Hello hello everyone! For all you newcomers, my name is Proilios, and I welcome you to The OverSeer, where you can catch all things Overwatch League, like power rankings, roster reviews, match predictions, and more. A couple days ago, I reviewed the Boston Uprising's Season 3 roster, and today, I will be covering the Houston Outlaws, whom I ranked 17th in my end-of-season power rankings in 2019.
Fully stacked-up with a 12-man roster at the ready, this Texas-based team seems to have a well thought-out plan for the 2020 season. After bringing in Harsha as head coach, and adding Dream and Hooreg to assist him, maybe the Outlaws can outdo themselves and get a bigger bang for their buck this year. To find out if they possibly might do so, let's take a look at the players they've got on each role and break things down a little more.
Fully stacked-up with a 12-man roster at the ready, this Texas-based team seems to have a well thought-out plan for the 2020 season. After bringing in Harsha as head coach, and adding Dream and Hooreg to assist him, maybe the Outlaws can outdo themselves and get a bigger bang for their buck this year. To find out if they possibly might do so, let's take a look at the players they've got on each role and break things down a little more.
TANK
According to me, the Outlaws have got a mid-table tank line for this season. They have Muma on main tank, and coolmatt, SPREE, and MekO on off-tank.
Let's break down the sole main tank of this team first. Muma has been with Houston since Season 1, and although he didn't have a great run in 2019, he's still a pretty potent and versatile main tank player. If you leave him unchecked, he can go on a rampage and single-handedly win fights for his team. Admittedly, that's uncommon to see in the Overwatch League, but still, it's great that the Outlaws have got a playmaker in their main tank slot. There are a lot of Muma naysayers out there, but I'm still with this guy; I think he's a very capable player, and is certainly an integral part of this team.
Moving on to off-tank, we've got the trio of coolmatt, SPREE, and MekO. Let me ask you a question, ladies and gentlemen: How profitable do you see having a D.Va one-trick on your team in early 2020? I'd say, not much. First of all, having a professional-level one-trick itself at this point in Overwatch's life cycle is something astounding, but having a D.Va one-trick when Double Barrier is so strong? Big yikes. I mean, coolmatt is a really good D.Va, don't get me wrong, but when there are so many other off-tank options out there, it confuses me to no extent that he's one of 3 people who are slotted in for that role. Next up, we've got SPREE, who was initially famous for his Zarya play. After watching him compete in OWL in 2019, I wasn't convinced of his prowess on the hero, but what did catch my eye was, funnily enough, his Roadhog play as well as his improvement on D.Va. After coolmatt wasn't able to play up to the required standards in Stage 4, SPREE was fielded to try and play a better Hog/D.Va, which I must say he did. I think it's fine to have him on the roster, since he can now play 3 different off-tanks at the Overwatch League level, even though he may not be exceptional on them all. Now, let's talk about the big gun; the player whom I suspect will be fielded on the off-tank slot most of the time by the Outlaws: MekO. After parting ways with the NYXL in the off-season, MekO was one of the biggest names in the off-tank market, and now he's found a team that could certainly use his skills. In Season 2, we saw this guy playing a great D.Va and especially a very competent Sigma; a hero that comprises the core of the Double Barrier Meta. I don't honestly know what more I can say about MekO, because he's just an all-round great player, and that Houston did a great job bringing him onto their team. My only worry with him would be that he has no experience on a mixed roster, so he may encounter some communication issues in his early days with his new teammates.
All that said, Houston is a mixed bag of tank players, and although some of them are quite talented, their combination doesn't really wow me, compared to some of the other tank lines in the League. That's why I think considering them mid-table would be a fair assumption until we actually see them perform on stage.
DPS
I quite like how the Outlaws' DPS line is looking this off-season. The players comprising it don't seem top-tier to me, but they've got a ton of potential, and I think with the right guidance, they can unleash that potential at the right time in the right way.
'Finland's Gift to Esports', the flex DPS player LiNkzr, had a rather entertaining 2019 from my perspective. I absolutely enjoyed watching him play those damage dealers, no matter if he was picking off Goats supports as Widowmaker or 1v2ing opponents as Soldier:76. I think he's a great asset to the team, since he fits a ton of subroles in the damage category, namely hitscan, projectile and sniper (there are some crossover heroes in these, sure). His versatility will be instrumental in helping Houston adapt to different metas, so keep your eye on this one, folks, he just may have a fantastic season this year. His co-DPS from last season, Danteh, is still on this team as well (We miss you JAKE), and his Sombra was one of the main reasons the Outlaws could get some wins in 2019. He's well-known for his flanker play, especially on Tracer, and although he's not exactly a playmaker, he's a reliable teammate to have in-game.
The Outlaws added 2 more DPS players to their lineup this off-season, the first of which is former Gladiators player, Hydration. He gained fame in his early days in OWL for his nutty Doomfist play, which is still very good, as we saw in the Season 2 Playoffs. He also plays a mean Pharah and Genji, which makes him quite a lethal player against vulnerable enemy backlines. An auxiliary reason though, that I think Hydration is picked up for, is to be a substitute tank player if the team needs one. We've seen him play Orisa, Wrecking Ball and Sigma for the Gladiators already, which means he's a great flex player to have in case one of your tank players isn't doing too well. It would truly be a shame if he's asked to sub in for the 3 off-tanks the team's got, but realistically, he could be a substitute for Muma, you know, on a rainy day. The second player who was added to Houston's roster alongside Hydration is blasé, who actually has quite a similar hero pool to Hydration's. He can play flankers like Genji and Doomfist, and also go for some traditional projectile picks like Pharah and Junkrat. I have a feeling he's been added just in case they need Hydration on tank but also need his DPS pool for a particular map or match, but we'll see what happens. I've seen a lot of people say blasé is not a good pickup, but I actually think the guy's alright. I feel like he wasn't able to showcase his full potential on the Uprising last year, and think that with the right coaching, he will certainly be able to do so.
To round things off on the Outlaws' DPS line, I think it's a fairly good range of players. They've got a ton of variety in there and can definitely adapt to a wide range of metas. I wouldn't say they're Top 5 or anything so great, but they're still better than most other DPS lines I've seen for 2020, so let's hope they can play up to their potentials this year and wow us all.
SUPPORT
Finally, let's talk about Houston's supports. Looking at the combination of Boink, Rawkus, Rapel and Jecse, I have a feeling that we're sleeping on how good of a backline this set of players could form, and I'm stressing on the word could here. We haven't seen insane things from most of these players in the 2019 season, but I can't shake this feeling that this quartet is going to be really good together.
Boink was a mainstay on Houston's roster last year, and he was okay; he wasn't a playmaker or a dominating presence on the battlefield, but he seemed to be fairly vocal and an important caller for the team. I think if he improves his mechanics and becomes a more active participant during team fights, he could be a well-rounded player, and someone to actually watch out for. He seems to be quite comfortable on Lúcio, but his Mercy has been questionable, so he does need to brush up his Mercy as well as Baptiste skills to be able to stand his ground against the other main supports in the League. His support partner last year was Rawkus, who is one of the most criticised flex supports on public Overwatch forums based on what I've seen, and I must admit it's hard to defend someone who hasn't been putting up top-notch stats on the table, and also isn't known for making plays in-game...so I'm just not going to try and do that. I think having Rapel around for competition could be an incentive for him to improve though, since he's never really been challenged on his role in this manner before.
Since we've mentioned Rapel, let's go over him next. He didn't see a ton of playtime on the Titans' squad last year, but when he was fielded, he put up some impressive showings. He played a very competent Baptiste, and put out amazing healing numbers on Ana. I think he's the perfect candidate to pressure Rawkus into improving, and even if he doesn't, there's no harm in fielding Rapel himself at all; I actually think he's the better of the two flex supports Houston have got. Finally though, the Outlaws added Jecse, formerly of the Seoul Dynasty, who was on Element Mystic with Rapel before they joined the Overwatch League last year. I think it's great that they've been reunited, since having a pure Korean backline with pre-established synergy ensures that they'll be on the same page for most, if not the entirety of their time together on the field. Jecse is also known as a very vocal player, so he can be a team leader provided he gets comfortable calling in English, which I presume will be the go-to language for the Outlaws in-game. Since Rapel and Jecse both have never been in a mixed roster before, they might encounter some communication issues in the early stages of their time on the team. If they do overcome the language barrier though, Rawkus and Boink are going to have a tough time, since they can't realistically compete with the calibres of their Korean counterparts unless they improve drastically.
So all-in-all, Rapel-Jecse will seemingly be the primary support duo for Houston this year. If they can get their communication sorted, they can prove to be a really formidable backline, and just dominate games with a combination of Jecse's calls and Rapel's mechanics. Boink and Rawkus had better be on their toes, and if the presence of a second support duo causes them insecurities, it could be a great motivator for them to up their game, which can only be an asset to Houston later in the season.
THE RAW LOOK VS. REALITY
On paper, considering the potentials of the players the Outlaws have got, and I'm really struggling to type this...I could see them being a Top 5 team. Before you start bashing me in the comments though, this is just their best-case scenario, which I honestly think is achievable if they get their communication stuff sorted out early. Their main hurdles are going to revolve around shotcalling and leadership, since there's nobody other then Jecse who's well-known as an in-game leader, and if they struggle to utilise his talents in an appropriate fashion, they won't be able to win a lot of games. Then it's back to fielding Boink, and maybe putting Rawkus back in too since they're used to playing together, and if they haven't improved in the off-season, they're just going to be mediocre once again.
Let's assume that communication does end up being a problem for this team...what then? You'd normally think it would send a team to the very depths of the leaderboard, but just looking at the raw talent the Outlaws possess right now, I'd say they'd settle somewhere around the 9th to 11th place. Simply put, they'd be good enough to at least make the Play-In tournament, since my oh my are there worse rosters out there this year.
So in summary, at their best, I think the Outlaws can make Top 5 and qualify directly for the Playoffs, or, if things don't go ideally for them, they will settle for a Play-In appearance, after which their progress will depend entirely on the meta. This roster does have a lot of talent, but they must utilise it in the right fashion and make sure they don't fall short in the communication aspect so that they can really make a splash in the League this year.
Do you agree with my thoughts on the Houston Outlaws? If your answer is yes, please share this post around with other OWL fans and spread the word! Also, subscribe to my blog, since I still have a ton of rosters to review for 2020 (button on the top right side of the page). If you disagree with certain points I've made, feel free to express yourself in the comments section, but remember to be polite and respectful when doing so. Alright, I think that rounds up this article, so bye bye, and I hope to see you in my next article, which will be about the Florida Mayhem. See ya!
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