Feeding Time: Atlanta Reign's Dogman on Self-improvement and Accountability

In the Overwatch League, incredible players must have outstanding dedication and drive. Those without that inner motivation either stagnate—seeing both the meta and opportunity pass them by—or worse, burn out, finding themselves retiring prematurely. How players maintain that drive, however, varies drastically from player to player. Some push themselves to be top of the leaderboards, others judge their worth purely from League standings. Dusttin "Dogman" Bowerman of the Atlanta Reign has a different strategy, looking to the inside.  

“All I’m trying to do is focus on improving myself and keeping myself accountable,” said Dogman during an interview this weekend. “So that’s like my biggest thing: living in the moment, trying to get better now instead of thinking about where I am in the future.”

This sort of analytical and objective observation can be very helpful when looking for areas to improve. Feel like you need to work on your aim? Check out your accuracy or critical hit percentage. Need to improve your survivability? Track how many deaths you get, and analyze your positioning. Going up against another player in the same role as you? Compare stats and try to benchmark based on their performance.

The true challenge comes from where you set that bar, though. Too low, and you aren’t really improving. Too high, and you’re aiming for an impossible level of perfection. Dogman has set the bar relatively high for himself, aiming to play to the top of his ability in the Overwatch League.

“Right now I’m feeding my brains out,” he said, using a term that has come to be associated quite closely with the player (even his Twitch emotes feature the phrase). Feeding—for those not in the loop—is when a player on the opposing team dies repeatedly, allowing the enemy team to become more powerful. In Overwatch if a player dies, the players on the opposing team who contributed to that death gain ultimate charge, allowing them to reach their most powerful moves more quickly.

Reposted but WELCOME to the FEEDER club everyone! by @heyfelicia pic.twitter.com/dwzishfzCv

— Dusttin Bowerman (@DogmanOW) April 16, 2019

Dogman’s take on the trash-talking has been part fun and part motivation. In doing it he not only is aiming to hold himself to a higher standard, but the rest of the league as well. If this sounds familiar—I’m looking at you, fans of LoL—it should. “I realized that one of my biggest inspirations now is Doublelift from League of Legends,” continued Dogman. “He holds himself accountable. The reason he thinks people are bad is because he thinks that he can improve, himself.”

“There’s a bunch of terrible players in the Overwatch League,” continued Dogman. “I think a lot of them are pretty bad, and feed a lot. So if I can get better—if I hold myself to that standard and hold everybody else to that standard—I can get there eventually.” 

While it may be a rather assertive position, the idea that everyone has room to improve is not too controversial. There are always moments where one charges in as Reinhardt when they shouldn’t, or get baited into using Transcendence before it was necessary. Ideally, by calling out others—whether by labeling them feeders or otherwise—the skill floor is raised. However, there is the threat that you could be seen as a toxic or abrasive player, a line Bowerman works hard never to cross.

“You can be a vocal player that nobody really wants to have on their team,” said Dogman. “So you need to have that mix of when to be vocal and when to reel it back in.”

Dogman isn't the only one pushing on the boundaries when it comes to Overwatch League. It would seem the Vancouver Titans not only accept heel status, but are happy to take on the role.

(Cover photo courtesy of Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment)