Houston Outlaws vs San Francisco Shock

For our third match of the day we have a very exciting clash between the Houston Outlaws and the San Francisco Shock. This is not only a fight between two highly talented Western teams but it also carries direct playoff implications. The Outlaws are currently on the outskirts looking in and every single map and match win could make the difference. If Houston wins both this match and the one against Seoul (they've been Seoul's kryptonite ever since the Overwatch League began) then they have a chance to reach the Top 4 with a satisfiable 6W-4L record. Now it's not that black and white and for them to reach the playoff a lot of other things have to happen as well - but at least it's a possibility and it's within their grasp so they're surely motivated.

We have a fight between one of the more aggressive teams (almost to a fault) in San Francisco against the most defensive, anti-dive roster in the entire League in Houston. While the Shock made some significant changes to their roster over the last couple of weeks, Houston essentially stayed the same. Jake and LiNkzr as their starting DPS duo with Clockwork coming in a couple of times, Muma and Coolmat as one of the best tank duos and a solid trio of supports that they rotate depending on the map and what they need. It's a solid formula that provided results from the very get go so there's little reason to make any concrete change.

The Outlaws have really gotten better with time and even though they didn't have the luck of the draw that often they did best with what they had. Last week was a moderate success as they derailed the hype train behind the Los Angeles Valiant and just barely lost out to the Los Angeles Gladiators in 2-3 fashion.

They know what's on the line and they're looking to dominate for sure.

As for the Shock, even though they reached the Top 4 last week things quickly changed with a couple of wins and losses in between. They're currently ranked eight with a solid 4W-4L record but a pretty bad -4 map score so they're completely out of the stage playoff picture. That said they've looked better with each passing week so they don't have anything to be ashamed of. They're getting into their own groove and identity and they're one of the more exciting teams to watch in the entire League. Going into Stage 4 they will surely be a force to be reckoned with from the very get go after Architect and Super get a bit more time to adapt and gel with the rest of the team.

They're currently somewhat inconsistent in regards to their overall power ranking but they're dangerous nonetheless.

This is not an easy match to predict even though there is a discrepancy in the standings between both teams. They don't have either Blizzard World nor Junkertown in their map pool tonight which makes things a bit more complicated for the Outlaws as they will have to adapt and dominate on somewhat "uncharted territory". That's not such a big problem however as they definitely do have the talent within their line-up to adapt and perform at the highest possible level (they've been doing so over the entire season in fact, with a couple of dips in performance and overall success here and there) so you shouldn't be too worried.

We're going with the Outlaws on this one but don't bet a lot as the Shock have the tendency to upset when you least expect them. They're taking every match seriously and even though they can't reach the playoff doesn't mean they won't play spoiler.