Dallas Fuel moves to Overwatch League’s East Region in 2023

After lifting the champions trophy in the Overwatch League 2022, the Dallas Fuel has decided to move to a new and completely different continent.

This past Monday, March 6, the organization announced on its social media that for the 2023 OWL season, they will compete in the league’s East Region. This marks their move from the West Region, where they have remained for the last five years of the competition.

With this move, Dallas Fuel players will now play from their home country of South Korea, which could help the team’s performance. However, the fan base that the team has built up over the past few years may be seriously compromised.

Dallas Fuel moves to OWL East Region

In a video posted on the Dallas Fuel’s official Twitter account, team co-owner Mike “hastr0” Rufail explained why they decided to make this big move.

hastr0 explains that for the past two years of the Overwatch League, all of the team’s players and staff have been based in Dallas, Texas. While this is ideal for this team for all LAN format events, the team’s starting lineup players were away from their country and home for several years.

On the other hand, hastr0 also noted that both the league and the Dallas Fuel are in a period of transition. Recall that earlier in the offseason. The organization allowed players to explore their options as unrestricted free agents. As a result, several players decided to pursue their careers with other teams. This forced the Fuel to do some rebuilding on the roster.

OWL’s Eastern Region in crisis

The Overwatch League is in crisis in the eastern region. Recall that the relationship breakdown between NetEase and Blizzard caused Overwatch 2 to be removed from mainland China servers.

A few weeks ago, both Hangzhou Spark and Seoul Infernal started to announce their lineups for the 2023 OWL season.

With this big region jump, the Dallas Fuel will now face the following teams:

• Guangzhou Charge
• Hangzhou Spark
• Chengdu Hunters
• Seoul Infernal
• Seoul Dynasty
• Shanghai Dragons

Hastr0 doesn’t rule out bringing the team back to Dallas

Those Dallas fans saddened by the news of the team’s departure from the West Region should not worry too much about it. Hastr0 made a comment in the video posted on Twitter where he points out that the organization has plans to bring the team back to Dallas.

So, don’t be discouraged if you are a Dallas Fuel fan. You will still be able to support your favorite team in their new region, and we are all hopeful that we will very shortly see them back in Dallas, their home.

The OWL season for Dallas Fuel will kick off with the Pro-Am tournament on March 23. While the rest of the leagues, including the East, start the full season on April 27.

Header: OWL