Prolonged fights, ultimates flying everywhere. This would be the Dallas Fuel’s first choice in a meta to match their strengths, but they are making it work enough after a 3-2 win over the Florida Mayhem Thursday afternoon.
Fuel assistant coach Go “Aid” Jae-yoon said he wasn’t satisfied with the Fuel’s performance. The Fuel coaching staff rarely is, but he felt if his support core was more efficient the match wouldn’t have lasted the better part of two hours.
But getting a win is fine for now, and the Fuel knew just how important it would be to defeat the Mayhem. The victory put the Fuel at 2-1 in the June Joust qualifiers with a 3:30 p.m. Saturday match against a winless Vancouver Titans team to finish pool play.
“If we lost this one then we could not make it to the tournament qualifiers,” Fuel support star Kwon “Fielder” Jun said via interpreter. “Honestly, we considered it to be the game that mattered the most. So something that we had in mind was that if we lose this will get knocked out.”
flawless 💪 pic.twitter.com/F7EdNwCnuy
— Dallas Fuel (@DallasFuel) June 3, 2021
Kwon’s role as the Fuel’s Moira player was crucial in each of Dallas’ engagements Thursday. He had to charge his ultimate fast in a meta that demands consistent healing and ultimates coming online often.
Dallas was all about going first, with Fielder using his ultimate before the Mayhem’s Moria, if possible. That’s what Dallas likes to do. Play fast, push the tempo and end fights quickly. That’s not as obtainable in this meta -- compositions consist of Moira, Lucio, Reaper, Echo, Winston and DVa.
“We are a team that takes initiative first. And we’re very proactive in taking the tempo, the fast tempo,” Go said via interpreter. “There’s a fast paced fight that exists in this meta. But regardless, I feel like compared to other metas, the value that you get from going first and fast is less.”
It’s much harder to confirm kills with these compositions because the sustainability is really high. Fuel assistant coach Kim “Yong” Yong-Jin called the meta “really hard and messy” on Twitter.
ggs @FLMayhem
— Fuel_Yong (@FuelYong) June 3, 2021
This meta is really hard and messy
but we will do better#FuelFighting #BurnBlue
The Fuel struggled during their map losses on Junkertown and Lijiang Tower against the Mayhem. Florida got value out of their DPS players on those maps in particular, with Kim “Sp9rk1e” Yeong-han and Kim “Doha” Dong-ha pulling their weight in the Fuel’s three map wins.
Go, in charge of the Fuel’s support line, was more concerned with how the Dallas healers could improve moving forward.
A lot of that came down to Lee “Jecse” Seung-soo on the Lucio. His ultimates weren’t as timely as Go would have liked.
“There are a lot of improvements that can be made, and (Lee) himself can do a lot more different things if he reaches his full potential,” Go said. “I see that he gets criticized a lot, and as a coach that takes care of him it hurts to see that but I can also see why he’s getting criticized.
“So I feel like if I could fix it so that he can develop into a better player, then I would honestly be very happy about that.”
The hardest part of the Fuel’s June Joust qualifiers should be over. Dallas will be heavily favored to sweep Vancouver, and any map differential in its favor will help the Fuel with seeding for the upcoming tournament. The Houston Outlaws and Atlanta Reign are already 3-1 from their matches, and both the Los Angeles Gladiators and San Francisco Shock could finish with a 4-0 record in qualifiers after the weekend.
The best the Fuel can do is 3-1 with a plus-five map differential. That would be enough, but the Fuel want another trophy to keep the May Melee title company.
To do that, the Fuel support line has to be ahead of the curve.
