Los Angeles Gladiators vs Houston Outlaws

For today's match have a rather interesting clash between the Los Angeles Gladiators and the Houston Outlaws. This should be an interesting one seeing how both teams stand strong right now and definitely have the tools to leave a mark in the fourth and final stage.

On one side, we have the Los Angeles Gladiators who we’ve already seen in action just days ago. We knew they were a good team but no one thought they would be a “3-1 victory against the New York Excelsior” good.

At the beginning, it all seemed like NYXL were taking the victory home but right after the first map the Gladiators managed to get on the same page and step up their game which allowed them to take three maps in a row and get a leg up over the opposition. Every time the New York Excelsior wanted to attack, the Gladiators had an answer. They were prepared for everything the NYXL wanted to do -- they read them like a book.

Such a loss, in correlation with NYXL’s past performances, makes us wonder whether or not they're actually good right now, and whether they have what it takes in order to adapt to a completely different meta. Sure, they were dominant back when 2-2-2 was the best and most optimal way to play, but the world of competitive Overwatch changed quite a bit since then.

The Gladiators, on the other hand, never fail to surprise, seeing how their versatility is one of their greatest strengths. They're very capable and are deceptively strong at multiple different team compositions. Their deep hero pools allow them to swap through the large Overwatch hero pool and find what they need in order to get the win.

Everybody thought they are going to be a mid-tier team but they definitely showed us otherwise. The Gladiators are constantly on the rise and have improved so much since the beginning of the season. They managed to adapt on the fly every time they came across an obstacle and that is all we need from a top-tier team.

On the other side, however, we have the Houston Outlaws. A team that thrives in a DPS-centric meta; a team that never adapted well enough to GOATS comps and suffered for months as a result. Their DPS players are their biggest assets, and now they'll actually get a chance to shine.

The Houston Outlaws definitely shocked us with their “rise” in the third Stage falling all the way to the bottom in the second one. In the meantime, they practiced a lot, switched between a lot of different strategies and managed to prove that they are still a worthy challenger.

Stage 3 began and right from the get-go they started off without any hype or momentum. Being the veterans they are, they managed to find a way to thrive in such a confusing (and underwhelming) meta, and eventually found their footing in the League.

The Houston Outlaws were dominant in every regard. Everybody thought they were unstoppable because of how far they’ve come as the Stage progressed. With such dominance they were able to secure a place in the playoffs and right when they arrived to the they ran into one of the best teams that the League had to offer. They still managed to earn themselves a seventh place at the end of the Stage 3 (right below the Los Angeles Valiants and above Shanghai Dragons with a decent 5W-2L record), along with a very respectful plus nine map differential.

All that said, their most recent defeat was rather shocking.They were fighting against the twelfth placed Paris Eternal and it all seemed fine and dandy in the beginning as the Houston Outlaws easily won the first map, but then everything took a turn for the worse as the series progressed. They were out of sync, they ran around the map with no plan whatsoever and it seemed like none of their players knew what they were doing, which of course, granted the enemy team a clear avenue towards success. It all ended in a disaster with a one-sided 3-0 score for the Paris Eternal. It seemed like they had woken up and managed to sync-up near the end of the series, but it was already too late -- the match was already lost.

Both the Los Angeles Gladiators and the Houston Outlaws are amazing in their own unique, distinct ways. At this point, it's simply impossible not to side with the Los Angeles Gladiators, seeing how they did step up immensely against New York and played to their win condition with spectacular success. They were nearly perfect in all facets of play and their incredible versatility should be enough to get them the win over Houston.