The Dallas Fuel have officially announced the signing of free agent aKm and are working to finalize the acquisition of Rascal from the London Spitfire.
Let's add another flag to the mix. Please join us in welcoming Dylan "aKm" Bignet 🇫🇷 to Dallas Fuel. #BurnBlue @DF_aKm pic.twitter.com/4rodlqfC8d
— Dallas Fuel (@DallasFuel) February 13, 2018
aKm was widely considered the most egregious Western absence in the Overwatch League when rosters were first announced in the fall. He has been connected to Dallas as a midseason pickup since team owner hastr0 tweeted near the end of January that the team was working on finalizing a deal to bring him onto the roster. During his time on Rogue, aKm was known for his Soldier: 76, Pharah and McCree, and occasionally flexed onto D.Va when the team needed it.
I can confirm we are in the process of negotiating @Rascal’s transfer to the @DallasFuel. Working with @C9Jack, his staff and the @overwatchleague to finalize.
— Mike Rufail (@hastr0) February 13, 2018
The Fuel will be adding an additional DPS, Rascal, to join aKm and the team's preexisting damage dealers. Rascal is known for his flexibility and will likely be used to bolster the team's projectile play. Rascal will be seeking more opportunities for playing time with the Fuel than he had with the Spitfire; he played only six maps for London in Stage 1, including the team's two additional matches for the stage's playoffs. The deal is pending Overwatch League approval to be finalized.
The new acquisitions put the team's DPS count at five, bringing into question how the franchise will divvy out playing time. While EFFECT is the team's only Tracer player, there is a large hero pool overlap between aKm and Taimou as well as Rascal and Seagull.
The roster of the Dallas Fuel is now:
- Kim "EFFECT" Hyeon (DPS)
- Timo "Taimou" Kettunen (DPS)
- Dylan "aKm" Bignet (DPS)
- Kim "Rascal" Dong-jun (김동준) (DPS)
- Pongphop "Mickie" Rattanasangohod (Flex)
- Brandon "Seagull" Larned (Flex)
- Christian "cocco" Jonsson (Tank)
- Félix “xQc” Lengyel (Tank)
- Sebastian "chipshajen" Widlund (Support)
- Scott "Custa" Kennedy (Support)
- Jonathan "HarryHook" Tejedor Rua (Support)
- Kyle "KyKy" Souder (Coach)