if memory serves me right; and NotE, who joined the team in Stage 2 and started for them on most occasions, playing D.Va, Roadhog, and a little bit of Zarya in the process. I think Gamsu-NotE as a tank line has a ton of potential. They're both fairly versatile on their roles, although NotE is evidently at his best on D.Va, and they'd also paired up for the Boston Uprising in Season 1, which means they know each other's playstyles. I think they can be consistent performers for Dallas, and eliminate any sense of worry we have for their frontline. When it comes to the subs, I think Trill needs just one successful game to be confident in his abilities, and that can help him start for the squad if Gamsu can't play for some reason. Mickie, on the other hand, is an unknown quantity to me. He didn't play a lot in Season 2, so I don't know how good he is at the moment, but it's safe to assume that he can be reliable if fielded, even though he's not much of a playmaker.

In summary, the Fuel seem to have some solid tank players, and if they can keep their heads in the game, I don't think Dallas will need to worry about their performance.





DPS

The Dallas Fuel's DPS line has never looked more diverse and flexible, as they've got 5 players: Taimou, aKm, ZachaREEE, Decay and Doha on that role. Taimou and aKm are your typical hitscan players, covering pretty much every hero in that category. You've also got ZachaREEE and Decay, who can play snipers as well as flankers, like your Tracer, Genji and Doomfist. Finally, you've got your latest addition, Doha, who caused mayhem in the Contenders scene on Element Mystic last year, due to his flexibility and prowess on flanker heroes like Sombra, Doomfist, and even Reaper. These 5 players cover a wide spectrum of damage dealers, and will no doubt add a ton of depth to this roster, provided they play up to their potentials.

Last year, Taimou and aKm couldn't shine a lot, since none of their signature heroes was truly meta. Despite that, we did see Taimou playing a competent Sombra when Sombra Goats was super strong, and he also played a decent Reaper during Role Lock. When you combine that with the leadership role he took on when his team needed an in-game guide, you get a pretty well-rounded personality and a reliable teammate. AKm didn't have the same level of contribution as Taimou did in my opinion, but he's still a very scary hitscan player to go up against. On the flex DPS side, ZachaREEE was heavily criticised by part of the community for not playing very well, but I think he lucked out a little as well. He had to play Brigitte and Mei for the most part, and that's not what you want to be playing when your signature heroes are snipers and flankers. I think given the right meta, Zach will be able to truly pop off. He's an incredibly talented player, but seemingly cannot adapt to new heroes very quickly. It was similar with Decay, who has a similar hero pool to Zach's, but saw slightly more success because of his ability to play Doomfist during the Playoffs. As for Doha, well, I must admit that I don't watch a lot of Contenders, but when the idea of Hackfist was being tossed around as a counter to Goats, I'd watched Doha, along with his DPS teammate Sp9rk1e (now with Paris), wreck face with that comp, and I have no doubt that he's a great addition to this roster.





SUPPORT

The 3 supports for the Dallas Fuel are Closer, who's a main support, uNKOE, who's a flex support, and HarryHook, who can play both those roles. Closer, in 2019, was a pretty consistent main support, and even though he wasn't a playmaker, he was a reliable teammate. UNKOE had a slightly tougher year, not being able to stand out among the other flex supports in the League, but he's a pretty potent player with great mechanical skill. HarryHook stepped in for uNKOE in Season 2 while he was unwell, and I don't think anyone had reason to complain with the Spaniard sub's performance. Even though he mostly plays main support, he was able to play a great Ana and a serviceable Zenyatta, which really shows how flexible he is on the support role.

All-in-all, I think Closer and HarryHook are reliable, and that uNKOE, despite his eventual slumps in performance, can be a true playmaker for Dallas' lineup if enabled well enough by his teammates.





THE RAW LOOK VS. REALITY

Like I mentioned before, I think the Fuel look really scary on paper if you ignore their recent performance history. I would say their roster can take on pretty much any other in the League if they all play up to their potentials, and although I know that's very unlikely to happen, I still wanted to put this out there. If Dallas underperforms even with the additions they've made for Season 3, you can be sure there's a problem with the coaching staff and/or management, since we've seen all these players do some great things during their professional careers.

Dallas' track record, however, isn't so great, and if they play anything like they did during Season 2, they're going to be bottom-tier once again, which I don't realistically think will happen.

Considering all these factors, I'd say the Dallas Fuel can be top-tier at their best, but if things don't work out very well, they could be a mid-table team for most, if not the entirety of the season, and I honestly don't see them doing any worse than that this year. If you think I'm overrating them, just remember that I hold the unpopular opinion that they were the worst team in 2019, so I'm being nothing but unbiased, truthful, and straightforward about what I think; and I stand by it.



