‘Sp9rk1e’, Dallas Fuel ‘only afraid of Atlanta’ after advancing to second-consecutive Overwatch League tournament final

Kim “Sp9rk1e” Yeong-han wanted Atlanta Reign damage star Oh “Pelican” Se-hyun to take it easy in their June Joust winners bracket matchup Friday evening.

Pelican was dominant for stretches on Echo against Sp9rk1e and the Dallas Fuel, but the May Melee champions overcame a strong showing from the Atlanta damage line in a 3-1 win.

“No, he wasn’t gentle,” Kim said via interpreter. “He was really out to get me and really wanted to kill me.”

Kim was anticipating another matchup with the Reign, but got the Shanghai Dragons instead at 8 p.m. Saturday.

The Overwatch League built up the friendly banter between Kim and Oh before the match began. OWL desk talent and go-to translator Danny Lim was linking arms with the opposing damage players in Fuel assistant general manager Helen “Dear” Jang’s tweet. He also was the mediator for Kim and Oh’s back-and-forth. Kim got the last laugh in that duel.

That video was pretty similar to the Fuel and Reign’s Overwatch match. A masterclass of team fights and mechanical ability. But much like Kim’s parting diss to Oh, it was the Fuel stomping the Reign.

Dallas assistant coach Kim “Yong” Yong-Jin credited Sp9rk1e’s damage partner, Kim “Doha” Dong-Ha for turning his own performance around. Doha struggled in the Fuel’s only map loss, the opener on Nepal.

That’s when Pelican and the Reign’s Reaper player, Kim “Edison” Tae-hoon, hit their stride.

The back-and-forth between Edison and Doha would dictate the most crucial team fights in a series that could have easily gone to a fight map if it weren’t for last-second heroics from the Fuel.

Doha’s woes continued at the start of the second map, with Doha failing to recognize how the Reign were countering him. But the key Reaper player in Dallas’ rush composition figured it out.

“I think basically what happened was that he didn’t really get a good grasp of the enemy Echo’s play style and the enemy team’s play style overall, so that’s probably why the first two maps were not as easy for him,” Yong-Jin said via interpreter. “The players, through them discussing what they were having trouble with or what they’re uncomfortable with in the game, I believe that honestly helped everyone find their own answers.”

The Fuel are skeptical that this will be the last they see of the Atlanta Reign. Both Yong-Jin and Yeong-han agreed on that. Think of it as a similar situation to the May Melee, when the Fuel defeated the Shanghai Dragons twice to capture a franchise-first OWL tournament win.

Shanghai was strong in that run too, and made it to the June Joust also, already losing to Dallas on Thursday. But the competition for the Fuel in Hawaii this time felt different for Yeong-han.

“Now I’m only afraid of Atlanta,” Yeong-han said. “Thanks to winning today’s match, I feel like we all gained enough confidence, and I hope that we win against them easily in the next match.”

Yong-Jin felt there was a clear path to an easier time with Atlanta, but the Fuel instead have Shanghai. While there were plenty of mistakes for the Fuel staff to breaks down, the coaches were particularly upset with the Fuel’s ultimate usage. Too many ultimates were used in fights that didn’t need them, Yong-Jin said.

That adjustment, in his eyes, would mean more hardware returning home with the Dallas Fuel.

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