In a recent press announcement, the Dallas Fuel revealed they will be parting ways with two members of their team. Following a less than stellar performance in Stage 3, the owners have decided to remove head coach KyKy as well as DPS Rascal from their lineup. The announcement clarified that Fuel is hoping to bring in new blood to the coaching team and turn around a poorly performing year. Rascal, however, was let go following a number of internal issues within the team.

The Dallas Fuel have been one of the most tumultuous teams in the OWL, and not because of their playing. In March, they parted with xQc following homophobic remarks that he made, something that has been seen as a larger issue within the community. Before that, Taimou was under pressure when he used a number of gay slurs on his personal stream. While he remained on the team – and issued an apology – it shows that leadership at Fuel has been unable to keep control of their team.

Sitting in tenth place, the Fuel certainly need to do something different, but it is hard to say if the issues fall directly onto the shoulders of coach KyKy. Many of the players for the Fuel have been out of line, either in language or in communication, but it hardly seems fair that managing the personal interactions of the players should fall to the head coach. The Fuel have an entire coaching staff and support team, ones who would seem better equipped to nurture the individual attitudes of the team, so while they have had issues, their actual playing has improved.

After all, though the Fuel have not done well this year, they have been improving. They finished 8th in Stage 3, up three spots from their Stage 2 finish. It’s easy to see frustration mounting, but many voices have disagreed with the decision to release KyKy, especially following the Fuel’s recent success. Montecristo took to Twitter to say:

The Fuel’s answer to their woes seems to be simply hoping they will find a new coaching staff that can turn water into wine, but taking small successes and building towards the future might be a better plan of action than constantly forcing the team to go through changes.