Tom "OGRE 2" Ryan

This article is about American professional gamer. For other people named Tom Ryan, see Thomas Ryan (disambiguation).
OGRE 2
Tom Ryan
Status Retired
Born (1986-08-03) August 3, 1986
Hometown Pickerington, Ohio
Nationality United States
League Major League Gaming
Games Halo:CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians, Halo 2: Anniversary, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Shadowrun
Nickname(s) OGRE 2
Professional career
2003-2004 Shoot to Kill
2004-2004 Domination
2005-2005 Shoot to Kill
2005 - Apr 2006 Team 3D
Apr 2006 - Apr 2011 Final Boss
Apr 2011 - Nov 2012 Instinct
Oct 2014 - Nov 2014 Shoot to Kill
Nov 2014-Jan 2016 Counter Logic Gaming
Jan 2016-Jun 2016 EnVyUs
Apr 2016 - May 2016 Denial eSports

Tom Ryan (born August 3, 1986) is a retired professional Halo player from Columbus, Ohio. He and his twin brother Dan ("Ogre 1") are known as the "Ogre Twins". In 2005, he and his brother won the gold medal in Halo 2 at the World Cyber Games.[1] His eSports tournament history includes in Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Shadowrun, Halo 3, Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians, Halo 2: Anniversary, and Call of Duty: Ghosts.

The "Ogre Twins" are a highly accomplished pair, having won many national Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 tournaments.[2] Tom has played for many professional teams, including Instinct, Shoot to Kill, Team Domination, DtO, Final Boss, and Team3D.[3] In June 2006, he signed a three-year contract with Major League Gaming. He was shown on many of the Boost Mobile MLG Pro Circuit episodes on USA Network in 2006.[4] and briefly sponsored by NBA player Gilbert Arenas. He later went on to be sponsored by organisations such as Red Bull, Stride Gum and Eon. He was a member of Counter Logic Gaming from 2014 to 2016.

Gaming career

The OGRE Twins Era

Tom Ryan began his professional gaming career playing at small local tournaments along with Dan Ryan, his twin brother. The two got involved with professional gaming after much success.[5] Ogre 2’s 4v4 teams in Halo CE finished first on multiple occasion,and were regarded among the best players. However, for 2v2’s, Ogre 2 played mostly with his twin brother, and they became the best duo in the history of halo. They became so unstoppable that the level "Chill Out" was nicknamed Ogre City. They won many events together, and quickly stamped their names as the best players in Halo. Since then, Tom has been a member of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 teams, some of which have garnered media and gamer attention for their impressive showings. These teams include Team 3D's Halo 2 team,[6] Team StK, Team Domination, Final Boss, Team Instinct, a revived STK, and CLG. Tom and his brother also represented the United States in the Halo 2 competition at the 2005 World Cyber Games in Singapore, defeating team Canada team to secure a first-place finish.[7] When Ogre 2 teamed up with Walshy in Halo CE, they became an unstoppable force that would not be beaten as they became arguably the greatest competitive video game team in history. To cap off the end of Halo CE, Ogre 2 took home Nationals in 2004 for 2v2’s.

They won countless Halo 2 tournaments after the transition to the new game, which also saw them add another dominant Halo CE player, Saiyin, and team Domination was born. The team was considered unbeatable and although they lost a few events, they never fell below 2nd place. They soon changed their names to Final Boss due to their persistent presence in tournament finals. As the key member of Final Boss, Ogre 2 lead his team to win the first Halo 2 Nationals and two consecutive Major League Gaming National Championships in 2004 and 2005.[8] It wasn’t until the emergence of Team Carbon that Final Boss struggled to continue their reign of dominance. Carbon and Final Boss would soon develop what was the biggest rivalry in Halo. At the 2006 Nationals, Final Boss ran into Carbon in the finals. They finished the 2006 season by placing second to Team Carbon in a close 4–6 match. The OGRE twins and their team Final Boss dominated MLG tournament play in both Halo CE and Halo 2, finishing in the top 2 in 38 consecutive tournaments (winning 30 of these), including 10 tournament wins in a row between 2004-2005 and 9 tournament wins in a row between 2005-2006.[9] They also have an older brother Marty, OGRE3, who served as a coach for Final Boss at several tournament.[10] With the last season of Halo 2 quickly approaching in 2007, the team made a change. They dropped Saiyin, who had lost interest in the game, and picked up Strongside from Carbon. This proved to be an amazing trade for Final boss as they became more dominant than before, including a loss free tournament. In the 2007 Nationals Final Boss ran all over the competition, and Final Boss took home the 100k check. This was one of the biggest winnings in competitive gaming history at the time. Ogre 2 and Ogre 1 had some of the highest winnings among players as well.

The Best Ever

As the 2008 Halo 3 season started, it seemed as if Final Boss would pick up where they left off, winning MLG Meadowlands by defeating Team Classic. In a surprising move, after placing dismally at the next two events, Final Boss dropped longtime captain Walshy to pick up another high-profile player from Str8 Rippin, Neighbor. Walshy would go on to join former Halo 2 rivals Carbon. Going into 2009, Strongside departed for the newly formed Status Quo and Tom’s brother Dan moved to Australia, leaving Final Boss. This left Ogre 2, the only original remaining member of Final Boss, to recreate his team alongside pro players Mackeo, Fearitself, and Victory X. The next season brought a variety of new additions, including the aforementioned Mackeo, Fearitself, Victory X, along with Neighbor, Sypher and Totz. After a disappointing 8th-place finish at the end of the 2009 season with a roster of Ryan, FearItSelf, Totz and Victory X, the team improved to a 3rd-place finish to a very good Instinct team.

Still not satisfied, Final Boss dropped Totz to pick up Justin "iGotUrPistola" Deese, part of the Triggers Down squad that had dominated the 2009 MLG circuit. With this pickup Final Boss started clicking, finishing 2nd behind Instinct and then going on to win the next tournament outright. With this win, Ogre 2 passed his brother and became the winningest player in MLG history. Final Boss continued to dominate Halo 3 in 2010, winning three tournaments straight, including the national championship. This gave Ogre 2 the unique distinction of becoming the only player to become national champion of every game in the Halo series, exiting every Halo title as a National Champion (a streak he would continue in the next title, Halo Reach) [11] and all but secured his legacy as the greatest competitive Halo player of all time.

The God Squad

In 2011, Halo: Reach made its debut on the Pro Circuit at MLG Dallas. Final Boss, came in as the highest seeded team, but lackluster results left Tom with a 10th-place finish; for him, a career low. After this event, Ogre 2 and his teammate Pistola decided to leave Final Boss and join up with another set of gaming twins, Roy and Lunchbox, and coach Towey of Team Instinct. There was discussion if the Final Boss team name would be returned to Ogre and possibly change Victory X/FearitsSelf’s team name to The Agency, a team Victory played on in Halo 2, but it never came to be. After this merger, many dubbed this team as the "God Squad" because all five members are considered to be among the very best in the game. Each player had won a Halo 3 national title in the last two years before, with Roy and Pistola fighting for “Best Player” by taking MVP after MVP. During online scrimmages, teams quickly realized the squad was almost impossible to beat, and the nickname God Squad stuck. In their first event, MLG Columbus 2011, Team Instinct only dropped one game out of 22 on their way to winning the event. They went undefeated in the following event at Anaheim, taking their win-loss record to 43-1. As they continued to win, teams around the league tried to create their own super teams to try to take down Instinct. Everyone was shocked when newly formed Infamous team, ranked 13th, beat Instinct in the finals. Following this event, Orlando showed the same lack of show of their earlier success. After being upset by Status Quo in the loser bracket, Instinct took 5th, their worst placing as the God Squad. The team practiced hard for the nationals and they came back to win the national title at MLG Providence. This made Ogre a 5 time national champion, being the only player to win a national championship in every single Halo and winning the last tournament for MLG in every Halo.

The End of Halo

In 2012, Ogre 2 and his team Instinct continued to compete at Halo: Reach and did so at the next MLG Event in Columbus, Ohio. They placed 2nd, losing to team Status Quo. From there, he and his team competed in several smaller scale events, taking first at an Arena League Gaming event. Several months later, Halo 4 was released and Instinct once again competed in Dallas, Texas for a pre-release MLG tournament. Some players illegally obtained the game early, however, and members of Instinct didn't think of it as a real event.[12]

Call of Duty & Retirement

In 2013, with the competitive Halo scene all but finished due to the dwindling popularity of the series and MLG pulling the franchise from their line-up, Ogre 2 made the transition to competing in rival game Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Ogre 2's new team, Rage, consisted of all eSports veterans who had been successful at other competitive games.[13] In 2014, Ogre 2 continued with the franchise and moved on to Call of Duty: Ghosts, playing at multiple events with other former Halo pros, after reviving and competing under the Final Boss name. In March 2014, Ogre 2 announced his retirement from competitive gaming, citing a lack of enjoyment as the primary reason.[14] He ended his career with over 100 tournaments attended, including winning 5 out of the 8 year ending MLG National Championships (across 4 different Halo titles).[15]

The Return of Halo and OGRE 2

After nearly 3 years effectively in the eSports wilderness, Halo made a return to the Competitive Gaming scene after the announcement of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and more specifically, Halo 2: Anniversary, the remake of arguably the most popular competitive Halo title. OGRE 2 brought back the name StK and competed at the developer run Launch Invitational, finishing in 3rd place. After the success of this tournament, the Halo Championship Series [16] was announced, again endorsed by developer 343 Industries, and hosted by Electronic Sports League.[17] OGRE 2 and his team mates were picked up by League of Legends organization Counter Logic Gaming,[18] who were making their first splash into competitive Halo. The first HCS event was in Columbus, hosted by Iron Gaming, and once again OGRE 2 took home a 1st-place finish,[19] with a hard-fought win over Evil Geniuses, making Halo 2: Anniversary the sixth gaming title he has a 1st-place finish in (his fifth within the Halo franchise), and his 40th national/global level tournament win,[20] spanning over a decade. After holding onto the number one seed for the majority of the season, a second-place finish to Evil Geniuses at Gamers 4 Giving pushed them back for the first time since the season started. Evil Geniuses continued their dominance and took PAX nationals away from CLG in the finals, leaving CLG to take home 20K.

With season 2 about to start up, CLG saw differently from whole season 1 teammates Heinz. Heinz was sent over to Denial for the talents of Cloud. CLG seemed to have a more slayer oriented team, placing in the top 4 in the first two preseason online cups. However, their weaknesses showed when CLG took a disappointing 5th place at the first LAN event of the new season. The team struggled after this by taking 5th/6th in the next online cup. Soon after, Ogre 2 left for Hawaii to attend his brothers wedding, which overall showed on the CLG team. As a replacement CLG snagged Clutch, which didn’t work out for CLG’s favor. They placed poorly for most of the cups and moved down in the HCS standings as a result. Upon the return of Ogre 2, the rust was still not shaken off for Ogre 2 and CLG. CLG had their worst placing in the 4th online cup, but soon changed by taking 3rd in the next two cups. CLG was facing a lot of questions going into HCS Indy due to the fact they were not as dominant and a 5th seed. Wins in the first couple rounds would pair them against a more aggressive Cloud 9 and an unstoppable Evil Geniuses who were almost unbeatable during season 2. After being beat by Cloud 9, CLG fought through the loser bracket only to take 2nd just behind EG. Much like season 1, CLG was beat by EG in the winners bracket and fought through the losers bracket to meet back up with EG back in the finals. It seems as if CLG could take the championship after taking the first series, but EG came clawing back to 3-0 CLG in the second series.

Despite CLG taking 2nd, they became one of the top 2 best teams to have played in H2A. Tom, via Twitter, showed some desire to compete in halo 5.

Halo 5 and the World Championships

After MLG announced they wanted to take the reins of Halo 5 after its release, people quickly became interested in the new potential the game had. The prize pool quickly jumped to a million dollars and is now residing somewhere on the plus side of two million dollars. CLG was one of the few teams to stay together after the offseason of H2A. After a short time, Cloud was kicked from the team and was replaced by Frosty. Royal and Frosty took the main slayer roles and Snakebite could then be moved to objective/support, which seemed to suit him better. Ogre continued to play the support role and CLG was looking like one of the better teams. Going into the online qualifiers, CLG got the bad end of luck and got a higher seed. They played EG early in the bracket and finished 5th-8th. Upset with their placing, they came out hot, taking 3rd-4th, losing to the winning team Allegiance, and 1st, beating Allegiance in the following tournament. The next tournament seemed to have effect on the other players of CLG after another 3rd-4th finish. This placing would lead to Ogre being removed from his team for the first time ever on January 24 and would later join Mikwen, former teammate Pistola and Arkanum on team Envyus.[21] Due to a last minute team change, Envyus was unable to play for Xgames and Ogre had to sit out and watch his previous team CLG make it to the finals. This wasn’t as bad as the finish at the NA qualifiers which ultimately ended in them not qualifying for the World Championship.

Going into the next season which was picked up by ESL, Ogre was struggling to find a team. He originally ran games with Ninja and the Renegades squad, but that ended up not working out. As the Summer Pro League started to come closer, Ogre teamed with Sedduce, Arkanum, and Nemmasist on team Denial. Denial took 2nd in the Invitation online qualifier which gave them an invite to the Summer Qualifier. However, Denial failed to qualify for the Last Chance Qualifier. After another unsatisfying result, Ogre decided to take a break from Halo and find other spots in the Esports world.

He announced his retirement from professional gaming on May 21, 2016.[22][23]

Tournament History

Individual Competitions (Halo: Combat Evolved)

Individual Competitions (Halo 2)

2v2 Competitions (Halo: Combat Evolved)

Team Competitions (Shadowrun)

Team Competitions (Halo: Combat Evolved)

2004

Team Competitions (Halo 2)

2005

2006

2007

Team Competitions (Halo 3)

2008

2009

2010

Team Competitions (Halo: Reach)

2011

2012

Team Competitions (Halo 4)

2012

Team Competitions (Halo 2: Anniversary)

2014/2015

Season 1

Season 2

Halo 5

2016

** Online event

Awards

References

  1. ↑ America Takes World Gaming Crown
  2. ↑ Character Profile: Ogre 1
  3. ↑ Official Pro Website
  4. ↑ Ogre 2 on USA Network
  5. ↑ Moore, Kurt (2005-10-16). "Big Knob". The Marion Star. pp. 7A.
  6. ↑ GotFrag eSports - Halo 3 News Story - Halo 2 Team Leaves 3D
  7. ↑ Return of the Kings: US Gamers Sweep World Cyber Games - The winners are going home - Softpedia
  8. ↑ MLG Signs Four-Man Halo 2 Team for $1 Million Contract - Xbox
  9. ↑ http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/news/ogre-2-the-greatest-player-of-all-time-2
  10. ↑ Magee, Kyle (September 8, 2006). "Pro Player – OGRE 1". Major League Gaming. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  11. ↑ An Ode to Ogre 2
  12. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HZ9b0HiBk0
  13. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4R72g_3puA
  14. ↑ https://twitter.com/TomRyanOGRE2/status/449263739481505792
  15. ↑ https://twitter.com/TomRyanOGRE2/status/449296171576487936
  16. ↑ https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/halo-championship-series
  17. ↑ http://play.eslgaming.com/halo/north-america/halomcc-one/major/halo-mcc-championship-series
  18. ↑ http://clgaming.net/news/622-introducing-clg-halo
  19. ↑ http://teambeyond.net/iron-gaming-columbus-placings/
  20. ↑ https://twitter.com/TomRyanOGRE2/status/544308763403223041
  21. ↑ http://espn.go.com/esports/story/_/id/14665732/x-games-halo-world-championship-aspen-invitational-tour-preview
  22. ↑ http://www.redbull.com/us/en/esports/stories/1331802074642/ogre-2-hanging-up-the-sticks
  23. ↑ http://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/05/the-greatest-halo-player-of-all-time-retired-today/

External links

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