I wrote about Matthew "Clockwork" Dias during the pre-OWL days during his time as the DPS player for FNRGFE. But, before that, I learned about his existence as a top player when he started streaming Overwatch early in its beta, displaying an impressive Tracer that was unlike anything I had ever seen. His tracking and aim were incredible and it was clear he wasn't new to the art of shooting heads.

The story became clearer to me once I looked into his background as a pro player.Team Fortress 2 fans already know this, but Clockwork was widely considered one of the greatest Scout players to have ever played the game. His achievements in the game are undeniable and it's hard to think of a major event or premier tournament that his team, Froyotech, didn't win.

Now, he plays for the Houston Outlaws as a DPS sub, his days of being an "I'm-better-than-everything-and-anyone type of player" behind him. Instead,  Clockword exudes an uncommon level of empathy towards his teammates and their success. 

I spoke with Clockwork directly after their frustratingly close set vs. Seoul Dynasty. They lost by the smallest of margins, and I wanted to get a sense of what that felt like for such a veteran competitor.

This pro gamer lifestyle,  this isn't new to you. You've been playing competitive video games for some time now.

Yeah, I started playing Team Fortress 2 competitively my first year of college. I was around 19 or so. I won my first LAN there, which was about 6 years ago. 


You still remember your first LAN victory?

Yeah, I do! We went into the season not being the favorite to win -- we were like the third seat. Then, we wind up taking the whole tournament. It was my first LAN ever and there weren't many expectations for us so snagging the win was awesome.


How does it feel to win like that?

It just feels amazing. You know that everyone will be super proud of you. They will be talking about you online and your team will be super proud. That is one of the biggest things for me -- I have always been a team player kind of guy. I enjoy games that involve coordination and winning for your teams is way more important for me than anything else.

When I finally win, even if I played badly, I'm most happy that my teammates won.

" When I am not feeling confident, I am horrible. But, when I am feeling confident, I am amazing at what I do."

That strikes me as a very empathic approach to competitive gaming. As if you personally can handle a loss, but you really don't want to see your teammates disappointed.

I agree with that. It brings us back to today -- I feel super disappointed after losing to Seoul Dynasty. Mainly, because I know my teammates wanted to win so badly. I wanted to win badly as well, but knowing that I may have let them down in any way is a super deflating feeling.

Knowing that our playoff future for the first stage is on the line, it feels deflating to have let people down. Even if they are not blaming me, and I know they are not blaming me: they are all very proud of everything we did as a team and me for coming in last minute, I still have that feeling.

Like, wow.  We really could have won, I could have done something differently.

How much do you think this mindset stems from you being older than a lot of your teammates?

I'd say a good amount. I'm past the point in my career where I want to be this, fiery I'm-better-than-everything-and-anyone type of player. That was how I was six years ago in my early 20's. Now that I am 25, going on 26, I know limitations and I know what I can do to help my team. 

I just want to help my team win in any way I can.

After a loss, fan tends to share a lot of "good job, it was a close game!"  style sentiments. How much do words like that actually make the team feel better?

I tend to filter out a lot of what I see online: the good and the bad. I love the support and it feels great to be loved, but it's good as a competitor to be able to filter everything out when you need to.

For me, even though everyone might say "you played really well, don't worry about it, you came in last minute", which is all true, it still doesn't feel good. I know I could have done better in a lot of situations and, if I had a little more practice beforehand, it could have been different. 

It helps a little bit, but I know deep down, I could have changed the outcome.

Is there any part of your team that feels robbed? After all, two of your players were unexpectedly unable to play.

Yeah, it always kind of feels that way. We were all under the impression that it was going to be hard today because of the circumstances.

"I mean, the guy was just hitting W at me. I can't do anything about it -- I have to hit two rockets, he has to hit one and he is a better Phara than me."

You know, I'm pretty sure this was the first time I've ever played Pharah in a match; that is how dire it became. I don't even play Pharah at all and I definitely never would have played it against one of the best Pharahs in the world without some significant practice and forethought.

We were really placed in a dire situation: If we just had LiNkzr and he could play Widowmaker, it would have been very different. We played a lot of his best maps too! We cater a lot of our strategy around him being such a good Widowmaker.  That's not to say the rest of us are bad players, but it's a similar strategy with other teams.

Fleta is an amazing WIdowmaker and a lot of their strategies revolve around him just popping out and killing two or three people. Every single OWL widowmaker is world-class so, when you play without one and I, by no means, am one, it makes everything a lot harder.

How does it feel to be placed in that situation? Being forced to play against such a skilled Pharah in the mirror match?

It feels really bad. On Ilios, it felt the worst.

I actually started out amazingly on Pharah when I played Eichenwalde Defense -- I was not missing a single rocket and I was hitting a ton of air shots. So we come out on Ilios and I was very confident.

But then, they Discord Orb'ed me over and over again while damage boosting Fleta's Pharah. His rockets became a one shot and I didn't really know how to deal with that pressure. I just wasn't an aware enough player at the hero to be able to deal with that pressure. 

I mean, the guy was just hitting W at me. I can't do anything about it -- I have to hit two rockets, he has to hit one and he is a better Phara than me. So what am I going to do, you know? It was very confusing and very hard.

After Ilios, it was like : "oh my god, how are we going to pull this out?". Honestly, I got dumpstered that first round

How long will you be thinking about this match? I have a feeling you could continue to talk at length about the specifics of this match.

At the very least, for the rest of the day. We have a couple days off coming this weekend. So we can relax and I will try my best to put it behind me. It is pretty much pointless to keep thinking about it. There are mistakes we made and we can go over it in VOD review. There are a ton of things I could have done differently, but it's pointless to dwell.

All things considered, we did do really well. But it hurts more because we lost so close. We could have just one more round on KOTH (King of the Hill) and it could have been ours.


When most people have weekends, the work is over and they can relax. But, I've been covering esports long enough to know that isn't always the case with your job. At any moment, your rivals could be scrimming, improving, and training -- even right now. How do you cope with that realization?

Yeah, we actually don't have a lot of free time. When we do have free time, we like to play Overwatch anyways, so it's not a chore -- we want to play. But, the biggest motivating factor to work hard is if the rest of our team wants to also keep practicing and get better.

"I know what I can do to help my team succeed and I don't need to be the best at everything."

I feel bad if I am not working as hard as my teammates are. Especially in a situation like this when I have to be substituted in at the last minute. I want to make sure I am putting as much time or at least close to as much time as someone like coolmatt.

I don't want them to be like "if only Clockwork put in a couple more hours into the week, we could have won that match." I don't want to think that either! We all motivate each other by being good teammates and good competitors.

Do you think a team would benefit if everyone felt like you? Or does a team need some selfish players that care more about their own play?

You definitely do need that. Not necessarily a selfish player, but someone that can flip that switch and be like "I'm going to take over this game and dominant. That is the only thing that matters". You need a good blend of both types of players to perform to the best of your capabilities. For me, by no means do I want to slack off and be a bad player, I just know what my strengths are.

We tried mixing our roster a little bit today -- that is why I was playing so much Soldier:76 and Jake was playing so much Tracer. I know this for a fact, that I have some of the best aim in the game. Ask anyone who has played with me -- its definitely true.

It suits my play style a lot more to just put me on Soldier: 76, let me sit in the back and bot out.  I know what I can do to help my team succeed and I don't need to be the best at everything.

But, you need someone that truly wants to be the best at everything they do. If they play these heroes, they want to be the best at them. It really helps to have players like that because they will never stop pushing themselves to get better.


I've spoken to players from Seoul Dynasty and Philadephia Fusion and something they have in common is a strategy of focusing a single player with the intent to tilt them. They identify early when a player is having an off day and then focus them relentlessly to compound the problem.

Do you think this is a viable way to play Overwatch at the highest level and is it something your team tries to do to other teams?

It definitely is. Competition at this level, a large portion of it is how good you are, but a huge portion of whether your win is about your mental game. You have to ask, is your mental game on the same level as theirs? When you get to the best of the best, individual skill only matters so much.

What really matters, is making sure your are all on the same page and you are confident that you are going to win. Confidence is almost everything. Coming from someone like me, I've had wavering confidence in this game -- up and down, up and down. When I am not feeling confident, I am horrible. But when I am feeling confident, I am amazing at what I do.

What are the odds Miro was tilted after a play like this?

I think it is a viable strategy for sure. You can tell when the people on the enemy team are not feeling it-- you can just tell when they are tilted. When people stand still, that is sign number one. When they are about to die and they don't move, you just know "that guy is pissed"

So you target them over and over -- especially when it is someone you can go for, like their Winston.  When you tell what you did to him just pissed him off, you know he is going to do something different. He isn't going to approach his push the same way because he is not confident anymore. That is a huge thing.
 

So when you and your team identify that you as a player are the one being focused, how do you fight back? How do you bounce back from that?

That is always a hard question to answer.

That is what separates the winners from the losers, being able to adapt like that. There was a ton of things we were talking about as we were walking off the stage, all things we could have done differently. The key is actually coming to those conclusions while the game is going on.

This is obviously very hard -- your mind is racing, you are keeping track of a ton of ults, you are focusing on what your job -- so you can't really break it down and just tell your team "do exactly this, now"

But the people that can do that, the teams that can do that -- they are the teams that are going to be winning for sure.

You can follow Clockwork on twitter @ likeclockwork. All photos inside the Blizzard Arena stadium taken by Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment and subsequently released by Blizzard for publication.