Dallas Fuel wins Overwatch League May Melee with 3-2 victory over Shanghai Dragons

Dallas Fuel won the first Overwatch League tournament of 2021 after a riveting 4-2 victory over Shanghai Dragons. This was the first tournament victory for Dallas Fuel and a well-deserved one at that.

The May Melee monthly tournament came to a close after six maps of top tier Overwatch. As both teams brought out weird hero compositions and playstyles, the tug-of-war in strategy and hero picks was enthralling. 

Dallas Fuel and Shanghai Dragons had already met once before in the May Melee Winners’ finals. While Dallas Fuel pushed Shanghai into the lower bracket with a 3-2 win, Shanghai set a rematch in the grand finals after taking down Florida Mayhem in the lower bracket finals.

The grand finals started in a back and forth manner. Dallas Fuel Lijiang Tower and King’s Row while Shanghai Dragons picked up the W on its map pick of Temple of Anubis. 

The different approaches to Lijiang Tower was evident with Byung-sun "Fleta" Kim playing the Pharah while Dallas Fuel opted to stick to a close-range lineup with Yeong-han "SP9RK1E" Kim’s Reaper.

Dallas Fuel took the map advantage after the King’s Row victory. SP9RK1E brought out an unlikely hero in Soldier 76, but the team had excellent movement and synergy to play around the off-meta hero. The Overwatch League tournaments often bring out surprise hero picks and the Soldier 76 pick in the May Melee was one such example. 

Gibraltar was an extremely close map with both teams pushing each other to the limits. A two-support Pulse bomb by SP9RK1E’s Tracer allowed the Fuel to make the final push and finish the map. Dallas Fuel were now up 3-1 in the Overwatch League May Melee tournament.

Shanghai Dragon’s mobility based lineup on Ilios was too difficult for the fuel to handle. The Chinese team finished Ilios with a 2-0 win over Dallas Fuel, clearly comfortable on the control map.

Blizzardworld saw both teams bring out the Mei. Shanghai Dragons started with the Mei to block out the Fuel’s line of sight. It worked great, but only till Dallas also brought out their Mei. Having a Mei on the chokepoint allowed Dallas to eat through the Shanghai Dragon’s time bank. Ultimately, Shanghai could not complete the second point, an opportunity for Dallas to take a two-map lead in the series. Dallas Fuel did not let go of this opportunity. An aggressive playstyle on the first left Dallas Fuel with more than five minutes to win the game. Even though Shanghai Dragons had a spirited defense, the team stuck to Reinhardt for a very long time, limiting its playstyle. The map came down to the wire and it almost resulted in a Shanghai Dragons win. But Fuel had the better ultimate economy and barely secured the win.

The May Melee victory was Dallas Fuel’s first tournament victory in Overwatch. The team won a massive $100,000 as well as the valuable three league points. The league points will be useful for Dallas Fuel in the post-season standings. Overwatch League will resume on May 21 with the June Joust tournament. 

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