Around the OWL: Dallas Fuel eyeing new players this week, Seagull breaks Overwatch streaming record
In a rather surprising break of silence from Dallas Fuel management earlier this week, Team Owner Michaelangelo ‘Hastr0’ Rufail gave a slight teaser to fans of the organization of some roster news to be expected before the weekend. As the Free Agency period draws closer for Overwatch League teams it seems that Dallas are poised to clean out the roster with Head Coach Aaron ‘Aero’ Atkins heavily involved in decision making for the team.
Time to Burn Blue
It’s been a lackluster year for the Dallas Fuel to say the least. After a soap opera like turn of events for their roster this season, with endless player rants on social media, and high profile roster and staff shake-ups, the team finally found a healthy medium in Stage Four as they started picking up wins on the back of Seagull’s playmaking.
Heading into Season Two of the Overwatch League, that short lived winning formula will not be available in the same way with Seagull abrupt retirement, but all is not lost for the Dallas organization. Arguably their most important addition of the season this year was in the coaching department as they brought in Aero to fill in the void KyKy left behind.
His addition to the team has been palpable since the get go, including ‘on the shelf’ players like Seagull and Mickey into a lineup that was disillusioned by team drama and overall poor performance. Aero’s impact on team morale, both on and off the stage, has been massive for Dallas thus far and the prospects for success can grow even higher with the right additions.
Flex options
With that being said, the rumblings around the community are pointing to certain players from the Dallas Fuel Academy roster to make the move up to Overwatch League sooner rather than later. All signs are pointing to Caleb ‘McGravy’ McGarvey as the next DPS/ Flex Tank player that would be a suitable fit to fill in the role Seagull left behind.
Since the start of Stage Two, the roster swaps and additions to the team have trended more towards Western players than the aforementioned international style they went for upon season start. Whether it be a communication issue, or a need to have similar lifestyles on the team, Dallas Fuel have been making changes to enhance team synergy, and McGravy is definitely a player that can fit their needs.
From a player and personality standpoint, McGravy ticks all the right boxes for Dallas Fuel management and fans alike. He’s one of the more accomplished Western DPS players in his role while still being relatively young for the scene. His addition on the Team USA roster for the Overwatch World Cup is a huge feather in his cap that has put him in higher regard in the past year. If Dallas Fuel want to regain a strong foothold with their NA fanbase and become ‘America’s Overwatch Team’ in a similar fashion to the Cowboys, making strong moves like this are a good way to go.
Seagull takes flight
On the streaming end of things, Seagull has gained the throne of most popular Overwatch Twitch streamer once again in a massive initiative from Activision Blizzard to get players and fans of Seagull to watch and play along in D.Va’s Nano Cola Challenge that will be taking place for the next few weeks.
Winning games in the Overwatch Arcade mode gives you a chance to win a limited edition D.Va skin that’s released in conjunction with her Animated Short that came out at Gamescom earlier this month. Watching participating streams during the duration of the event can grant you limited edition sprays that are only available on accounts that are linked to your Twitch. Every two hours gives you a new opportunity to unlock custom D.Va sprays that are as fun and interactive as any spray in the game to date.
This initiative from Blizzard is the first of its kind to interact so heavily with its streamer base, and Seagull has been a beneficiary of the extra love that all the fans have brought to the table. On a number of occasions this past week, Seagull has surpassed the 100k viewer mark with peaks at 103k and 105k at different points of the stream. The attention has also brought a cornucopia of epic moments in Overwatch gameplay as Seagull proved to everyone time and time again that he is an excellent player on virtually any hero he plays.
