The Dallas Fuel begin a critical stretch of the season this week. Here's a look at five storylines for this week, as well as the upcoming Fuel schedule.

Dallas Fuel (10-13) vs. Los Angeles Gladiators (15-10), 7:45 p.m. CDT Friday at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, Calif.

Dallas Fuel (10-13) vs. San Francisco Shock (18-5), 5:30 p.m. CDT Sunday at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, Calif.

1. Need to win one: Chengdu's convincing 4-0 win over New York on Sunday made the Fuel's path to the play-in tournament even trickier. With three weeks remaining in the regular season, the Fuel still technically control their own destiny because they still have five games -- tied for most in the league with Boston. But unless Dallas gets at least one win this weekend, it could be game over.

Realistically, there appear to be five teams competing for the final three play-in spots: Atlanta, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Dallas and the LA Valiant. Dallas sits at 13th, two wins behind the 12th-place spot but with two games in hand (Guangzhou and Chengdu both are 12-13).

With games against Guangzhou and Atlanta still to come, the Fuel likely need to win at least one of those. But those aren't until the final two weeks of the season -- three wins seems to be the minimum for the Fuel to remain in contention, and even that might not be enough. So simple arithmetic shows how key this week is.

2. Return of aKm: Fuel head coach Aaron "Aero" Atkins told The Dallas Morning News after Saturday's Valiant loss that aKm was given the week off because of "some family stuff going on back home."

So even though Timo "Taimou" Kettunen, who has split time with aKm in the two matches prior, played the whole match Saturday as the Fuel's second DPS player, he is expected to split with aKm once again. The two have different strengths, and utilizing the depth of the experienced Fuel roster may be key to getting a win this weekend.

"We have some stuff planned to where we will definitely see both of them in both matches," Atkins said.

3. Tanks are focused. Son "OGE" Min-seok played the Fuel's first three maps Saturday against the Valiant and was swapped out for Ash "Trill" Powell for Route 66 against the Valiant. Swapping the main tank has been part of the Fuel's overarching strategy for this Stage, and much like the DPS swaps, Atkins said to expect to see more of it this week.

"OGE and Trill will continent to rotate," he said. "I think being able to mix it up, gives us some variety in the team but also I think it's good maintaining both of their mentality and focus, allowing them to focus on specific maps. I think it's helped us a lot with that front line."

Atkins expects main tank play to be key in matches against the Gladiators and the Shock this weekend, so getting focused play and key shield usage from Son and Powell could mean the difference in securing points and losing maps.

4. Starting things off. The Fuel are 15-12 in control maps this year, according too detailed stats kept by omnicmeta.com, but they have won their last three openers, gaining an immediate 1-0 map lead...despite losing all three matches.

Getting that all-important first map win is crucial to beating top-tier teams like the Gladiators and Shock -- firmly getting momentum on the side of an emotional team like the Fuel. Map differential is the first tiebreaker in the standings, so even if the Fuel end up losing matches, they have to get one or two maps to lessen the blow. This season, the Gladiators are 5-1-1 on Temple of Anubis (Map 2) and 6-2 on King's Road (Map 3). so grabbing that first map will be critical on Friday.

5. Around the league. Here's the unofficial Fuel rooting guide for Stage 4, Week 3. The matches below have the chance to impact the Fuel's playoff push the most:

Thursday: Cheer for Philadelphia (14-11) over Paris (9-16) -- though the Eternal are a longshot to make the playoffs, the Fusion can knock Paris out with a win. If nothing else, it will make playoff scenarios easier to calculate.

Thursday: Cheer for Seoul (13-11) over Guangzhou (12-13) -- the Fuel face Guangzhou next week, and if the Charge lose all their games the rest of the season, it makes the path to the play-in that much easier for Dallas. So this is pretty simple, Fuel fans: cheer against Guangzhou every match.

Saturday: Cheer for London (15-10) over Houston (9-16) -- Similar to the Philly-Paris match, getting Houston knocked out now makes the play-in picture more clear. Oh, and aren't all Dallas fans supposed to cheer against Houston, anyway?

Saturday: Cheer for Florida (3-21) over Los Angeles Valiant (10-14) -- The Valiant, who earned a huge win over the Fuel on Saturday, have a very favorable map differential (-2), which could come into play as the first tiebreaker. The Fuel are half a game up on LAV right now, but Dallas needs some separation.

Saturday: Cheer for Hangzhou (14-9) over Chengdu (12-13) -- Though there are headache-inducing playoff scenarios where Hangzhou could still miss the playoffs, a win guarantees its appearance. So Fuel fans should pull hard for Hangzhou to clinch on Saturday. That also gives Chengdu a loss, making the Fuel's path to the play-in just a little wider.

Sunday: Cheer for Washington (5-19) over Houston (9-16) -- if the Outlaws win on Friday, and a number of other games go Houston's way, then another L for Dallas' rival is still needed. If Houston loses its first match this week, feel free to pull for the guys in green (but don't tell anyone).

Sunday: Cheer for New York (20-4) over Guangzhou (12-13) -- see reasoning from Thursday game above; the Fuel need Guangzhou to lose as much as possible.

On Twitter: @TommyMagelssen

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