Houston faced their toughest opponents yet today, the Vancouver Titans. It’s clear that the Houston Outlaws have improved between stages, by solidifying their unique play style. Though the Titans came out on top, it was a much closer match than many predicted.
Houston shook up their roster and play style by starting Wonhyeop “ArHaN” Jeong, making his first
Courtesy of: Gamespot
appearance this season and focusing on a DPS heavy team composition. The Outlaws looked a bit sloppy in the first few minutes on MEKA Base, allowing the Titans to take the point without any problem. However, the team from Texas managed to regroup and flipped the point. Houston held the point due to Jiri “LiNkzr” Masalin’s masterful picks using Widowmaker. Houston sealed victory by showing their DPS skill, and continued their dominance on Busan with a hitscan heavy team composition on Sanctuary. Linkzr proved himself to be the backbone of this Outlaw map victory with his excellent Soldier 76 play.
On the new map, Houston threw their previous DPS heavy strategy out the window and played the 3 tank, 3 support comp. Houston couldn’t keep up with Vancouver’s expertise and lost any momentum they had at the first choke point. However, on defense, Houston switched up their team composition with more DPS heroes. Despite this, Vancouver showed off their own unique team composition. Vancouver dominated the Outlaws and suffered only one death before taking victory on Paris.
Picture courtesy of Overwatch
Houston began to realize that their success depends on their excellent DPS play. They defended on Eichenwald with Arhan and Dante “Danteh” Cruz playing Pharah and Sombra, respectively. While the Vancouver Titans managed to take the first point, Houston defended point B valiantly, staving off the Titan’s pushes. Danteh and Arhan shined as they used their ultimates together to score three kills onto Vancouver and halt their opponent. Despite the Outlaw’s success using DPS heroes they would go back to using the GOATs team comp. Houston managed to scrape together a push onto point A. Despite their first successful push, the Outlaws faltered on their attempt to capture point B. Vancouver squeaked out a victory, but Austin “Muma” Wilmont proved that he could hang with some of the best main tanks in the league.
Vancouver continued to show their dominance against the Houston Outlaws on Rialto. Houston made multiple attempts to push the cart past the first point, however, they fell less than 5 meters short on their push after Muma and Arhan overextended. The Titans seemed to have all the answers to the Outlaws’ pushes and just played the 3 tank, 3 support better. The Outlaws chose GOATS on defense and Vancouver continued to show why they’re the best team in the league. Finally, The Titans sealed victory with a massive 4 kill D.Va bomb from Hyeon-Woo “JJANU” Choi.
Image Courtesy of the Overwatch League
Houston has a clear path of success this season: play DPS heroes. While they have a great tank line in Matt “coolmatt” Iorio and Muma, the Outlaws need to have their DPS specialists like Danteh and Linkzr playing heroes like Sombra, Widowmaker, and Pharah. The more that the team deviates from this game plan, the less success they’ll find. Furthermore, the team needs to work on positioning as a whole.
All Player Images Courtesy of the Overwatch League
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