The Miraculous Houston Outlaws Run
Oh no, he's talking about Overwatch again
I root for stupid teams.
Some have clear reasons, like any Ohio team or the Charlotte 49ers. Others I picked basically at random, like Tottenham or the Atlanta Dream, just to get sad multiple times per year.
One of those random teams was the Houston Outlaws, an Overwatch league team that has never been regionally close, but that has cool colors and started with a roster that I enjoyed to watch.
Something unique about the Overwatch League (I’m not going to over explain Overwatch League again but if you’d like to read about it here you go, or my thoughts about Overwatch 2, here you go) compared to many traditional sports is the in-season tournaments that occur before the playoffs at the end of the year.
Each tournament uses the most recent sets of games and has the top portion of the league battle it out for both cash prizes and extra points in the regular season standings. Across the five seasons of Overwatch League thus far, there have been 18 midseason tournaments by my count, along with the five postseason tournaments for the playoffs.
In those 23 opportunities to earn some hardware, the Houston Outlaws had not even made the podium of any tournament since the very first one, Stage 1, 2018. In that stage, the Outlaws finished in third.
The next four seasons ranged from mediocre to straight up awful: bottom half in season one, 16th out of 20 in season two, last in the region in season three, eighth in season four. The last of those seasons had a lot of great moments and plenty of potential, but the Outlaws still fell short of making top three in any tournament, and still missed the playoffs after falling in the play-in tournament.
Season five looked a lot like the one before it: another good, exciting team that competed toward the top without ever feeling like a truly elite team. The Outlaws finished in sixth place in the regular season, clinching a spot in the playoffs for the first time ever.
And still, there was plenty of reason to hold back excitement. The best finish in any midseason tournament all season was fifth, twice, and neither of those tournaments made it feel like Houston was on the cusp of breaking through.
But then the playoffs happened.
BOOM. Convincing 3-0 victory over the Toronto Defiant. I will spare most details because I know most of you don’t know players or what makes them good, but I must try to explain a little bit about Danteh.
Danteh is Houston’s longest-tenured player, a menace on damage heroes for three excellent seasons, but the Outlaws had a hole at tank and needed him to fill it this year. I’d compare this to, say, a star wide receiver who saw his team was without a quarterback that meshed properly with everyone else, so he decided to take up the mantle. Lynn Bowden Jr. at Kentucky is my best comparison even if it isn’t perfect.
And somehow, all season, it worked. When Danteh was in, Houston was a different, faster, better team, and he was able to take down some of the best tanks in Overwatch.
But Houston’s next opponent was the San Francisco Shock, a two-time champion of the league who this season broke the record for the most consecutive wins. BOOM. A 3-2 win over the Shock in one of the best series I’ve ever watched. It didn’t eliminate the Shock (this is a double elimination tournament), but it sent a message that the Outlaws were for real this time, for the first time ever.
BOOM. An absolute massacre of the London Spitfire, 3-0. This clinched Houston’s spot as a top three team in the league, and put them one win away from a spot in the finals. Unfortunately, that win didn’t come. The Dallas Fuel, Houston’s in-state rivals who the Outlaws beat twice in the regular season, took them down 3-1, then the Shock got their revenge with a 3-0 sweep.
The Fuel and Shock played in the finals, Dallas won 4-3 in the greatest series of Overwatch ever played (not a joke, you should watch it if you have any interest), and that was that.
It may have ended with two straight defeats, but there was no reason to be sad for a performance like that. The Houston Outlaws were the third-best team, a feat that they have not proven at any point since the first months of the league’s existence. Despite being handicapped with a wide receiver at quarterback, Houston scrapped and battled and bested three very good teams to get to where they were in the tournament. Nobody predicted that, and it was a joy to watch.
I hope the roster stays in tact another year and adds a few pieces, because a rebuild is not necessary. I may pick some awful teams to root for, but I was glad to be an Outlaws fan this season.
Top 25
Oh baby, the top has been shaken up.
1.) Georgia (+2)
2.) Michigan (+2)
3.) Ohio State (-1)
4.) TCU (+2)
5.) Tennessee (-4)
6.) Oregon (+2)
7.) UCLA (+3)
8.) USC (+1)
9.) LSU (+10)
10.) Ole Miss (+2)
11.) Tulane (+2)
12.) Alabama (+5)
13.) Utah (+1)
14.) Clemson (-9)
15.) North Carolina (+1)
16.) Penn State (+1)
17.) Illinois (-6)
18.) UCF (+5)
19.) Coastal Carolina (+6)
20.) Texas (NEW)
21.) Liberty (+3)
22.) Notre Dame (NEW)
23.) NC State (NEW)
24.) Washington (NEW)
25.) Kansas State (-10)
Some thoughts:
Georgia is No. 1. That was a pretty dominant victory over Tennessee and Stetson Bennett is out here slinging it. Not sure what that team’s weakness is at the moment.
Michigan is playing better than Ohio State at the moment so the Wolverines get a bump that’s meaningless until the two teams play later this month. The Buckeyes won in a windy game against Northwestern, but wind can’t be fully to blame for how bad they looked. If Ohio State can’t pass, that line cannot make any space for the backs to run.
I am glad to see the CFP committee agreed and put TCU at four. The Horned Frogs deserve it for staying undefeated to this point, and will deserve it even more so if they can get past Texas this weekend.
We have a Pac-12 logjam in spots 6-8 and I am excited to see that play out. I really like this Oregon team and think that the Ducks are the most likely to get out of the conference unscathed.
OK fine, LSU is pretty good, but I’m not happy about it.
It felt good to put Tulane over Alabama and I don’t regret it. Tulane-UCF is the banger of the week by the way.
Clemson is who I thought it was at the beginning of the season before the Tigers tricked me with a handful of good wins in the middle of the schedule. That offense stinks brother, and the defense is not living up to its potential either.
Bo Nix of Oregon and Drake Maye at North Carolina need to be getting Heisman talk. Strength of Schedule hurts Maye but he is the only reason the Tar Heels are still a one-loss team.
Coastal Carolina may have to live this up while it still can after losing star quarterback Grayson McCall for 4-6 weeks. One of my favorite college players ever, really bummed for him.
Notre Dame might be good? Something is clicking for the Fighting Irish after a BRUTAL start to the year.
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