2020 Dallas Fuel season
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Kim Yong-jin (Interim)
| 2020 Dallas Fuel season | |
|---|---|
| Head coach | Aaron Atkins (rel. Aug 3) Kim Yong-jin (Interim) |
| General manager | Mathew Taylor |
| Owner | Mike Rufail Kenneth Hersh |
| Arena(s) | Esports Stadium Arlington |
| Conference | Pacific |
| Division | West |
| Region | North America |
| Results | |
| Record | 9–12 (.429) |
| Place |
|
| May Melee | Quarterfinals |
| Summer Showdown | Knockouts |
| Countdown Cup | Quarterfinals |
| Season Playoffs | Did not qualify |
| Total Earnings | $10,000 |
The 2020 Dallas Fuel season was the third season of the Dallas Fuel's existence in the Overwatch League. The Fuel planned to host a league-high five homestand weekends in the 2020 season at Esports Stadium Arlington, Toyota Music Factory, the Allen Event Center, and two more undetermined locations.[1] While the first homestand at Esports Stadium Arlington took place, all other homestands were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a 7–10 start to the season and failure to make it past the quarterfinals in any of the three midseason tournaments, the Fuel released head coach Aaron "Aero" Atkins on August 3 and announced that assistant coach Kim Yong-jin served would as the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.[2] Dallas finished the season with a 9–12 record, marking their third consecutive season with a losing regular season record. A 0–3 loss to the Washington Justice on September 4 in the North America play-ins tournament took the Fuel out of postseason contention.[3]
Organizational changes
On November 15, assistant coach Justin "Jayne" Conroy announced that he would be stepping down from his position to move to a content creation role within Envy Gaming.[4] Weeks later, on December 5, the Fuel mutually parted ways with assistance coach Julien "daemoN" Ducros.[5] The Fuel finalized their coaching staff heading into the 2020 season on December 9, announcing the return of head coach Aaron "Aero" Atkins, the return of Louis "Tikatee" Lebel-Wong and Kang "Vol’Jin" Min-gyu as assistant coaches, and the signing of former Element Mystic assistant coach Kim "Yong" Yong-Jin as an assistant coach.[6]
Roster changes
Heading into the 2020 season, the Fuel's only free agent is only off-tank Lucas "NotE" Meissner, who was traded from the Boston Uprising to Dallas the previous season. Free agency officially began on October 7.[7] NotE was re-signed to the Fuel on October 30.[8]
The Fuel's first transaction of the offseason took place on October 29, when they traded main tank Son "OGE" Min-seok to the Los Angeles Gladiators in exchange for flex DPS Jang "Decay" Gui-un.[9] In OGE's replacement, the team announced the signing of former Shanghai Dragons main tank Noh "Gamsu" Young-jin on November 4.[10] A week later, the team signed Element Mystic DPS Kim "Doha" Dong-ha.[11] On January 8, the team sent DPS Timo "Taimou" Kettunen down to their academy team Team Envy.[12] The Fuel parted way with tank player Pongphop "Micke" Rattanasangchod just under two weeks before the beginning of the season; Micke moved to a content creator role for Envy Gaming.[13] On February 3, Dallas announced their full roster, which included the promotion of support player William "Crimzo" Hernandez from Team Envy.[14]
Roster
| 2020 Dallas Fuel roster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Players | Coaches | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legend:
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Latest roster transaction: August 5, 2020. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transactions
Transactions of/for players on the roster during the 2020 regular season:
- On June 3, DPS Zachary "ZachaREEE" Lombardo retired.[15]
- On June 7, the Fuel acquired support Nolan "Paintbrush" Edwards from the Los Angeles Gladiators.[16]
- On June 19, the Fuel signed DPS Stefan "Onigod" Fiskerstrand.[17]
- On August 3, the Fuel released DPS Jang "Decay" Gui-un.[18]
- On August 5, the Fuel released support Jonathan "HarryHook" Tejedor Rua.[19]
