Originally posted at http://www.omnicpost.com/2018/04/03/la-valiant-and-dallas-fuel-swap-players/
Internal Conflicts
More roster changes occurred prior to Stage 3 of the Overwatch League. Earlier today, Dallas Fuel and the LA Valiant agreed on a trade — Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson goes to Dallas while Scott “Custa” Kennedy goes to Los Angeles. uNKOE was a mainstay in the support role for the Los Angeles Valiant since Stage 1 of the Overwatch League. He has been solid for the team due to his flexibility in the support role with heroes such as Zenyatta, Mercy, and Moira. During Stage 2, roster swaps occurred moving Young-seo “KariV” Park from Support to DPS and Stefano “Verbo” Disalvo coming into the starting roster as another support. Conflicts within the team occurred including uNKOE and Verbo in Episode 2 of “Inside L.A. Valiant”. This video displayed conflicts and miscommunication between the two players during their Stage 2 Week 3 games. As a result of the transparency of these videos, the fans were concerned about the Valiant’s future. These concerns intensified with rumors of a trade between the Fuel and Valiant. A week later, those rumors came to fruition. uNKOE’s move to the Dallas Fuel reunited him with his old teammate Dylan “aKm” Bignet from Rogue.
Problems Fueling
Like uNKOE, Custa was a mainstay for the Dallas Fuel prior to the Overwatch League as one of their starting supports. Before Overwatch League started, the Dallas Fuel was hyped to be one of the top teams due to previous 1st place finishes in APEX Season 1, MLG Vegas 2016, and Overwatch Contenders 2017 Season 1: North America as Team EnVyUs. Since Overwatch League started, the team was unable to meet expectations finishing 10th place in Stage 1 and 11th place in Stage 2. Many reasons started to come out for the Fuel’s underperformance, including Félix “xQc” Lengyel being a distraction and Kyle “KyKy” Souder not being the type of coach the team needs. Throughout all the turmoil, Custa remained to be the team leader. This move to the LA Valiant would add another support with versatility in his hero pool along with KariV. Also, Custa’s main worth to the Valiant would be a leader for the team that can guide them to Stage 3 playoffs.
In social media outlets, many people are questioning the reasons behind this trade. While the uNKOE trade to Dallas makes sense for the Valiant due to internal turmoil, more people are questioning why Dallas would trade one of their valuable commodities.
The answer to these questions will start this Wednesday as the Overwatch League comes back with Stage 3 where the Dallas Fuel faces the Shanghai Dragons, and the LA Valiant faces the Seoul Dynasty.
