Everything changed about the current meta in Overwatch 2. The Dallas Fuel players weren’t thrilled, and the holes in their game were evident in a 3-0 loss the San Francisco Shock Thursday afternoon.
Fuel head coach Yun “RUSH” Hee-won said there were two changes that made the biggest different. Zenyatta and Baptiste were buffed and work together well in tandem.
The result was Overwatch League teams ran those two support heroes in most compositions Thursday, and it led to long-ranged standoffs.
About as far from the Dallas Fuel’s strength as possible.
“One of the conclusions we got to was that there were too many fixes to many heroes, which has actually ruined the game a little bit from the players’ perspective,” Yun said via interpreter. “They have their own complaints and concerns about the game, and one of the things that is noteworthy is that the current meta has solidified the backline for supports.
“I think that’s really impacting the game the most.”
According to @OW_Proper, Dallas BBQ is best served thinly sliced 🥓#WINNABLE | #OWL2022 pic.twitter.com/trn8rWMoMO
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) June 16, 2022
Fuel assistant coach Kim “Rascal” Dong-jun suggested the meta changed dramatically in an interview with The Dallas Morning News this week. He added that the Fuel were trying different heroes to see what would stick.
Dallas and San Francisco showed several different looks Thursday. The Fuel tried a Reinhard composition based around Lee “Fearless” Euiseok, but that fell flat when the Shock countered with Wrecking Ball. Fearless then swapped to Doomfist, with Kang “guriyo” Min-seo and Kim “Sp9rk1e” Yeong-han playing Tracer and Sombra respectively, and that was just the first map.
“Everyone is trying to work around the Zen-Bap comp. If you look at any of the teams that are playing today, it’s going to be two flex supports,” Lee said via interpreter. “It’s just the start of the meta, and I think getting use to it is quite frustrating currently.”
Dallas brought in Choi “Hanbin” Han-been and Kim “Edison” Tae-hun for the second and third maps. Hanbin, who was dominant on Zarya through the Kickoff Clash, struggled to find value on Reinhardt, but was a little more effective on Sigma.
Neither team looked clean, but Dallas was outmatched.
That’s to be expected in the early stages of a new meta on an Overwatch 2 beta that’s only been available to professionals for a little over four months.
“Instead of trying something new, I feel we have to make sure that first, we are able to pull off what other teams are doing as well as them,” Yun said, adding that the Fuel have to do what it takes to get to Hawaii for the Midseason Madness. “I consider this as sort of like a stepping stone. We are in the process of getting there currently.”
The Fuel don’t have to wait long for some redemption. They play at 5 p.m. Saturday against the Atlanta Reign, another tough opponent to start Midseason Madness qualifiers against.
Dallas has also been here before. It struggled against the Houston Outlaws at the start of the season and took four matches at the beginning of 2021 to find their footing.
The loss against the Shock wasn’t a pretty start, but it’s not indicative of what the Fuel can make out of the next five matches.
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