RESULTS: Philadelphia Fusion Secure Dominating Win Over Dallas Fuel

Nicholas Barth,

March 18, 2018 12:54 AM

In the final match of Saturday's slate of Overwatch League action, the Philadelphia Fusion faced the Dallas Fuel.

The Philadelphia Fusion entered the match with a 10-7 record and in 5th place in the Overwatch League. Coming off a 4-0 victory over the Shanghai Dragons on Wednesday, Philadelphia was looking to end Week 4 with a perfect 2-0 record and improve their positioning for the Stage 2 playoffs. The Dallas Fuel came into the match with a 5-12 record and in 10th place in the league. Suffering a 0-4 loss to the Boston Uprising earlier in the week, Dallas was looking to collect their 6th win of the season to end a turbulent week on a positive note. Here is a short breakdown of how the match went. 

Hanamura was the first map of the match and saw the Dallas Fuel capture Point A, but fail to do the same for Point B in their attack round. Seeing an opening to secure the victory on Hanamura and take the first lead of the match, the Philadelphia Fusion would put together a strong offensive push in their attack round that led to them capturing both control points. This resulted in the 2-1 map win and the 1-0 match lead for the Fusion. Gael "Poko" Gouzerch (18 eliminations, 9,161 damage blocked and five deaths as D.Va) was one of the standout players for Philadelphia, while Simon "Snillo" Ekström (23 eliminations, nine final blows and two deaths) outdueled Hyeon "EFFECT" Hwang (10 eliminations, six final blows and six deaths) in the Tracer matchup. 

Lijiang Tower followed Hanamura and saw the Philadelphia Fusion continue to add to the Dallas Fuel's woes. Utilzing the strong performances of Isaac "Boombox" Charles (19 eliminations, 12,228 healing done, 20 defensive assists and one death as Moira), Poko (23 eliminations, 6,323 damage blocked and one death as D.Va) and Joona "fragi" Laine (14 eliminations, 6,105 damage blocked and two deaths as Reinhardt), the Fusion were able to capture the first two hills of Lijiang Tower to secure the 2-0 win. This resulted in the Philadelphia Fusion taking a 2-0 lead going into halftime. 

King's Row was the third map of the match. The Dallas Fuel were able to capture the payload, but that would be as far as the Philadelphia Fusion would let them get in their attack round. Wanting to wrap up the match victory, the Fusion would use the performances of Poko (26 eliminations, 19,142 damage blocked and one death as D.Va) and Josue "Eqo" Corona (19 eliminations, 67% hook accuracy and three deaths as Roadhog) to deliver the payload to the second checkpoint and secure the 2-1 win on King's Row, thus clinching the match with the score at 3-0. 

Watchpoint: Gibraltar was the final map of the match. Dallas was able to put together a solid attack round to deliver the payload to the second checkpoint, but a 15 kill streak from Eqo as Widowmaker would be the driving force for Philadelphia's prevention of the Fuel completing the map. Contiuing the impressive play that they had shown up to this point, the Fusion would break through the Fuel's defense and deliver the payload to the end of the map to secure the 3-2 map win and the 4-0 match victory.

Eqo was awarded the player of the match honor for the excellent Widowmaker play he provided the Philadelphia Fusion throughout each map. He finished with 33 eliminations, 23 final blows, 19.8% critical hit accuracy and 3 deaths. 

With the win, the Philadelphia Fusion improved to a record of 11-7 and put themselves at a tie with the Seoul Dynasty in regards to Stage 2 playoff positioning. The loss dropped the Dallas Fuel to a 5-13 record and continued the recent struggles that the team has been going through as of late. 

Interested in more Overwatch League coverage? Check out our recap of the Houston Outlaws and San Francisco Shock match from earlier today.

(cover photo courtesy of Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment)

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