Enrique Triana

Nashville, TN · main support · psych nerd

Enrique "Joobi" Triana

I spent my teens healing people in Overwatch for a living. Now I study how people think. Grad student in Cognitive and Developmental Psychology at Vanderbilt, former Houston Outlaws support, and the first player ever signed to an Overwatch League team straight out of college.

2019first Contenders run, still in high school
14Overwatch League matches for Houston
#1college player ever signed straight to the OWL
$21.5kcareer prize money (Liquipedia)

The short version

I'm a main support. That's been true in every lobby I've played since I made the JoobiVEVO account back in 2015, and it's a pretty good summary of me outside the game too: I like being the one who keeps everyone else alive and talks the most on comms.

Overwatch took me from Open Division teams as a 15-year-old to the Overwatch League at 18, back to college, to a Contenders title, and eventually to a psychology degree. These days I'm in Nashville working on my master's at Vanderbilt, still playing whenever I can, and thinking a lot about why people perform the way they do under pressure.

Research

I didn't want a traditional psychology career, so I started asking research questions about the thing I knew best. Playing Overwatch at a high level is a lot like athletic performance, and a lot of what I learned in cognitive psychology about attention showed up in my own games.

The Esports Research Report, Episode 8: Health Behaviors in Esports: Cognitive Differences Across Genres (June 2026, 20 min)

One thing I'm sure of from experience: sleep matters more than anything. I'll prioritize it over eating, over class, over almost anything, because if I play on bad sleep I play terribly. And if you're coming up, practice three or four focused hours a day instead of queueing all day. There's a point where more hours start hurting you.

The long version

  1. 2016

    Lúcio on a bad PC

    Overwatch came out a few weeks after I turned 13 and I played it from day one. I mained Lúcio, partly because I liked him and partly because my computer setup was so bad I didn't think I could play anything that needed aim. Within a year or two I was Grandmaster and high on the leaderboards, and I started playing on amateur teams.

  2. 2019

    The 25-day team

    My first real roster was Triumph, in January 2019. I lasted 25 days. My goodbye tweet turned into a small Overwatch meme that people still bring up. After that came Wave Check, where we made Contenders Season 2 NA West, and Second Wind, where I won my first tournament (Rivalcade Overwatch Rumble).

  3. 2020

    Graduating high school mid-Contenders

    I played Contenders through my senior year with Simplicity, the Maryville Saints and Second Wind. We finished 3rd at Contenders 2020 Season 1 NA. Everyone knew Second Wind wouldn't last: a big chunk of the roster got picked up by the Vancouver Titans. With my diploma in hand I picked Harrisburg University over Maryville and joined the HU Storm. We won the Overwatch Collegiate Championship Preseason Split 1.

  4. Dec 2020

    College to the Overwatch League

    A few months into my first semester, Overwatch League teams started reaching out. I never approached them. The Houston Outlaws signed me in December 2020, the first time an OWL team had signed a player directly off a college roster. I was 17 and couldn't play until I turned 18 that April. For the rest of that semester I was doing college scrims and Outlaws scrims back to back, about eight hours a day, plus classes.

  5. 2021

    Rookie season in Houston

    My first OWL match was the season opener, against our in-state rivals the Dallas Fuel. I was more nervous than I've ever been in a game, right up until about halfway through. We won 3–2. I played 14 matches that season and left the Outlaws in October.

    Joobi in the Houston Outlaws 'H-Town Vibes' promo
    H-Town Vibes, Houston Outlaws, 2021
  6. 2022

    Back to school

    I went back to college at Maryville University of Saint Louis and joined their varsity Overwatch team, playing Contenders on the side with DarkMode NA and WISP. That August, someone got Howard Hamlin from Better Call Saul to record a Cameo announcing he was representing me in my upcoming case against the Outlaws. There was no case.

  7. 2023

    Contenders champion

    The best year I had. With Saints, Maryville's Contenders roster, we went 14–2 in the Spring Series NA. We lost the upper bracket final to Timeless, came back through the lower bracket, and beat them 4–2 in the grand final. With Maryville we also won the NACE Starleague twice and the Collegiate Esports Commissioners Cup, where I was named MVP. That winter I tried coaching for the first time and took a team to the Flash Ops Holiday Showdown final.

  8. 2024

    Player of the Year

    Luminosity Gaming picked me up for the first season of the Overwatch Champions Series, where we finished 4th in NA Stage 1. Back at Maryville we took 2nd at the Overwatch Collegiate Championship, and NACE named me Overwatch 2 Player of the Year for 2023–24.

  9. 2025

    Graduation, then retirement

    One last OWCS run with O3 Splash and one last college season, then I graduated from Maryville with a B.A. in Psychology in May 2025 and stepped away from competing. That Thanksgiving I put out "Ode to Overwatch (1)", a tribute to the game that started all of this.

  10. 2026

    Vanderbilt, and un-retiring

    I moved to Nashville to start an M.S. in Cognitive and Developmental Psychology in Context at Vanderbilt's Peabody College. Retirement lasted about a year: in June I came back to play support for Avidity in FACEIT Masters Season 9. I've also picked up Deadlock, and I play for Vanderbilt Omega in College Deadlock.

Watch

Meet Joobi: From College to the Houston Outlaws (Outlaws, 2021)
Ode to Overwatch (1), my tribute to OW1 (2025)

What people said

"Making history as the first collegiate OW player signed by an OWL team to keeping us sharp with your support play and your humor, we're grateful for your time in H-Town."

Houston Outlaws, October 2021

"From multiple championships to earning his degree, Joobi has been an incredible part of our program."

Maryville Esports, on graduation in 2025

Green but smart and vocal, with Baptiste among his most-played heroes and Brigitte in the grind.

Outlaws head coach Harsha, before the 2021 season (paraphrased by GGRecon)

Education

Trophy shelf

Every team

Triumph · Wave Check · Simplicity · Maryville Saints · Second Wind · HU Storm · Houston Outlaws · Maryville University · DarkMode NA · WISP · Saints · Luminosity Gaming · O3 Splash · Avidity · Vanderbilt (Deadlock)

Press