OKLAHOMA CITY – We’re so back.

During the 2023 PBR Camping World Team Series season, two-time World Champion (and 2022 PBR Teams MVP) Jose Vitor Leme and then-rookie Cassio Dias made the regular-season MVP race one for the ages.

Leme went 21-for-32 (71%), and Dias went 20-for-28 (71%) in a back-and-forth MVP race that ultimately went Leme’s way and, in the process, carried the Austin Gamblers and Kansas City Outlaws to No. 1 and 2 in the regular-season standings, respectively.

It looked like we were in for an all-time showdown in the 2024 World Championship race.

But it was not to be. Leme competed in just six Unleash The Beast events before doctoring out of the rest of the season to heal a lingering groin injury, while Dias swept through his rookie campaign with seven event wins to win the 2024 World Championship.

Now, it’s the 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series season. Dias is $1 million richer, Leme is pain-free, and they wasted no time picking up right where they left off last fall.

At the inaugural Wildcatter Days at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Dias’s Outlaws and Leme’s Gamblers faced off in the first game of the season.

Koltin Hevalow led off with 88.5 points for Kansas City, and Dalton Kasel followed that up with 87.25 points for Austin.

Nobody else made the 8-second whistle until it was time for each team’s closer.

Leme for the Gamblers and Dias for the Outlaws.

Leme rode Crazy Times for 86.75 points, and Dias rode Let’s Roll for 89.75 points.

The Outlaws took the win, 178.25-174.

The ride was Dias’s first as a World Champion. While his presence in the arena has a new gravitas to it, he was not immune from nerves thanks to the injuries he sustained at the 2024 PBR World Finals: spinal fractures, broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung and a concussion.

“It was good,” Dias said of his ride on Let’s Roll with the help of Bruno Zecchin translating. “I was afraid, as normal, because I had this injury during the World Finals, and I lost confidence. I came back, I rode some bulls, but I was not 100% sure how I was going to be, but it was good. God helped me again, and I was very happy that I was able to ride and to glorify God again because I know that God is helping me. He’s telling me that I was born for this.”

Dias says he’s feeling 100% healthy to start the season but has only gotten on three bulls since Championship Sunday in Arlington, Texas, on May 19: three in Brazil and three more in the U.S.

There was, perhaps, a bit of relief in Dias’s enthusiastic celebration when the Outlaws clinched their first win of 2024, whooping with delight and sharing a few hugs.

It’s good, he said, to be back with his team.

“I like the environment,” Dias said. “I like the team. I feel that we built a family here – it’s not just a team. I like a lot the Team Series, the team deal, because I like to be around my friends and with my team. I like to ride and to compete for the Kansas City Outlaws, and I’m 100% for this team because this is what I do.”

So far, life as a World Champion has been pretty good for the 22-year-old. During the offseason, he spent time at home in São Francisco de Sales, Brazil, sharing his joy with his family.

“It’s still weird for me because it’s like I don’t believe that all happened,” Dias said. “I think it’s going to be true for me when I get the buckle and I see that it’s true. But it was good, having the opportunity to win this world title, not just for me, but for my whole family. My dad, my uncles, and everybody was very happy for my achievement.”

Even more joyful for Dias is that he and his wife, Juliana, are expecting their first child.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Dias joked. “I still don’t know what to do because there are a lot of new things happening in my life. I feel very blessed. It was always a dream for me, having a family, especially having my family here in the United States. I feel blessed and very happy for this baby.”

Despite still being off-kilter with all the blessings of the last few months, Dias is still locked in in Oklahoma City.

Now the undisputed leader of the Outlaws, he converted under pressure and against one of the greatest bull riders of all time.

That’s not just a win for the Outlaws but for bull riding fans everywhere.

“Each rider on the team needs to do his job, so I was just focused on riding my bull and doing my job,” Dias said. “God blessed me, and I was able to ride my bull. I used to see Jose Vitor riding here, and it’s a dream for me coming true, riding with him and competing with him. I’m very happy to have this opportunity to do it.”

LEME LOOKING LIKE OLD SELF

Jose Vitor Leme first reinjured his groin in November last year, limping through six events before calling it quits in late March. It was a brutal way for the two-time World Champion to go out, and his nearly four-month layoff is his longest since coming to the U.S. in 2017.

“It was bad,” Leme said with a laugh. “I was ready to come back, work again, ride again. I was missing all this. I hope now I can keep riding healthy and do what I know how to do.”

Leme says he’s feeling good but, like Dias, is nervous about returning to regular competition.

“I hope everything goes right,” he said. “Still a little bit nervous since it has been a long time not competing every weekend. I’m still a little bit nervous about that, but I’m healthy. I’m feeling good. I was working hard to get back on the first event of the Teams season, and here I am now. I’m feeling good, and I’m ready to work.”

That should make the rest of the league very nervous. Before doctoring out of the UTB season, Leme was 9-for-14 (64%) in his limited action, with his worst finish an 11^th-place showing in Salt Lake City in February.

When he’s healthy – or even just healthy enough – Leme is nearly impossible to beat.

But last year, he followed along from home as Dias nearly tied the record of eight wins in a single season, which Leme co-holds with Justin McBride.

“It was great for him,” Leme said. “He did the job. It was all deserved. He deserved all the prizes and all the things that he won because he did really good during the season. Nobody deserves more than him that world title because he won seven events in the regular season, and he did great. So I was cheering for him because he deserved that. It was awesome to watch him win and make all the work he did during the year.”

While Leme wants to be back in that MVP hunt immediately and lead the Gamblers to their third consecutive regular-season title and first PBR Teams Championship, he knows his health is still a question mark.

If he has it his way, though, we’ll see the same old Jose we’ve come to know and love.

“I want to be healthy first, but I’m excited to ride my bulls and do what I normally do: do my job, make great rides, and win,” Leme said. “I want to be at the top, always, and I work for it. So I think what everybody can expect from me is to work a lot, and I’ll be trying hard to be the same Jose as the last couple years and be at the top.”

That could very well include another battle with Dias for an MVP award.

“Last year was fun because me and him were back and forth almost the whole season, so now we’re starting that again,” Leme said. “Especially today, in the first game, we’re against each other again.

“We’ll see who will do better. I hope it’s me,” he added with a laugh.

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media