Overwatch League Stage 4: San Francisco Shock handles Dallas Fuel

A confident Dallas Fuel continues to hunt for upset opportunities.

After struggling for three stages, the Fuel have finally found their groove behind the flail and shield of Brigitte. The Fuel entered the match sitting at fourth in the Stage 4 standings, and with a real chance to earn themselves a spot in the stage playoffs.

After cycling through a variety of different rosters, San Francisco seems to have centered around a mostly stable composition. However, the Shock also have a tough challenge ahead of them, especially if their goal is post-season playoffs. They have to basically keep winning, while hoping that the three teams that stand between them and the sixth place spot keep losing. Would the Shock be able to outlast this improved Dallas Fuel team?

Map One: King’s Row

On attack first, San Francisco pushed with a triple-tank composition and a side of Babybay on Hanzo. Babybay’s quick eliminations handed the Shock point A very rapidly. San Francisco proceeded to burn right through the entire map with relatively little resistance. Sinatraa on Zarya and Babybay found that they didn’t even need to combine their ultimates to manipulate the Fuel to their will. Dallas put together what they must of thought of as spirited fights, but in the end it was far from enough.

Dallas’ attack took a while to break through, but eventually they would. The payload was pushed to just short of the second checkpoint, where the Shock were able to stall for a good amount of time. But again, the Fuel were able to break through the Shock defenses and claim point B as well. With a minute left, the Fuel staged a disjointed final attack, with ultimates getting thrown in to no effect. San Francisco would hold fast to the payload to win the first map of the match.

Map Score: Shock 3, Fuel 2

Match Score: Shock 1, Fuel 0

Map Two: Hanamura

The Shock’s strong offense continued to put on a show as the match moved to Hanamura. Any confidence Dallas felt around their initial first point hold was quickly shattered after San Francisco stormed right through. The Shock would finish with 4:27 still left on the clock, a very quick attack which would be tough to match.

It was a challenge that Dallas found themselves able to meet. On both points, OGE’s Reinhardt was able to quickly pinpoint and eliminate sinatraa quite early on in the team’s engagements, and that helped ease the Fuel right to point control. Dallas would end up finishing with 4:55, executing an even better attack run than the Shock.

So the teams would move onto another round of attack and defense, working through the time they each still had left on the clock. On attack first, the Shock faced much more resistance attempting to take point A away from the Fuel. They would eventually do so, but it didn’t leave them much time to assault point B. In the end, they were unable to put together a good enough attack to completely take the second point.

Dallas did a much better job of handling their second chance on attack. Using up only around a minute of their ample time on point A, the Fuel rolled right onto point B. Pushed back only once after losing Mickie early in the fight, Dallas flexed their way to victory.

Map Score: Shock 3, Fuel 4

Match Score: Shock 1, Fuel 1

Map Three: Oasis

San Francisco had Architect and Babybay running their DPS for the control map, while Dallas subbed aKm in for Taimou. With Architect in the sky as Pharah and Babybay prowling the ground as McCree, San Francisco came out to an early start. The Fuel started their slow retake of the point when Architect got a little to close to the ground and to aKm on McCree as he tried to execute Pharah’s Rocket Barrage. With a stun that knocked Architect out of the sky and a subsequent headshot, aKm led the Fuel back onto the point. Even after using both support ultimates, the Fuel forced a Shock retreat.

The retreat, however, wouldn’t last long. Architect continued to bother the Fuel on Pharah, allowing San Francisco to recapture the point. Dallas’ final contest was abruptly interrupted by a Choihyobin Self Destruct that took the lives of three members of the Fuel, effectively signaling the end of the point in favor of San Francisco.

https://twitter.com/overwatchleague/status/1002381633561952256

After discovering that Dallas was not changing up their composition to deal with a Pharah, Architect continued to play the hero and continued to cause the Fuel tons of trouble. Dallas’ strategy to negate Architect’s damage was to shield the team prior to engagement thanks to Mickie on Brigitte’s Rally, and then give everyone a boost of health with a Lucio Sound Barrier. What they did not expect was San Francisco’s Babybay flanking them on McCree from behind. With the focus of the Fuel suddenly split between their original plan and dealing with this unwanted pest behind enemy lines, Architect had free reign to unleash yet another deadly torrent of Pharah’s Rocket Barrage. Dallas wilted away for good, surrendering the third map bodily to San Francisco.

Map Score: Shock 2, Fuel 0

Match Score: Shock 2, Fuel 1

Next: Pokemon game heading to Nintendo Switch gets release date and trailer

Map Four: Watchpoint Gibraltar

Dallas set up their defense around the high ground above the open area right near the end of the first point. With the payload so close to the checkpoint already, it took one won fight from San Francisco to nab it. But the Fuel did stall the Shock considerably in the second section of the map, with aKm coming alive on Widowmaker. All in all, the Shock were able to finish with just under two minutes still on the clock.

Dallas faced a lot more trouble getting the payload cleanly through the tunnel and into the open area just before the checkpoint. As he has been all match, OGE was the one who got things moving for Dallas with a big Primal Rage that took out San Francisco’s healer Moth. The rest of the map was a slow grind from Dallas, and Mickie’s Brigitte and OGE’s continued excellence on Winston got them to the end with a minute left.

The Fuel went right back on attack in time bank rounds, and it immediately started off poorly with Mickie’s D.Va getting slept by the opponents Ana in the spawn room door. While no real damage was dealt by the sleep dart, the stall burned valuable seconds off of Dallas’ already scant available time. By the time the payload made it through the tunnel, there were only 15 seconds remaining. In the end, the Fuel were driven away from the payload by a Self Destruct and their efforts would end having only pushed the payload 70 meters.

With almost double the time available in their second attack run, San Francisco didn’t have to do much to reach the goal line set by Dallas. Sinatraa on Tracer cut through the ranks of the Fuel, ending their feeble attempts at a defense and guiding his team to victory.

Map Score: Shock 4, Fuel 3

Final Match Score: Shock 3, Fuel 1