It’s the final day of Overwatch League Season 6, and, the Houston Outlaws are still here, fighting for the trophy.
The win, which could be the last battle for Texas against the Dallas Fuel, gave them confidence and coming from the lower bracket, they have an easier time during the semifinals, which face the Hangzhou Spark on equal footing. are doing
During the post-match conference after the victory against the Fuel, Oh”Pelican“Se Hyun and Kim”showJin Seo expressed his confidence in working next to him.
“I Honestly think we’re just going to bully them. This is going to be very one-sided.“Pelican, predicting their matchup against the Spark, cited the similarity of playstyles.
Winning the Battle of Texas
Due to the uncertain nature of the Overwatch League’s future, the competition has taken the form of a league-wide battle royale, with each team potentially being overshadowed forever.
It put this particular battle for Texas in a different light. The Fuel had mixed results during the season but as Metta gave them a break, and their star player Choi “Hanbin“Hero became the hero with which he had a greater impact on the outcome of the game, the team’s results improved.
The APAC region was considered inferior to the North American region throughout the season, however, the Hangzhou Spark’s run on the other side of the bracket cast serious question marks on that assumption, at least in this meta.
Unfortunately for Fuel, the team would be outclassed by the Outlaws, showing some glimmers of hope such as on the new push map Esperança.
During one particular play, Flex DPS player Pelican became too hesitant when the team fight came down to the wire and found himself in a 2v1 situation against Henbane, which immediately gave the Outlaws more confidence. took advantage of
“To be honest, I thought I would win but after I died, I realized I should have just gone for the point.” Pelican said under the judging side-eye of teammate Shu.
Aside from Genji, Pelican stayed on Echo for a good portion of the match. A strange decision was his use of the ultimate duplicate, during which he consistently chose Hanbin’s Junker Queen and often got out of it immediately.
“Of all the characters I could copy, the Queen seems to be the best target. She has at least the most HP and can still make room for my team. This is a very good copy.” Pelican reasoned.
A firm handshake with a spark
During both games against the Boston Uprising and the Atlanta Reign, the Outlaws’ semi-final opponent Hangzhou Spark looked perfectly happy with a classic dive mirror handshake around Winston, a trick that has been played for the majority of the season. But it was reduced. The playoff patch gained popularity after introducing meta changes.
When asked if Houston would be willing to enter into a similar commercial deal with Spark Diving’s offer, Shaw seemed to shed a load by saying that he would. are very satisfied that Spark is likely to meet them on a well-known meta-archetype. .
For the playoffs, the Outlaws brought in tank specialist Shin.Bernar” Se-won who previously played for Spark during the fifth season.
“Since BERNAR is Korean and around the same age, everyone can become good friends really quickly. When it comes to harmony, it was very smooth.The show explained the introduction of the new signature.
With the changes from 6v6 to 5v5 in Overwatch 2 that dropped one tank from the starting roster, the lines between a main and off-tank player are still not completely closed, and many tanks are heroes from their old pool. showing clear trends towards
For Houston, Bernar is tasked with handling off-tank heroes like Zaria and Sigma, while Lee”fearlessEui-Seok handles the main tank duties like Winston and Reinhardt but also Doomfist.
For the rest of the teams such as U of Rebellionsmurf“Myung Hwan and Mayhem’s Ham”someoneJeong Wan is less so, with both players expanding their hero pools to encompass almost the entire tank pool.
Any tank replacement therefore telegraphs the composition of Outlaws throughout the map while also limiting the options to switch to a different meta-archetype. Pelican showed himself indifferent to the situation, “I don’t necessarily think that’s a disadvantage.“
Overwatch League Season 6 is set to conclude this Sunday with all four remaining championship matches to be played, starting with the two semi-final matches between Spark and Outlaws as well as Mayhem and The Uprising. A third-place match followed, and finally, what could be the last Grand Final of the Overwatch League.