Gladiators solved the Fuel, exposing limitations Dallas must learn to get past

ARLINGTON — The Los Angeles Gladiators have been anticipating a problem in the Kickoff Clash Grand Final Sunday towards the Dallas Fuel at Esports Stadium Arlington. The Gladiators oozed confidence after they walked to middle stage to greet a booing Dallas Fuel crowd.

But the Gladiators have been all smiles, possibly even sneers. They knew they have been going to win as a result of they solved the Dallas Fuel, and that translated to a 4-0 Grand Final victory.

“I think I wanted to go take a nap,” Gladiators tank participant Corey “Reiner” Scoda mentioned. “It was a little too boring for me.”

The Fuel have been solved, and their hardest process forward is to change into unsolvable with the gamers they’ve.

This wasn’t the first time Dallas was cracked in the past two seasons. The Fuel have been the most dominant group in the world as a result of the Shanghai Dragons discovered the holes in the Fuel’s dive composition in 2021. The Gladiators did one thing comparable at the Kickoff Clash.

Dallas’ Zarya-Reaper composition steamrolled each group they performed over the weekend and in the qualifier matches prior. Every group besides Los Angeles.

“It seems like the Glads were very well aware of our strategies, and they have been preparing to counter what we were trying to do the entire time,” Fuel head coach Yun “RUSH” Hee-won mentioned by way of interpreter. “I feel like they are really good at distancing themselves. We are quite an aggressive team, and they tried their best to suppress our playstyle.”

Dallas’ roster was construct for quick gameplay. The Fuel go for as many fights as doable, and check out to stress their opponents into making errors with hyper-aggressive pushes and compositions. The fantastic thing about the model is that any group that isn’t competing for titles isn’t going to stand an opportunity.

The drawback is title contenders can put together, and break, the Fuel. At least for now. The Fuel have been the identical method final yr, however Yun mentioned the distinction with this season, with Overwatch 2, is that the playstyles are extra broad. There are extra compositions and hero alternatives doable due to the nature of 5-vs-5.

The Fuel might have discovered their greatest composition, or not less than the greatest they may muster with two months of preparation on the recreation. Going ahead, they will’t be predictable.

“They pretty much only play like one thing, and we have like two comps that can counter that pretty well, the Doomfist comp and the (Reinhardt) comp,” Scoda mentioned. ” We went over which map we wanted to play Rein and Doomfist on, and went from there.”

Yun noticed the Kickoff Clash as an essential lesson for everybody concerned. He had no drawback crediting the Gladiators for being the higher. Team. Fuel assist participant Kwon “Fielder” Jun added that there wasn’t actually a breaking level throughout the Grand Final for the Fuel.

The Gladiators have been ready and higher from begin to end. While Kwon was dissatisfied, he understood the outcome. That’s the place Yun noticed the silver lining in a lopsided defeat.

“In order to avoid this sort of defeat again in the future, we’ll just have to work harder,” Yun mentioned. Now that the gamers skilled this loss, they’ll need to work more durable. The teaching workers may also attempt to step it up extra.”

The Fuel have a while. There are 11 days till they play the San Francisco Shock on-line at 3:30 p.m. on June 16. Dallas has a composition that works for it. It’ll want to discover a couple extra to win a championship.

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