The Dallas Fuel earned their first trip to the Overwatch League Grand Finals, beating the Houston Outlaws, 3-1, and winning 70% of the team fights.
The Dallas Fuel streak of destruction continues in the Upper Finals of the Overwatch League Playoffs. In a 3-1 victory, the Fuel utterly dismantled the Houston Outlaws. Fuel ended up winning an astonishing 70% of the team fights and taking 68% of the first bloods.
For starters, Fuel hitscan, Kim "Edison" Tae-hoon, delivered arguably a career-best performance in the biggest moment of his career. On the Soujorn, Edison found 35% of the opening kills, consistently putting the Fuel at a player advantage. The Outlaws had no answers for him early in fights and the Fuel converted a majority of those kills into fight wins.
At times, Choi "MER1T" Tae-min, a star in his own right, couldn’t find space to breathe with Edison controlling every off-angle. On Kings Row, the Fuel map pick, MER1T ended with one final blow. As Edison found muti-kills in six of 10 fights on that map. In classic Dallas Fuel fashion, Kim "SP9RK1E" Yeong-han and Lee "Fearless" Eui-Seok created space so effectively and Edison took advantage.
On the back of Kwon "Fielder" Joon’s Kitsune Rush ultimate charge ostensibly doubling Outlaws Flex Support, Kim "Creative" Young-wan, charge rate. The Fuel we’re taking relatively safe fights in terms of ultimate economy and rarely overextending or sacrificing positioning. Even if the Outlaws gained some cart push or percentage on Control, the Fuel were never caught out of place. Again, it was a masterfully called and coached game.
Edison on adjusting after map one
After the win, the player of the match, Edison, talked about the adjustments made after the map one blunder on Lijang.
“I think it boiled down to the ult fights. Every time we had a situation where we were engaging in an ult fight, we were taking a loss in the process and that was a major problem. Moving forward, after that map, we wanted to focus on not losing those ult fights. We knew that if we win those ult fights, we would ultimately win the round and win the map as well”
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Dallas Fuel win 70% of team rights (38-16)
Shockingly, the Fuel win tonight earned them their first win of the season over the Outlaws. Entering this series, Dallas was 0-2 against Houston, and their most recent loss was during the Summer Showdown. SP9RK1E and company exercised the demons today, once again by playing suffocating defense and the ability to dominate early in team fights.
Returning to their team fight winning percentage (70%), it rarely, if ever, felt as if the Outlaws had the upper hand. Dante "Danteh" Cruz had a strong start on Lijang but slowly faded as the series progressed. The same could be said of the Outlaws Support, who died early and often. However, the biggest issue was MER1T exposing himself to Edison for picks. The majority of the game was Outlaws playing at 4v5.
Dallas Fuel Earn first Grand Finals Berth
Nonetheless, it certainly wasn’t the strongest performance from Outlaws possible. The Fuel are a runaway freight train that have been on an absolute rampage of wins (wins in 18 of their last 19 games). Now, the Outlaws have tape to review for a potential rematch. However, beating the Fuel in their current form feels close to impossible.
As for the Dallas Fuel, there’s no team that genuinely worries them. In the interview with Fearless, his composure stood out, the same goes for Edison who repeated his sentiment.
“It’s going to be Houston Outlaws again tomorrow for the Grand Finals. I think we’re going to see them again but whoever it is we are the better team so I’m pretty confident we can beat them one more time”
"Whoever it is we are the better team so I’m pretty confident we can beat them one more time”
The Houston Outlaws await the winner of the San Francisco Shock and Hangzhou Spark. While the Dallas Fuel get a tiny bit of rest sitting in the Grand Finals. It’s the first Finals appearance in Dallas Fuel history and history is waiting to be made on Friday, November 4th at 7 pm PST. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJO8nGeqw8Y
