Dallas Fuel Q&A: ‘Xzi’ and ‘SP9RK1E’ give their thoughts on the team’s offseason

The Overwatch League is still in hibernation during a long offseason. The fourth season of OWL that will arrive in 2021 has yet to receive a start date and Overwatch 2′s role in league play hasn’t been revealed.

So how are the Dallas Fuel players treating the offseason? The Dallas Morning News jumped on a Discord call with Fuel DPS players Kim “SP9RK1E” Yeong-han and Jung “Xzi” Ki-hyo to gather their thoughts on the offseason.

Here’s what they had to say.

Answers have been edited for length and brevity.

It’s a long offseason, so how have you spent the time? How much better do you expect everyone to be at Overwatch by the time the next season rolls around?

SP9RK1E: “Since there is COVID, I don’t think my offseason has been as good. In the past years I’ve used the offseason to relax but now I’m just stuck at home playing games. Given that it’s a long offseason, it’s really up to individual players but maintaining form is probably case by case. Still, I expect everyone to be good.”

It looks like SP9RK1E has been playing a lot of Tracer lately. If the season started tomorrow, how comfortable would you be with him on Tracer in league play?

Xzi: “Since we are on break we haven’t really been scrimming or practicing at all together, so given that we don’t have any designated Tracer player, all three DPS players are practicing Tracer.

“When I think about SP9RK1E’s Tracer, I’ve also noticed that he’s been practicing it a lot. So I would expect him to be pretty good regardless of how he was before.”

What will be the most important thing for you when this team is able to fully start practicing and scrimmaging? How long does it take to truly become a team working in tandem?

Xzi: “I feel like the most important thing currently is that we haven’t scrimmed. So it’s very different now from when we were together in Contenders. So it’s important that we adjust to the meta and for us to be a good team I would say that we don’t need a lot of time because we have been together before. Since it is almost like a gathering of old members, I don’t think synergy will be a problem for us. I’d say the maximum time to rebuild synergy would be about a month, and I think we can do that pretty fast.”

For both: Dallas wasn’t the only team that made significant moves in the offseason. If you were to guess, which teams look the strongest right now based on roster?

SP9RK1E: “Because of their tanks, I would expect the Shock to be the strongest.”

Xzi: “Other than the Shock, the only other team I consider to be strong is the Fusion. With the recent change to their coaching staff, ‘NineK’ went from Paris to Fusion as their head coach and since I know what kind of coach he is, I am honestly kind of terrified by how he will help good players like ‘Carpe’ to become even better.”

As far as being a head coach, were there any decisions by Fuel head coach Yun “RUSH” Hee-won that have stuck out to you as overly impressive?

SP9RK1E: “I can’t say for sure since I haven’t worked with another head coach, but I feel like RUSH is very good at coming up with surprise picks and creating variables in general. Overall he always focuses on our basics so we can have a good foundation.”

People have high expectations for this Fuel team. What do you think has to happen from this core to have a shot at a championship?

Xzi: “Each and every player has their own role in this game and what they are good at is very distinct. So I would say, as long as the meta is in our favor, we can definitely win, even against the Shock.”

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