Overwatch League broadcaster Robert "hexagrams" Kirkbride spoke with The Dallas Morning News about all things Fuel and Overwatch this week ahead of final weekend of the regular season.

The Fuel (10-17) play the Atlanta Reign (14-12) at 4 p.m. CDT Saturday, and hex will be calling the match. Here are some of the highlights.

Answers have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity:

Question: It’s going to be the last weekend of the Overwatch League regular season. Other than the homestand weekend, do you think the Dallas Fuel has a real highlight for the 2019 campaign?

Answer: They haven't won since June 9 -- they beat the Washington Justice -- but I'm looking at their schedule and thinking, 'What a brutal Stage 4 schedule they've had.' There's a lot of fans where the wind's going to be taken out of their sails because of how bad of a Stage 4 it's been. ... So Dallas has looked poor and it has not gone well, they're on an 11-game losing streak, but this strength of schedule is unheard of. It's off the charts. I think they lead the league right now in strength of schedule difficulty for Stage 4. The highlight would definitely be their midseason when they were playing teams that they could beat and then the Dallas homestand where they were able to beat Houston on the homestage. So that's definitely the highlight.

As far as an organization, I have nothing but respect for how the organization handles itself from the very top down. The management, the coaches and everyone along their lines, they’re all trying their best and I think they’re a class-act organization. They just had a really brutal schedule and have been unable to, honestly, to steal a win, because (their Stage 4 opponents) are all teams that are better than Dallas right now. So it’s not really a surprise. It’s just the fact that they had gone 11 games in a row, which makes them look really, really bad.

Question: Is there anything about the Pacific Conference that makes it that much better, or is OWL just like any other pro league where it will go in cycles?

Answer: I think it's just cyclical. Teams who are losing for a while will then make changes to get better. You think of how bad the AFC was in the middle of the nineties, and then the AFC was dominant. So it all goes in cycles. I don't think there's any real rhyme or reason to it. I don't think it's a travel thing or anything like that. I just think it's one of those things that happens in every sport.

Question: Which Atlantic teams are poised to rise up in 2020?

Answer: I think there's a lot of teams in this conference that can get better -- there's obviously some teams that I don't think are going to get better -- but a team like Atlanta is looking to go undefeated this stage. Florida has looked like an actual team lately, and they're putting together good players. Then you have New York, which is the old standby, and I think Washington is going to improve a lot as well. In that same vein, I think the Defiant have tried to make moves to try to get better, so I think the real question is just some of the bottom-tier teams might really have to start blowing up their rosters here.

Boston hasn’t looked good at all. Paris and Philadelphia are just kind of so ‘meh’ to me, and Houston, I think, will make a ton of changes in the offseason. They’ve had some issues just at the very highest level of the organization, where I don’t think they were able to make the moves that they wanted to make this year.

Half of the teams are solid. It’s just that Pacific has some of the best teams. I think everyone is a little bit surprised at how good the Chinese teams are, and that helps that a lot, how well Guangzhou and Hangzhou are playing, and then you have both LA teams, Seoul. And Dallas -- that’s a bad draw for them to be in that division. It all changes a little bit next year, but Dallas is still going to be in a tough division next year.

Question: What do the Fuel need to do to realistically have a chance on Saturday to beat the Atlanta Reign, who are undefeated this stage?

Answer: That's a tough one, because I think the Reign are just playing so well right now and the Reign have the DPS star that you need in Erster. He's just really come into his own, and then you've got babybay and NLaaeR who have played better than a lot of expectations, so it hides some of their small deficiencies and also very overlooked on this Atlanta team is how good Masaa has been playing on Baptiste, and that's a hero that a lot of people have picked up just league-wide, meta-wide so if you have a good Baptiste, you're going to be in a decent spot as well. Dallas, to me, just run out your best six and hope for the best.

They still keep having these musical chairs, which I think has not been working. Right now, It’s sad if you’re a fan because you still want to get a W on the board, but they’re in a talent-evaluation phase right now, and it seems like they have been for a bit. I don’t know why they keep taking out Taimou -- I mean it’s obviously a set plan that they must have because Taimou will come in, and if he’s playing well, they take him out, if he’s playing poorly, they take him out. So it doesn’t really matter what Taimou does; he just gets the control map, and aKm comes in. I don’t know if there’s much that they can do against Atlanta because Atlanta is really fighting for a top-six spot, too. As an expansion team, it would be huge to make top six for them.

Question: What do you think that Dallas needs to do in the offseason to be back in the conversation, to be able to compete with these playoff teams?

Answer: There's a lot of talent out there, and it's not just Korean contenders talent. I've been watching a lot of North American Contenders, and there are some players out there. Hastr0 said that there will be changes next year. The thing is, he said that last year, too, and he really didn't make a ton of changes.

So they do need to figure out who’s going to be the hard carry for this team. You look at all the dominant teams right now; they either have a pretty good hard carry or they have two guys who can combine to do what other teams are doing. Guangzhou and Hangzhou come to mind because Happy and GodsB are crushing it right now, and Dallas doesn’t have that. So they need to figure out, is aKm that guy? Is Taimou that guy? Now if aKm leaves is uNKOE going to want to leave? French players often usually work better together; having a solo French never has worked out all that great for players, but they have some hard decisions to make.

It's going to be a question of, do you hold onto the legacy players? Because there are still legacy players from the Envy glory days, and at a certain point, if they're not performing, what do you do with them? Do they move into streaming? Do they move into coaching? They've done that with a couple of previous players before, but if you look at a guy like Mickie, who is obviously really good for your brand but takes up a roster spot -- so maybe move him to a brand ambassador kind of role. Taimou, aKm is the big question -- and then you got to figure out your tank line as well. Is OGE happy? Trill has been playing -- is Trill the guy of the future? I think they want to stick with NotE. I read an article, you may have even written it, that yeah they're going to try NotE as the captain because he is that level-headed type of character. So I think they're going to stick with NotE.

Beyond that, I have no idea who Dallas wants to keep, who they can keep, who they can cut or trade or what. But right now I think it’s definitely NotE. I would probably stick with uNKOE, I think Closer has played well enough to keep his spot. So they’ve got like half of their roster set, but they have to make some hard decisions about their brand and their chances at winning games.

Question: What’s your prediction for Saturday’s Fuel-Reign match?

Answer: You know, I'm sorry, but I was right in last week's prediction when I told you that they weren't going to beat Hangzhou or Guangzhou. Maybe they take control -- that seems to be their theme; they can come out and get a map, maybe two maps, but then they can't close. Atlanta has so much to play for, and Dallas right now, knowing that it's the last match, it's going to be tough for them to get up for it. I have Atlanta winning that match.

On Twitter: @TommyMagelssen and @hexagrams

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