The Dallas Fuel are not the most hyped up team heading into the Summer Showdown, but a bounce-back win against the Toronto Defiant should give fans of the franchise reason to be hopeful. Crimzo had some bright moments, sleeping some Genji blades and a solid Baptiste, Onigod showed he can fill in Decay's shoes to a fair degree, and Doha had one of the best Genji performances in the league. All of this might not be enough to convince fans that the Fuel are a franchise on the turnaround, but the tank line might be.
Gamsu and Note are solid players and work well together. They might not be the best duo in the league, but this past weekend shows that they want us on upset alert. Going against the Toronto Defiant meant they were playing against Agilities' Genji and this was important practice for the Fuel as they have to face Spark1e, who put up the best Genji numbers in the league this week. The key point for this tank duo comes in the fact that they helped deal with the Genji very efficiently and did it on a variety of compositions. We saw a Winston/D. Va composition on Maps 1 and 3 and then Sigma/Orisa on Map 2. Both of these rounds looked fairly convincing from the tank line.
Specifically on Map 1, Note was about to lose his mech and even walked backward on to Torbjorn's Molten Core. Instead of risking losing his mech and draining his team's resources, he was aware that Orisa's shield was down and he sent his bomb to pick up a big kill on to the Orisa and splitting the rest of the team. It was small moments like that that helped the Fuel come out with a win. I think Note's D. Va is his best hero, but he has really impressed me on the Sigma too. He had a lot of big kills on the character and this flexibility bodes well as they look to take on a rising Paris Eternal. For an example of this, let's look at how he handles the Defiant's attack on Hanamura. On Point B, around the one and a half minute mark for Toronto's attack, he is able to manipulate several of his opponent's with a great Gravitic Flux and setting his team up for a team wipe. Just two attacks later, he is faced with a 1v1 situation against Nevix. He draws out the solo Gravitic Flux and distracts Nevix from the rest of the fight while Toronto is trying to take the point. It was not a mechanical play, but it drew out a key ultimate and gave his team the chance to win the fight while he nullified Nevix.
This team has the pieces to become a competitive team in the near future. With a Genji like Doha and a tank line that can handle the meta very well, this Fuel team could very well give us a big upset this week. It will be a tough, hard fought match, but they have the tools to match their DPS kill-for-kill and the playmaking tanks to make the difference. Thank you so much for reading. Comment down below if you think the Fuel have a chance or if Spark1e will be too much!
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