Well, that was fast; the last OG from the original Dallas Fuel line up has been dropped as Jonathan ‘HarryHook’ Tejedor Rua comments about women being ‘whores’ and ‘meat’ came to light on Twitter, resulting in a blazingly fast drop from the roster.
Almost as though the Dallas Fuel were eager to drop the main support player, yet needed a means of doing so while HarryHook was under contract for the team.
Jonathan Rua, as mentioned, is one of the original players of the Dallas Fuel; back when they were colloquially known as the ‘stream team’ along with the likes of Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel and Brandon ‘Seagull’ Larned. The team has struggled valiantly throughout the past three seasons of the Overwatch League while releasing some rather prominent players who were simply done playing with the Dallas Fuel.
Today, we informed Jonathan “HarryHook” Tejedor Rua of his release from the Dallas Fuel as a result of player misconduct. We thank him for his four years with the organization and wish him the best in the future.
— Dallas Fuel (@DallasFuel) August 5, 2020
The statements themselves have various epithets directed towards specific women that have caused somewhat of a rift from various forums; some posit that both genders can display levels of exhibitionism, while others state that there is no room for words that can be taken as slurs within professional competitive scenes.
https://twitter.com/TheTattooDad/status/1291096929359683585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
It’s likely fair to say that other esports, such as Counter-Strike, wouldn’t bat an eye at this behavior.
As far as the Overwatch League is concerned, however, they have much more stringent policies in place regarding player conduct; the plausibility of Jonathan Rua finding work elsewhere within the Overwatch League is slim to none, bolstered by the outcry on social media of the actions.
Further, it’s fair to say that Jonathan Rua wasn’t exactly on the rise in his play recently, as he’s been pointed to occasionally as a sole reason of poor showings in the past; a claim that isn’t entirely fair to lay the difficulties of an entire team at the feet of one support player.
With this, the Dallas Fuel are the wandering minstrels of the Overwatch League; they can provide a few good stories for other teams as they compete on the server, but the guidance of the team has had many questioning precisely what the ‘end state’ is.
The team has struggled since the inaugural season, they’ve dropped coaches and players, and their fan base is drying up as fans are becoming infinitely more frustrated at allegations of mismanagement and player burn-out that doesn’t seem to have an end in sight.
Once again, fans are left hoping that this next season of the Overwatch League will finally be the season that the Dallas Fuel figures out how to be competitive.