The showdown of the wild west came to the forefront of the Overwatch League last night. The Outlaws came away with a win thanks to a solid defense and a bit of luck against the Fuel. With that win, as of today, the Outlaws are currently qualified for the stage playoffs; they are also on the cusp of qualifying for the postseason behind the Los Angeles Gladiators and Philadelphia Fusion. Austin “Muma” Wilmot, tank for the Houston Outlaws, had a significant role against the Dallas Fuel. Here, he shares his thoughts about the match against Dallas and about heading into playoffs.
What was the mindset of the team going into this game against Dallas? Who’s been turning it around this stage?
Muma: It’s been funny because we have that Texas rivalry showdown, we haven’t lost to them, and we aren’t going to start today. Also, we got pressure with Kyle “KyKy” Souder joining our team so he was really wanting us to win this match. All of us that came from FNRGFE — me, Matt “coolmatt” Iorio, Daniel “Boink” Pence, Matthew “Clockwork” Dias, and Chris “Bani” Benell — we all really want to win as well because their new coach Aaron “Aero” Atkins coached us previously. Other than that, it is just a battle of Texas and we are still in the playoff run as well. This match was huge for all of us and we really wanted to win.
On King’s Row, Jake was running Doomfist on attack. What made Doomfist a viable pick?
Muma: We never talked about running Doomfist on King’s Row before — this was the first time we ran it. He [Jake] went Doomfist to get back to the fight faster. He said, “I almost have ult so I’m gonna stay on Doomfist again,” and we’re all like, “Alright Jake, let’s go!” We do have a strat using Doomfist on Dorado and that was thought out. I guess since we’ve been playing Doomfist more, he excels in this meta because he can one-shot Brig so it’s really strong.
Aren’t you guys afraid of her [Brigette] stun?
Muma: It’s always in the back of our minds, but we have to be cautious about it. I’ve been stunned quite a few times from Mickie’s Brig, but thankfully we prevailed.
Taimou didn’t seem like he’s missing any shots as Widow. How do you guys stop him?
Muma: Hanamura was insane and we got baited really hard starting with Winston. We assumed they were running a dive comp, so we made the call to stay up top instead of rotating to point. Coolmatt already flew out when they switched to Rein. As soon as they sped boost the point, we all had a bad feeling, so we got rolled hard the first time. On our second defense, we almost held. Taimou definitely hit some nice shots and definitely turned up in that map.
How did you guys set up that play at the end of Lijiang Tower with the Graviton Surge and Jake cleaning up as Pharah?
Muma: Alexandre “SPREE” Vanhomwegen is very vocal so when he is in, our comms are vastly different. When it’s coolmatt and I, I do a lot of the calling. When SPREE comes in, he likes to yell at everyone, so the shotcalling changes drastically. SPREE tells us where to go when he has grav. It’s definitely known he has grav because when he looks at the enemy team comp, he picks the heroes that hurt him the most. He’s like, “Oh they have a D.Va, let’s have 6 people on the D.Va,” and Spree shouts, “D.VA! D.VA! D.VA!” It definitely helps us cause he’s very loud.
Is Spree the most vocal player on the team?
Muma: Only when he’s playing Zarya, he’s a very loud player. I think it’s the best way to play Zarya because when you’re on Zarya, your comms is all about empowering Zarya as much as you can. I think we’re good at empowering Zarya especially when there’s someone as loud as Spree.
At one point on Dorado, did you guys realize that Dallas wasn’t pushing the payload?
Muma: Yeah, I didn’t die that time. I charged out and said let’s see if we can fight again. I looked at where the cart’s supposed to end and realized the cart wasn’t there. Then, I looked towards the choke and the cart is on their [Dallas] side of choke and everyone’s like, “Move and touch!” I’m like, “No one is literally near the cart!” We waited an extra 7 seconds just to make sure we were all there and ready for position. It would’ve been a full hold if they weren’t so bad at pushing the cart. It definitely hurt them really bad when you literally forget the cart — the fact they won the fight, it just doesn’t even matter.
How can you help Houston make that final push for the stage playoffs and possibly the league playoffs?
Muma: I’m just going to continue and keep doing what I’ve been doing. I need to make sure we consistently give our all in scrims. We tend to slack off on scrims sometimes, like not calling intensely, and not being as focused. When you’re scrimming 6 to 8 hours, you’re going to be goofing off and stuff. Just making sure you remain focused on the game, it’s definitely hard to do. I think as long as there’s one person that’s really vocal and making sure everyone’s keeping their mind on track, it makes it a lot easier for everyone else to stay focused.
