OverAchievers: A Conversation with Dogman

When you think of a professional player, be it in eSports or regular sports, what about them is the first thing that pops into your mind? I'm sure your answer will probably be either one of the titles they hold, a fantastic play they made during a match, or maybe even the team they're on; at least that's generally how I remember players. For instance, when I think of Sinatraa, I think of his OWL and World Cup Championships, when I think of Profit, I remember his Tracer 6k against the Philadelphia Fusion in the OWL Season 1 Final, and when I think of JJonak, I think of the NYXL, who are almost like a single unit while playing on stage rather than a group of 6 players. However, when I think about Dusttin 'Dogman' Bowerman, the first thing that pops into mind is "KRUISE IS A FEEDER!"...that's probably because that was the first time the 21-year-old flex support stood out to me amongst the rest of the players on the stage, but I believe it could also be because of how much his personality, along with his insane mechanics and drive as a player, define him as an eSports athlete.

Welcome, everyone, to the latest part of 'OverAchievers', where I try to share the stories of people who have made significant strides in the Overwatch scene, and to, in some way, re-introduce them to the community as people, rather than the players, analysts, coaches or even content creators we know them as. In today's post, we've got Dogman, the incredibly-vocal and mechanically talented flex support from the Atlanta Reign. He was kind enough to have a conversation with me last week, and I'm very happy to share his story with all of you today.

Starting at the age of 8, Dusttin Bowerman began his journey into gaming with his first ever title: Star Wars Battlefront 2 (not to be confused with the 2017 game of the same name; the original one was released in 2005), and has been playing video games ever since. It wasn't until high school, however, that he started exploring the world of eSports, thanks to his attraction to CS:GO (Counter Strike: Global Offensive) and its professional scene. After becoming a fan of the game and understanding what eSports are like, Dusttin wanted to try and be a professional gamer as well. Unfortunately, CS:GO was and still probably is a very difficult game to go pro in, because of which he decided to wait for another game to try his luck at. That's when Overwatch was announced, and a very anxious Dogman joined its nascent community during the game's open beta phase.

He knew exactly what he wanted out of Overwatch, and said, "Pretty much since day one, I gave it my best effort to try and play it professionally". It's no surprise that he rushed his way into professional play, competing in every random tournament he could, since the 'Path to Pro' and Open Division hadn't been established back then. This seemingly-endless grind didn't seem ideal to his parents though, and they decided to show some tough love by telling him that they didn't want him under their roof if he was going to go on like that. Despite this turn of events though, Dogman didn't give up. He kept competing and started earning money, and when his parents realised that their son was making a living simply off of eSports, they accepted his decision and began supporting him in his gaming career. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who aspire to enter fields like gaming and eSports, but either don't get a lot of support back home, or are just unsure of the path they've chosen, so if you're one of these people, Dogman thinks you should work incredibly hard and not give up unless it's obvious you've failed. If you're not sure whether this advice works, just take a look at Dogman once again. Had he given up after the worry-induced decision by his parents, he would never have made it to North American Contenders, or even been picked up by the Atlanta Reign.

Known as a very vocal player, Dogman thoroughly enjoys trash-talking, especially since it attracts a lot of fans, and I'm sure he's going to continue showering us with spicy comments in the 2020 season as well. He's very keen on playing in the League once again, and believes the Reign will do great in their second year of competition. A highly self-motivated player, Dogman has his eyes set on winning the League this time round, or if that doesn't happen, he'd settle for having more than 1000 average viewers on his Twitch stream. I think we, as fans, can certainly help him achieve his second goal, so do visit his Twitch right now, and give him a follow. He's a delight to watch especially in the current meta, where he's been popping off on Baptiste left, right and centre.

TIDBITS OF TRIVIA (for Dogman, of course):

Favourite Hero: Ana
Most hated Hero: Doomfist
Favourite Map: Nepal
Most hated Map: Volskaya Industries
Favourite Meta: Ana-Genji AKA the Nanoblade Meta
Most hated Meta: Goats

It's funny how Dogman hates Goats, because he was actually pretty good at it, especially when he was on Ana. For instance, look at this 'Assist of the Week' he got during the Overwatch League on Rialto, which I admittedly was bored of after they showed it around 20 times a day for 4 days straight, but looking back at it now, one realises how clutch Dogman can truly be.

If you want to keep seeing plays like that, I repeat, visit his stream and watch him grind on ladder. He's an amazing player and is also very entertaining, so it'll be worth your while.

Anyway, a big thank-you to Dogman for agreeing to do this; it was super nice of him to spare some time chatting with me despite his long streaming hours, and I hope I get to make more content with him in the future. I also wish the best of luck to the Atlanta Reign for the 2020 OWL season, and hope they do even better in their second year of competition. Thanks to you for reading this post as well, and if you liked what you read, do share this post around with other Overwatch League fans. I'll be sure to pump out more content like this as much as possible (in fact, I've got another OverAchievers post in the works for next week as well), so do sub to me to get notified when new posts go live, it helps the blog out by a tremendous amount. Also, do check out Dogman's social media links below and give him a follow, I'm sure he'll appreciate the gesture. On that note, I will take your leave. Thanks again for reading, and this is Proilios, signing out.

Dogman's Social Media Links:

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dogman
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dogmanow
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Dogmanow/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DogmanL4D2

NOTE: Dogman's original image was taken from https://liquipedia.net/overwatch/Dogman. I do not own the rights to it.

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