The Dallas Fuel defeated the Shanghai Dragons 4-2, winning the May Melee and their first Overwatch League tournament on May 9. Coming into the tournament as the second seed from the Western division, they showed that coordination wins. When their hitscan DPS player Jung “Xzi” Ki-hyo was forced to go on hiatus due to health, fans wrote off the Fuel for the first tournament. However, they rallied together and showed they could work around it, beating the best teams to finish at the top.
Here it is, for posterity: the moment that @DallasFuel broke through.#BurnBlue #OWL2021
🏆 https://t.co/tbTGBrUfiE pic.twitter.com/LcmgLkvuCV
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) May 9, 2021
Dallas Fuel win their first tournament
Dallas Fuel fans have been loud and proud of their team since their inaugural season, but have yet to see any significant wins. Before the start of this season, their biggest win in team history was at the Dallas Fuel homestand, where main tank Son”OGE” Min-seok notably cried. However, two years later, an entirely new roster made a run and qualified for the May Melee. Fans across the league were happy with the roster, but when Xzi announced his leave, expectations went down. One of the best heroes for this meta was McCree, and nobody on the Fuel was trained to play him.
The Dragons tried their best, but the coordination of the Fuel was too much to handle. After defeating them in the Winners Finals earlier this weekend, they did it again for the May Melee Finals. The way the team worked around each other was reminiscent of the 2019 Vancouver Titans. Similarly to them, the roster primarily consists of a Korean Contenders team. The odds were against Dallas from the start, much like the RunAway roster on Vancouver. But one thing the Dallas Fuel did that Vancouver didn’t was win the May Melee.
You can’t make this up. There’s an actual rainbow over the @DallasFuel in the team photo post victory. pic.twitter.com/NV6S3TmOF6
— Jon Spector (@Spex_J) May 9, 2021
It goes to show how good the Fuel is when they run an underpowered Soldier 76 and win the final map. All the credit should go to main tank Lee “Fearless” Eui-Seok. His Winston and Reinhardt play has won the Fuel many fights alone, making a case for league MVP. In terms of this series, Kim “Doha” Dong-ha might’ve edged Fearless for MVP. The team rallied around a departure, and Xzi watched his team win the whole thing. With hero bans on the horizon, it might be short-lived, but the Dallas Fuel is the best team in the world.
