Philadelphia Fusion vs Dallas Fuel

For our first match of the day we have a pretty exciting clash between the Dallas Fuel and the Philadelphia Fusion.

If you've been following the rise and fall of Dallas Fuel, you probably noticed small improvements that were on display during their two matches last week against the San Francisco Shock and the Boston Uprising. They decided on a starting lineup and had moderate success. However they probably wouldn't have even scored that first win against the Shock if it hadn't been for some sensational McCree and Widow play from EFFECT. We also saw some improvement in Mickie's play as well, who took over Roadhog duties from teammate Taimou and had a pretty solid performance throughout the series.

Dallas mostly went for a very simple team comp, consisting of Seagull on Junkrat, Mickie on Roadhog and Cocco on Orisa. While that's far from ineffective, it's incredibly one-dimensional and predictable and even though they were able to stay competitive throughout their two matches last week it will be rather simple for their opponents to prepare an answer for that single strategy going forward.

They improved leaps and bounds in their communication and synergy which was evident in their series against Boston as well. They were competitive on every single map, with EFFECT and Seagull causing serious trouble for the Uprising. In the end, Dreamkazper and Striker proved to be more lethal than Seagull and EFFECT.

As for the Philadelphia Fusion, they failed to continue their winning streak as they were demolished in 4-0 fashion by the Los Angeles Valiant yesterday. It wasn't a pretty sight, and it wasn't close by any stretch of the imagination.

The Fusion is incredibly strong if we analyze them on an individual level as even when things go south they always have the potential and right mindset to make huge plays and swing the tides in their favor, but Overwatch is a team centric game and against the Valiant their individual mechanical prowess wasn't enough. They were incredibly competitive on Numbani as the Valiant went too deep on too many occasions, leaving their own backline completely vulnearble to Shadowburn's Dragonblade. Carpe went blow-for-blow with Soon on Tracer, getting the better trade almost every single time but once the Valiant established control of the payload the Fusion simply couldn't mount on offensive. That storyline continued on to Anubis as well, where individual mistakes (like the moment where Boombox died to Envy with Transcendence up) led them to their first loss on the map. (5-4 in the end for the Valiant)

From a betting perspective, the odds are fairly high and with good reason. This should have been all in Philadelphia's favor, but after their abysmal showing yesterday against the Valiant it's hard not questioning their current skill level. Regardless, Dallas showed even less in recent matches so it's hard predicting the outcome with certainty. Philadelphia is currently 4-3 in their match record and are still in the running for the Top 4 at the end of next week so they know that this is a must win if they want to stay in contention.

We're going with the Fusion on this one, but make no mistake - this should be insanely close.