One of the major surprises of Stage 1 of the Overwatch League was the underperformance of fan favourites Dallas Fuel. Throughout the stage, the team continued to disappoint with losses and questionable performances. As the weeks went on, people started to question whether Dallas’ underperformance could still be seen as the team ‘finding their feet’, or whether it was the beginning of some larger problems. The losses kept coming and the Fuel were stuck in an slump of inconsistency and confusion. This didn’t bode well on the team, with Fuel players being very vocal on social media about the struggles they were facing in keeping a positive mental attitude. Finishing the stage 3–7, fans were left wondering if Dallas could turn things around for Stage 2.

So how can we come to understand Fuel’s disappointing performance in Stage 1? How did the team go so quickly from winning every single game in Season 1 of Contenders North America to losing 7 of 10 games in the first stage of the Overwatch League? Contrary to opinions of fans online, it’s not possible to pick out one single element that has caused all of Dallas’ problems. Similarly, it’s also not possible to come to a full conclusion, because a lot of Dallas’ problems are behind the scenes — morale, team cohesion, coaching decisions.

However, there are a few clear elements that really affected the Dallas Fuel in Stage 1.

The Mercy Meta

Before they became the Dallas Fuel, EnVyUs were known for their strange strategies and team compositions. There’s no denying this usually worked for them in the past. However, the Mercy meta completely dismantles the foundation on which EnVyUs thrived — the importance of getting a pick.

Although Overwatch and its esports scene have gone through a variety of metas in their short history, none have been so dominant and game-altering as the Mercy meta. Throughout her meta, Mercy provided so much sustain to teams that it became obligatory to run her in almost all circumstances, especially at a professional level. She had a 96.61% pickrate throughout the first stage and for good reason — Valkyrie, when used correctly, can mean you’re essentially fighting an 8v6 or, in the worst case, it can match your enemy’s Valkyrie, preventing you from fighting 6v8.

Never before in Fuel/EnVyUs’ career had they been forced to run a specific hero almost 100% of the time, especially one that none of their players mained or particularly liked. In fact, EnVyUs had consistently bent the meta around their play style and their hero pool, and generally pulled it off. However with the Mercy meta, Fuel were resigned to consistently running Mercy, as the disadvantage of not running her would be too high. So throughout Stage 1, Fuel had much less room for flexibility than they were used to.

The meta also meant that measured, defensive-minded teams (usually using some combination of Roadhog, Orisa, Junkrat or Widowmaker) were rewarded. Playing too far into the enemy lines meant your Mercy would be at a disadvantage when it came to resurrection capabilities, so it was safer to play a strong defence. If there was one thing that remained consistent with Dallas over Stage 1, it was their inability to put up a consistent defence.

Dallas Fuel vs Seoul Dynasty was an early indicator of Dallas’ defence troubles.

This should have been obvious from the Fuel’s first game of the season, against the Seoul Dynasty on Temple of Anubis. The map went to four extra rounds, which at the time many took as an example of high-level play from both teams. In hindsight, it was actually the exact opposite — neither team could put up a good defence, which is what allowed the points to be captured multiple times and thus forced the extra rounds. This should have been a clear sign of things to come. All throughout the stage, Dallas struggled to maintain a good defence in a meta in which it was absolutely necessary.

Roster Indecision

Another big factor was Dallas’ obvious roster indecision. Game-to-game, week-to-week Dallas changed their roster lineup. There was no way of knowing what roster Dallas was going to run on any given series, or even any given map. This wasn’t a London Spitfire situation though — instead of confusing opponents and spitting out lethal roster combos, Dallas only seemed to confuse themselves and fail to gain any kind of synergy as a team. From the outside looking in, they also seemed to be struggling to integrate new roster additions Custa, xQc, and Seagull, and look unsure of when and how to substitute. The first two weeks can be forgiven, as many teams with substitutes took a while to understand how to best use the system. At first, teams were subbing in and out players between maps, until things settled down and most teams decided upon a starting six. Houston are a good comparison to Dallas, as both teams looked confused and scattered with their substitutions in the first week. However, although Houston decided upon a starting six, Dallas never did.

It’s important to note that Dallas had several incidents that hampered their ability to maintain a consistent starting roster. The suspension of xQc for the majority of Stage 1 was unfortunate for the team, as his aggressive tank play might have been a good substitute for Cocco. HarryHook was also sick for one of the latter weeks, and once he was back Effect had to return to South Korea for personal reasons. All of these complications probably made it much harder for the Fuel’s coach, KyKy, to settle on a starting six.

Scott ‘Custa’ Kennedy and Brandon ‘Seagull’ Larned.

There were also some questionable roster decisions throughout the stage, especially considering the circumstances. Custa was not really given much of a chance to play. If he had played more, this would have allowed Chipshajen to switch from Mercy and take over Zenyatta from HarryHook, especially during the week where HarryHook was sick. HarryHook didn’t underperform on Zenyatta per se, but given Chipshajen’s skills on Ana, it would have been nice to see what he could do given more time on Zenyatta. Bringing Custa in also might have helped the team’s morale, as his teammates have described him as a stable and calm force within the team.

Instead of this, in the latter weeks of the stage the team fell back onto the original EnVyUs lineup. Perhaps, after things started to look dire in the second and third week, it would have been good to see Fuel double down on implementing Seagull and Custa permanently, instead of reverting back to their old lineup.

DPS Problems and Team Morale

Using Seagull and Custa more often might have also have taken some stress of Taimou and Effect, who were clearly struggling with morale and maintaining a positive mental attitude. After a loss to the NYXL, Taimou tweeted he felt ashamed and couldn’t bring himself to face the fans. He also consistently indicated throughout the stage that he was upset with his own performance, blaming some of the team’s losses on himself. Taimou has always been an emotional player whose performance can swing depending on his attitude. There’s no saying how much this might be affecting the team during games, but it’s probably had an impact upon team morale, along with other factors. To Taimou’s full credit, he’s also indicated he’s trying his hardest to get his performance back up to where he wants it to be and is also making healthier lifestyle changes.

Effect, likewise, seems to be dealing with morale issues and struggling with feelings of underperformance. He has openly admitted that synergy problems with the tank line have meant he’s struggled to perform and has had to play less Tracer and more Widowmaker. He also touched on communication problems in the team, with confused and inconsistent shotcalling hindering his play. Like Taimou, he’s vowed to try harder and improve, however it seems that the problem with the DPS players is not the players’ performances themselves, but the lack of synergy in the team. This harks back to the aforementioned inconsistent roster problems — without nailed down rosters, shot callers and strategies, the tanks aren’t able to make space for the DPS to do their job. This is made more problematic because for the majority of Stage 1, xQc was suspended and thus Cocco was the main tank player they had available.

Stage 2 and New Team Pickups

On a surface level, Dallas Fuel’s mid-season pickups don’t seem to make a lot of sense. People have questioned whether new signings are even a good idea, considering the existing cohesion problems within the team. Even then, the signings don’t look like the best roles that Dallas could have gone for.

Dallas Fuel’s mid-season pickups: Rascal, from London Spitfire, and aKm, formerly of Rogue. (Photo of aKm thanks to Julian Libercé)

The first pickup is aKm, formerly of the disbanded Rogue. He’s known for hitscan DPS, a role which Dallas seemingly already has covered with Taimou and Effect. The second pickup is a trade from the London Spitfire — Rascal, a projectile DPS player. Unlike hitscan, projectile DPS was a role Dallas struggled with in Stage 1 and was always a noticeable gap in EnVyUs’ hero pool.

For the moment, let’s disregard team cohesion and communication problems. Looking at the team roster in Stage 2, Dallas now have 5 DPS players. This should be a problem, especially because it makes Seagull’s role in the roster incredibly unclear. Seagull was brought into the original EnVyUs lineup very briefly (before they became the Dallas Fuel) as the projectile player. It was expected that he would play Pharah and Genji. He did play those heroes in both the North American Contenders playoffs and Stage 1 of the OWL, however he looked somewhat unconvincing. So now that Rascal is in the lineup, where does that leave Seagull?

With Rascal joining the roster, Seagull’s role on the Dallas Fuel is unclear.

The following is complete speculation, however it might shed some light on Fuel’s grand plan. If Fuel play their cards correctly, and assuming they fix their cohesion and communication problems, we could see Dallas become one of the most flexible teams in Stage 2 and beyond. This is because that of those five DPS players, Taimou and Seagull are both proficient in off-tank roles. Taimou has played Roadhog to a consistently good level and Seagull has played Zarya in the past, often on his stream. Although people might question whether Seagull’s Zarya is up to OWL level, if this is Dallas’ plan for the roster then Seagull would be able to practice, grind and improve his Zarya play before Stage 2. Zarya would also be especially potent on the Stage 2 map pool, particularly with King’s Row and Lijang Tower in the rotation. The map pool and the end of the Mercy meta will also mean that Cocco will be able to play more Reinhardt, with xQc subbing in when they need an aggressive Winston. Looking beyond the tanks, you have Rascal, Effect and aKm on DPS, who can be switched in and out to create new combinations and have flexibility amongst the different maps. In regards to support, Custa can play Mercy, Moira and Zenyatta, Chipshajen can play Sombra, Ana, Mercy and Zenyatta and HarryHook can play Zenyatta and Lucio — a very flexible support line.

Conclusion

Overall, there’s not one factor that heavily affected Dallas’ performance in Stage 1 — it was certainly a combination. However, with new signings coming in and more players to manage, KyKy and Dallas’ coaching staff need to make some hard and fast decisions to stop communication and synergy problems snowballing out of control in Stage 2. A starting roster which the team can fall back on needs to be decided. Overall shot calling needs to be improved for the DPS to be able to do their job, and a head shot caller in the support line probably wouldn’t hurt either. Dallas shouldn’t be having such massive problems with communication and synergy after 10 official games together and countless hours of practice, especially considering most of the team had already extensively played together. The new pickups could do wonders for the team’s flexibility, but it will all be for nothing if they can’t sort out the existing problems from Stage 1.

Now is the time to act for Dallas. The end of Stage 1 is the one quarter mark of the regular season. If Dallas don’t fix their problems in Stage 2, they’ll be at a consistent disadvantage during Stages 3 and 4. With other teams consistently performing, another stage that goes 3–7 would make the end of season playoffs increasingly unlikely for Fuel. The next stage could see things improve, but the Dallas Fuel are fighting on very thin ice.

Thanks to Winston’s Lab for the pick rate statistics and Blizzard Activision for the photos.