Ilios
Houston Outlaws 2 – 0 Florida Mayhem
This Ilios round was indicative of this series as a whole, where one team ran 3-3 and the other ran a DPS composition, the latter would always come out on top. Where there was a mirror it was a close and scrappy affair. On the Ruins stage of Ilios, the Houston Outlaws played a triple DPS composition and quite oddly, Florida played Reinhardt 3-3. Outlaws came out of the gate swinging, pouring an intense amount of damage into the Mayhem. Although the sustain of the 3-3 composition was great, Florida’s grasp of the point was constantly being broken by Houston. The Outlaws took the first stage of Ilios quite easily, 100% to 55%.
On the Well stage of Ilios, it felt just as effortless for Houston. Although Florida managed to take 50% control percentage, it never felt as if they were in control of the point. Houston feels very comfortable on Orisa based compositions and they showed it on this map, they took Ilios to go up one map in the series.
Paris
Florida Mayhem 3 – 2 Houston Outlaws
Florida is winless on Paris and has previously struggled to create a composition that can push through the linear roads of the first point. However, an interesting triple tank Mercy composition helped Florida sustain through Houston’s initial defenses. It’s a smart composition from Florida and helped them push through the first point. Behind some great Widowmaker play from Ha “Sayaplayer” Jeong-woo and surprisingly great play also from Koo “Xepher” Jae-mo, the Mayhem crushed it on attack giving themselves 4:44 in their timebank.
Houston’s attack was impressive on the first point where they felt comfortable on DPS compositions. However, after feeling as though they needed to swap onto a 3-3 composition for the second point, they began to fail. It’s no surprise to anyone to see Houston struggle on a tank composition and they found it really hard to break Florida’s grasp on the point. The Outlaws needed every single one of their ultimates to break through on defense. Although they only had 40 seconds left after their attack.
The second round of attacks was over very quickly. Florida obliterated Houston on both their second defense and offense. There was a bit of a spark in the air after this map, that maybe it would be closer than most expected.
Hollywood
Florida Mayhem 3 – 2 Houston Outlaws
Florida took their time building an offense on this map. They finally settled on a ‘protect the McCree’ composition, relying solely on Sayaplayer‘s notoriously sharp hitscan play. After a little bit of rotation and maneuvering around the point, Florida took the first point quite easily. The rest of the map felt as if had been renamed ‘Sayaplayer‘s Widowmaker Wonderland’. He carried Florida toward a full completion on Hollywood.
On Houston’s attack, they opted to play Sombra GOATS. However, after an impressive first point attack, they really struggled to break the defense on second and third points. Florida played an impressive counter to Sombra GOATS by utilizing the high ground on during this phase of the map to play an aggressive diving composition. The Florida Mayhem hold Houston before the final point in a thrilling and scrappy final fight.
Watchpoint: Gibraltar
Florida Mayhem 3 – 2 Houston Outlaws
Florida started their attack on a standard Zenyatta 3-3 composition and Houston played their Ana Sombra 3-3 composition on defense. The Mayhem pushed through first in what seemed like an oddly easy push, Houston only contested the payload just before it reached the checkpoint. The attacking team continued to roll through the map, only being halted in the third stretch of the map. This was in part due to Dante “Danteh” Cruz’s repeatedly clutch EMPs. Houston took control of the flow of tempo and used this momentum to win several fights in a row. This meant Florida could only push to the 84.5-meter mark.
With Florida’s second season win looming on the horizon, it was crucial that Houston made quick time of the first and second portions of this map. However, this was not to be. Florida shaved over a minute and a half off the clock in what is known as the ‘Carwash’ section of Gibraltar. This was not a good sign for Houston as that is not a generally successful place to create a defense. However, Houston did push through both first and second points despite being pushed into overtime. In what can only be described as a heart-stopping, palpitation inducing and meme-breaking final fight, it was Florida who took this map and the series. It was Xepher‘s clutch Bastion swap that was the final straw that broke Houston’s back.
Player of the Match: Jo “HaGoPeun” Hyeon-woo
Hago is the most consistently good player on this team. It’s only fitting that in Florida’s first win of the stage, that the player performing great in every match is given this award. The Overwatch League broadcast agreed.
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