The first match of season three of the Overwatch League is around the corner. The Dallas Fuel have as important of a role as any team.

Dallas is one of two teams hosting opening matches on Saturday, with the other pool of teams playing in New York. Envy Gaming president Geoff Moore said the opportunity had to be seized, to show the league once again what the Fuel can do when given the opportunity to host. Every homestand can be a step forward for both the Fuel and the league.

This is the first year of true geolocation for OWL. The league will test its strength with homestands across the world, pushing teams through heavy travel schedules. The coronavirus outbreak in China already made for one hiccup in a schedule with a lot of room for error.

Envy looks to do its part in making life a little easier for visiting teams with a top-notch homestand to start the season.

Moore didn’t talk about esports to stress the event’s importance, though. He referenced the neighboring professional football team.

“If you think about how you would grade a homestand like this,” Moore told The Dallas Morning News, “it’s like how would you grade a Dallas Cowboys game in the Cotton Bowl in 1969? How much does one event build it to what it is today? To the degree that people went to that game, enjoyed it and were exposed to the sport [and] team and experienced and learned to love it over time, then it was very important.”

The opener this year is at Esports Stadium Arlington. In 2019, the Fuel sold out two days of 4,500 seats at Allen Event Center. They will return to that location on April 25.

Late last year, Moore declined to discuss the exact cost of putting on the 2019 homestand weekend, but ballparked it at a “couple of hundred thousand” dollars. When asked if they made money, Moore simply said, at the time, “We did.”

Homestands provide a path to success for OWL, which is transitioning to geolocation this year. Growth isn’t just about Overwatch matches, it’s about building a brand and a stable fan base, Moore said. The Fuel treated the upcoming weekend festivities as if everything will be new for its crowd.

Moore and the Fuel aren’t trying to match last year — they are boosting off it.

“When we had homestand weekend the activities that sponsors created were a big hit,” Moore said. “People enjoyed those so we brought some of those back and added some state-fair, carnival-midway type games that are associated with Overwatch hero abilities. Some of the cool features of those heroes are in some of the midway games that were developed.”

The quality-of-life components improved in their planning, too, Moore said. The league and its fans come from all over the world, so the standard ballpark food doesn’t cut it anymore. Esports Stadium Arlington will feature more diverse meal options stamped with Overwatch-themed names.

Plugging one of the two opening homestands in Dallas had some to do with venue availability and itinerary for traveling teams, but the league also had serious confidence in Envy.

“You’ll see firsthand that Dallas Fuel organization is a world-class group that delivered in every possible way for the league and for their fans last spring,” told The News. “That event was incredible. From a league’s perspective we could not have been happier with how they partnered with us and worked with us last year.”

The Fuel also won both matches last year, and current players praised their home fans.

Lucas “NotE” Meissner, of the Fuel’s staples at tank, said support will be just as important with the Fuel hosting two tough teams in the Los Angeles Valiant on Saturday and the San Francisco Shock on Sunday.

“I think we probably had the best homestand last year by far,” NotE said. “I'm just looking forward to playing in front of that crowd again. I think we have potentially a very tough match with the Shock coming up assuming they are continuing to be the same team. They really haven't changed anything. That'll be a super hard match, but having the support of our fans there might make it a little bit easier.”

Focusing on the moment was focal point for Envy, but it was that way with the future in mind. Moore said making it an experience anyone can enjoy was crucial in continuing the growth of their fan base. This is also about “spreading the awareness of Overwatch” within Texas as a home market.

The collaboration with Burleson ISD on Saturday serves as that goal being practiced. Hundreds of high school kids get to play several games at a professional event, building a community.

“We are on a multi-year journey towards attracting an audience and building fans,” Moore said. “There’s not one single event, party or program that will suddenly create this thing. It is 100 to 1,000 experiences that we have with people that are going to create what we want. This one is an important one and if we treat every single one of those thousands of events as equally important, then we are going to be great.”

Selling out an arena, winning matches and receiving more homestands are signs of success, Moore said. But none of them were the most important in his eyes.

He and Envy want attendees to enjoy themselves. The Fuel will toss their best effort once again on Saturday.

Event Details

Saturday’s schedule (All times in CT):

10 a.m. — Team Envy/Burleson ISD Winter Invitational

3 p.m. — Arena doors open

4 p.m. — Vancouver Titans vs. Los Angeles Gladiators

6 p.m. — Dallas Fuel vs. Los Angeles Valiant

Sunday’s schedule: