New York Excelsior vs Dallas Fuel

For our second match of the day we have a somewhat interesting clash between the New York Excelsior and the Dallas Fuel. Perhaps it's most interesting because of the underlying history and what this match-up could have been, or what the fans had envisioned before the Overwatch League began.

Sadly, the reality we are in a far from the reality fans hoped for. New York and Dallas have been occupying the very opposite sides of the standings, with New York being one of the most sound and most dominant teams in the entire Overwatch League - losing only twice in almost ten weeks (and having an insane +20 map differential at the moment) whereas Dallas is currently at eleventh place and even though they managed to string a couple of victories at the beginning of Stage 2 it's too far and few between. They're simply lost on almost every level, they lost xQc - their arguably best performing tank player (Mickie is too inconsistent on D.Va and Taimou simply isn't a top tier Winston), they signed a top tier Korean tank player however team cohesion is quite a bit deal and they need the time. Even though AKM came into the Overwatch League storming he fell off quite a bit and failed to show anything worth mentioning other than his staple Soldier. With EFFECT underperforming more often than not, we have a fairly meek and lost Dallas squad.

On the other hand New York have been annihilating their opposition, losing only a single five map series this Stage and that was without their starting support and playmaker Ark who couldn't play due to wrist issues. They displayed the most out of all OWL teams and they're only getting better. We haven't seen Pine that much in the starting position nowadays, not even on Control Point maps like Ilios mainly because Libero has been playing almost flawlessly and is far more versatile and adept for the current meta - especially when paired with Saebyeolbe.

Overall this is quite the no-brainer, as there isn't a strategy or gameplan that will allow Dallas to compete with New York.