From the time Blizzard Entertainment's hit first-person shooter game title Overwatch was released in 2016, Jake Lyon knew he wanted to play the game professionally. He successfully made esports a career, spending two seasons in the Overwatch League as a player for the Houston Outlaws where he built himself into one of the league's most recognizable players. After the league's first two seasons, Lyon retired from professional Overwatch competition to take a job as a broadcaster for the league.
But retirement didn't last long for Lyon, 24. A year off from competitive play had given him time to rejuvenate, focus on his health and develop better practice habits, he told his fans on Twitter. Meanwhile, his old team, the Houston Outlaws, rebuilt itself from the ground up with new players and new coaches. And just like when the game dropped in 2016, Lyon still had the drive to win. He exited retirement earlier this year, signing with the Houston Outlaws as both a player and a coach.
"From the outside, it was something I was excited to join because I could see that this was going to be the best team for the Outlaws ever, by a lot," Lyon said.
The Houston Outlaws, founded in 2017, might be unlike any professional sports team you have heard of. Instead of doing their play on a field or a court, the Outlaws play in front of high-speed gaming monitors, competing against the strongest Overwatch competition assembled from across the world. The esports industry has developed a lot in just the past few years: Business Insider estimates that total esports viewership is expected to grow at a 9% compound annual growth rate, from 454 million in 2019 to 646 million in 2023.
Based in a corporate office campus near The Woodlands, the Outlaws, who range in age from 18 to 24 years old, are preparing to kick off the Overwatch League's fourth season. The Outlaws will take on fellow Texas rivals, the Dallas Fuel, on Friday, April 16, in the first matchup of the 2021 Overwatch League season.
Competing in the Overwatch League takes a lot more than just casually playing video games, and becoming a member of the Houston Outlaws is no easy task. Being a professional esports player is a full-time job that requires a disciplined and rigorous training schedule. The players with the Houston Outlaws have devoted their lives to honing their skills and competing on the international stage. They are among the best in the world at what they do — and they're paid accordingly.
Overwatch League players during the 2020 season earned a median salary of $92,000, up $10,000 from a year prior, the league said in an October news release. The minimum an Overwatch League player earned last season was $50,000, plus benefits.
The Houston Outlaws are also a well-known brand in the esports realm. The Outlaws have a total reach of more than 1.3 million users through Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube, Discord and other social media platforms run by the team and players. The organization had over 215.84 million total impressions through its various channels in 2020 and is forecasting to make 365 million impressions in 2021.
But outside of the money or the notoriety in esports, what the Houston Outlaws want the most is to win. Naples, Florida-based Beasley Broadcast Group (Nasdaq: BBGI), which purchased the Outlaws franchise and existing player contracts in late 2019, now has full control over the direction it wants to take the esports franchise. After going 6-15 in a lackluster 2020 season — a season that ended up being changed significantly by the coronavirus pandemic — the Outlaws have revamped their roster.
"Our team has been a bit wonky for a couple of years — kind of on the downward trend — and we felt like we were at a point where we needed to start over, essentially," said Outlaws general manager Matt "coolmatt" Iorio, who previously competed as a player for the team in the league's inaugural season. "That's really what led to these huge changes that you see in our team."
All in on esports
Half of the Houston Outlaws' players live in a 5-bed, 5-bath house on a quiet, wooded cul-de-sac near Tomball. The other half live in another large house just a few miles away. Having the players live together is intentional, Iorio said. With a mixture of Korean players and Western players this season, living together helps improve team communication and develop chemistry between the many new additions to the franchise. Having two player houses has also served the team well during the Covid-19 pandemic, said Lori Burgess, COO of Beasley Esports and the Houston Outlaws. The Outlaws wanted to create a "bubble" around their players to prevent unnecessary contact with others.
The influx of both new talent and familiar faces into the Outlaws organization caught the attention Lyon, who spent the Overwatch League's first two seasons as a damage player — which focus on dealing damage to enemy players — for the Outlaws before taking a broadcasting job with the league during its third season. He announced his return to the team as both a player and a coach earlier this year.
Lyon was excited to see Iorio, his former teammate, take a leadership role within the organization. The joining of Jae Won "Junkbuck" Choi as Outlaws co-head coach from two-time Overwatch League champions the San Francisco Shock was another strong addition, he said.
"From that outsider perspective, I was basically looking at this like, 'Wow, this team is going to be really, really good, and I can help add to that success and be part of that success,'" Lyon said. "From the external perspective, I was really bullish on it."
The revamped Houston Outlaws roster also excites league all-star Dante "Danteh" Cruz, 22, who renewed his deal with the team in October 2020. The first player to re-sign onto the new roster, Cruz said he talked a lot with the co-head coaches Choi and Harsha "Harsha" Bandi about the team's plans for the upcoming season. During tryouts, he saw the high skill level of the players vying for open spots.
"I'm really confident with every single player we picked up. I think everyone has really good energy," Cruz said. "Everyone's really good in general."
One of the new faces to the Outlaws organization is Jeong Woo "Happy" Lee, a native of Jeonju, South Korea. Lee joined the Outlaws after two years with the Guangzhou Charge in China. The Woodlands area is a lot different than the tall skyscrapers in his hometown in Korea. It's peaceful here, he said.
"Personally, I wanted to experience a Western team," Lee said. "Now, the experience is better than I thought, so I'm having a good time."
Working through immigration for the Outlaws' three Korean players took months during the Covid-19 pandemic. While they were still living in Korea waiting to come stateside, the Outlaws adjusted their sleeping schedules to be able to practice with their Korean teammates and scrimmage against top teams in Asia. For three to four weeks, the Outlaws worked from 8 p.m. until around 5 a.m.
Now that the team's Korean players have moved to the Houston region, the Outlaws have instituted a demanding practice schedule to prepare the players for the start of the season on April 16. After arriving at the practice facility in The Woodlands at 10 a.m. and eating catered meals, the Outlaws typically spend six hours to eight hours in high-intensity team practice, Iorio said. After practice, the team goes through two or three hours of review sessions with the coaches to watch game video, discuss strategies and more.
"They're in the office 12 hours a day, six days a week, so they spend the majority of their lives here during the season," Iorio said. "It's been that way really since we opened up the office."
Iorio knows the demands of a professional esports franchise firsthand. In addition to playing for the Outlaws in the league's inaugural season, he was a member of the U.S. Overwatch World Cup team in 2017. He said there's a misconception about esports from some that think professional gamers are hanging out, goofing off with friends and playing video games. That's not the case with the Overwatch League, Iorio said.
"You're in a career where your performance dictates whether you have a job tomorrow, and your opponent's in the same position, too," Iorio said. "You're fighting for your position — your job — every single day, and the more you put into it, the more you get out of it."
Building a brand
Much of the Houston Outlaws organization's focus is on developing world-class talent and fielding a successful Overwatch team in competition. But there's another side to the Outlaws focused on developing the business, nabbing new sponsorships and bringing the Outlaws brand before a wider audience in Houston and South Texas. Burgess said the Outlaws have 26 employees on the payroll, with many ancillary functions supported by team owner Beasley Media Group.
Building a name synonymous with Houston, like the Texans, the Rockets or the Astros, hasn't been easy for the Outlaws. The team first moved to The Woodlands area in late 2019 ahead of the Overwatch League's third season. During the league's first and second seasons, most of the matches were held at the Blizzard Arena Los Angeles in Burbank, California. For that reason, most of the Overwatch League players lived in the Los Angeles region. Based on a database inherited from Blizzard when Beasley purchased the team in 2019, many Outlaws fans are international, Burgess said.
Mike White, operations director for the Outlaws, said the team has been very intentional about hosting community events to deepen its roots with Texas-based fans, like appearances at Houston's Comicpalooza, Austin's SXSW conference and San Antonio's PAX South. One preseason watch party hosted with Houston-based esports tournament organizer Mainline at The Cannon drew 500 fans, he said.
In February 2020, thousands of fans descended on the Revention Music Center downtown for the Outlaws' Houston debut — the inaugural Houston "Homestand" weekend. The Homestand featured two days of esports competition with Overwatch League franchises representing Florida, Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, London and Paris. A second Homestand weekend at the Revention Music Center scheduled for early August 2020 ended up being canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The league ended up shifting the third season to online play amid social distancing measures and travel restrictions.
Without in-person events planned for the upcoming fourth Overwatch League season, the Outlaws have had to develop new strategies to engage with fans. The team regularly hosts livestream events on Twitch and YouTube, including a virtual meet-and-greet with the players earlier in April and a "Most Wanted Content Creator Search" in February. The team sought the services of Chris David Garcia, founder of Houston-based Major Level Creative and former creative director for the Houston Astros, to craft eye-catching branding with which the Outlaws could connect emotionally.
But despite stellar fan interest and engagement, it can still be hard to grow the business side of an esports organization, Burgess said. Many sponsors need to be educated about the esports industry in general.
"When you're calling on businesses or brands, initially some of them are like, 'I don't even know what esports is,'" Burgess said. "It's not like I'm calling from the Houston Rockets, a professional basketball team. We are dealing with something very different."
Another challenge is resources, Burgess said. Unlike some teams in the Overwatch League, the Outlaws aren't owned by venture capitalists or private equity interests.
"Every single person in this room here is charged to show a positive [profit and loss], and it's really hard to do," Burgess said. "I wish this table was filled with triple the number of people."
In the meantime, all eyes are on the April 16 matchup against the Dallas Fuel and Sunday's match against the San Francisco Shock, the league's defending champions. The new team and the new season are a fresh start, said Kyle "KSF" Frandanisa, 21, who signed with the Outlaws this offseason from the Los Angeles Valiant.
"Even though it's a fresh start with a new team, you could definitely tell everything was planned out," Frandanisa said. "There was a plan for everything, a plan for the players, and they knew what we have to do to succeed."
