Home » Houston Outlaws: Player Profiles- DPS

Houston Outlaws: Player Profiles- DPS

Publish Date: January 19, 2019

As time passes, we get closer and closer to the start of Overwatch League’s Season 2. In this new year, there will be a lot of returning fans going back to the Blizzard Arena to cheer on their favorite teams, and with them, a lot of new ones as well.

In this series of articles, weather you’re a new fan or you were with us last season, we’re going to break up Houston Outlaw’s roster so you can see what the players are all about. Lets start with the DPS.

JAKE

Courtesy of Overwatch League

Name: Jacob “JAKE” Lyon.

Birthday: July 28, 1996 (22 years old)

Country: United States.

Jersey Number: 76

Twitter: @jakeow

Twitch: jake_ow

Probably one of the most recognizable faces of professional Overwatch. His preferred heroes are Sombra, Soldier 76, Pharah and Torbjörn. However, he is mostly known for his Junkrat, frequently being called the best in the League on that hero. He has been part of the Outlaws since the original roster was formed before the Inaugural Season.

His career in tournaments started pretty successfully. Playing with the team Hammer Esports he managed to get various first place titles, which helped him and his team get signed by Luminosity Gaming Evil, one of the two sister teams of LG and LG Evil. He remained with LG Evil, competing and delivering results. This allowed him to later be signed with Houston. He played with Team USA during the 2017 Overwatch World Cup. However, after being first place in the Santa Monica Qualifers and scoring their ticket alongside Team UK, they were knocked out in the quarterfinals by Team South Korea, who at the end were crowned champions for a second time in a row.

After announcing on Twitter that he was not going to try out for Team USA on 2018, many fans were caught off-guard. This didn’t mean that this was it for him, as he took a spot as a caster during the Overwatch World Cup 2018, alongside Andrew “ZP” Rush. After that, he was also part of the casting crew in the latter half on Overwatch Contenders North America.

Highlights:

Houston Outlaws JAKE TOP PLAYS! (Overwatch Season 1 Highlights)

LiNkzr

Courtesy of Overwatch League

Name: Jiri “LiNkzr” Masalin.

Birthday: April 9, 1994 (24 years old)

Country: Finland.

Jersey Number: 49

Twitter: @linkzrow

Twitch: linkzr

His preferred hero pool includes heroes like Hanzo, McCree, Genji and Mei. He is Houston Outlaws’ star Widowmaker, often carrying whole games on his shoulders thanks to his incredible plays. This has led the Outlaws to often play around him. He joined Houston as part of their original roster before the Inaugural Season.

His career in professional esports started with the game Dirty Bomb. He then transitioned to Overwatch with Team Dignitas. They participated in multiple qualifiers and minor tournaments, but according to him, they never achieved the results he would have hoped for. When Team Dignitas disbanded their Overwatch team, LiNkzr was accepted into Rest in Pyjamas, a team that was part of the Ninjas in Pyjamas brand. However, after only two months of him being there, the team was dropped and the all-star group of players moved over to Team Gigantti. With his teammates, they achieved first place in Overwatch Contenders Season 1: Europe. Almost the whole team, after that, were accepted into different teams of the Overwatch League.

Highlights:

Houston Outlaws LINKZR TOP PLAYS! (Overwatch Season 1 Highlights)

ArHaN

Courtesy of Overwatch League

Name: Won-hyeop “ArHaN” Jeong.

Birthday: November 3, 1995 (23 years old)

Country: South Korea.

Jersey Number: 57

Twitter: @arhan_ow

Twitch: ArHaN_ow

His role with the team is playing all-around DPS, but heroes like Genji, Tracer and Hanzo are his best picks. He joined the Huston Outlaws roster for Stage 3 of the Inaugural Season to fill in the roll of a specialized Tracer player, a problem the team had been dealing with for the whole season.

ArHaN started his esports career in 2015 through another Blizzard game, Heroes of the Storm. After playing for a year, he changed games upon the release of Overwatch, and is now a very familiar face in it’s community. He played alongside his now coach Tae-yeong “TaiRong” Kim in the first Overwatch World Cup in 2016 and took home the gold. He mostly known, however, for participating in all four seasons of Overwatch Apex with the team Afreeca Freecs Blue, where he achieved a lot of high finishing positions, like 2nd place in APEX Season 1 and 3rd in Season 3.

Highlights:

Danteh

Courtesy of Overwatch League

Name: Dante “Danteh” Cruz.

Birthday: March 24, 1999 (19 years old)

Country: United States.

Jersey Number: 6

Twitter: @danteh

Twitch: Danteh

Houston Outlaws’ newest member who was signed during the offseason between the Inaugural Season and Season 2. He was brought in to properly fill the gap they had in the form of a Tracer specialist. His preferred hero pool is composed of Junkrat, Genji, Zarya, Tracer and a very good Sombra.

Danteh has a different origin than most Overwatch League players. He started off as a Minecraft PvP player, and managed his own YouTube Channel which currently has 111 thousand subscribers.

His career in professional Overwatch began in 2016 with team Momentary. They competed in weekly tournaments like Rivalcade Weekly, where he got 1st place multiple times. He then moved to Denial eSports, where he competed in the same tournament and also on Alienware Monthly Melee. He then moved to team Arc 6, where he competed in BEAT Invitational Season 2, getting 3rd place. Finally, in 2017 he was signed as part of the original roster of the San Francisco Shock, team that achieved 9th place in the Inaugural Season of the Overwatch League.