Ogre 2

OGRE 2
OGRE 2
	The Ogre Twins at WCG 2005
Current team
Team	Final Boss
Role	Head coach
Game	Halo
Personal information
Name	Tom Ryan
Born	August 3, 1986 (36 years old)
Nationality	American
Career information
Games	Halo; Call of Duty; Shadowrun;
Playing career	Until 2016
Coaching career	2017–present
Team history
As player:
2003–2004	Shoot to Kill
2004–2004	Domination
2005	Shoot to Kill
2005–2006	Team 3D
2006–2011	Final Boss
2011–2012	Instinct
2014	Shoot to Kill
2014–2016	Counter Logic Gaming
2016	Team EnVyUs
2016	Denial eSports
As coach:
2017	Evil Geniuses
2017–present	Team Reciprocity

Tom Ryan, known under the pseudonym Ogre 2, is a retired professional Halo player from Columbus, Ohio. He is widely considered to be the greatest Halo player of all time.^[1]^[2] He and his twin brother Dan ("Ogre 1") are known as the "Ogre Twins". In 2005, the Ogre Twins won the gold medal in Halo 2 at the World Cyber Games.^[3] 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.

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The Ogre Twins are a highly accomplished pair, winning many national Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 tournaments.^[4] Ryan has played for many professional teams, including Instinct, Shoot to Kill, Team Domination, DtO, Final Boss, and Team3D.^[5] In June 2006, he signed a three-year contract with Major League Gaming. He played on the Boost Mobile MLG Pro Circuit on USA Network in 2006. and was briefly sponsored by NBA player Gilbert Arenas.^[4] He was also sponsored by Red Bull, Stride gum, and Eon. Ryan was a member of Counter Logic Gaming from 2014 to 2016.

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Gaming career

Halo Combat Evolved

Ryan began his professional gaming career at small local tournaments along with Dan Ryan, his twin brother.^[6] Ogre 2's 4 vs. 4 teams in Halo Combat Evolved (Halo CE) finished first on multiple occasions and were regarded among the best teams. However, for 2 vs. 2 players, Ogre 2 teammate was mostly his twin brother; they became one of the best duos in the history of Halo. They were 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, Ryan 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,^[7] Team StK (Shoot to Kill), 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 to secure a first-place finish.^[8]

Halo 2

They won countless Halo 2 tournaments after the transition to the new game, which also saw them add another dominant Halo CE player, Saiyan, and team Domination was born. The team was considered unbeatable and although they lost a few events, they never fell below second place. They changed their names to Final Boss. 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.^[9]

It wasn't until the emergence of Team Carbon that Final Boss struggled to continue its reign of dominance. Carbon and Final Boss would soon develop what was the biggest rivalry in Halo. At the 2006 Nationals, they placed second to Team Carbon in a 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 two in 38 consecutive tournaments (winning thirty of these), including ten tournament wins in a row between 2004 and 2005 and nine tournament wins in a row between 2005 and 2006.^[10] They also have an older brother Marty, OGRE3, who served as a coach for Final Boss at several tournaments.^[11]

For the last season of Halo 2 in 2007, the team made a change. They dropped Saiyan and picked up Strongside from Carbon. The result was a loss-free tournament. In the 2007 Nationals, Final Boss took first place and received a $100,000 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.

Halo 3

As the 2008 Halo 3 season started, Final Boss won at 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 Ryan's brother left Final Boss and moved to Australia. This left Ogre 2 as the only remaining original member of Final Boss, alongside pro players Mackeo, Fearitself, and Victory X. The next season brought a variety of new additions, including Mackeo, Fearitself, and Victory X, along with Neighbor, Sypher, and Totz. After a disappointing eight-place finish at the end of the 2009 season with a roster of Ryan, FearItSelf, Totz, and Victory X, the team improved to a third-place finish to team Instinct.

Final Boss dropped Totz to pick up Justin "iGotUrPistola" Deese, part of the Triggers Down squad that had dominated the 2009 MLG circuit. Final Boss improved, finishing second behind Instinct and then going on to win the next tournament. 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, including the national championship.

Halo Reach

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 Ryan with a tenth-place finish. This was his 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, under 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 prior two years, 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 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 the newly formed Infamous team, ranked thirteenth, 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 fifth, their worst placing as the God Squad. The team practiced for the nationals and they came back to win the national title at MLG Providence. This gave Ogre, as a five-time national champion, the unique distinction of becoming the only player to become national champion of every game in the Halo series.^[12]

In 2012, Ogre 2 and his team Instinct continued to compete in Halo: Reach. They placed second at the MLG Event in Columbus, Ohio, losing to team Status Quo. From there, Ryan 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.^[13]

Call of Duty

In 2013, the competitive Halo scene was 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 the rival game Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Ogre 2's new team, Rage, consisted of all eSports veterans who had been successful at other competitive games.^[14]

In 2014, Ogre 2 revived the Final Boss team name and moved on to Call of Duty: Ghosts, playing at multiple events with other former Halo pros. In March 2014, Ogre 2 announced his retirement from competitive gaming, citing a lack of enjoyment as the primary reason.^[15] He ended his career with over 100 tournaments attended, including winning five out of the eight MLG National Championships (across four different titles).^[16]

Return of Halo

After nearly three years away from esports, Halo made a return to the Competitive Gaming scene after the announcement of Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo 2: Anniversary. Ryan brought back the name StK and competed at the developer-run Launch Invitational, finishing in third place. After the success of this tournament, the Halo Championship Series (HCS) was announced, again endorsed by developer 343 Industries and hosted by Electronic Sports League.^[17]^[18]

OGRE 2 and his teammates were picked up by League of Legends organization Counter Logic Gaming (CLG), who were making their first splash into competitive Halo.^[19] The first HCS event was in Columbus, hosted by Iron Gaming. Once again OGRE 2 took home a first-place finish, with a hard-fought win over Evil Geniuses.^[20] This was Ryan's sixth first-place gaming title and his 40th national/global level tournament win.^[21] 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.

At the start of Season 2, CLG disagreed with teammate Heinz. Heinz was traded to Denial for Cloud. CLG seemed to have a more slayer-oriented team, placing in the top four in the first two preseason online cups. However, their weaknesses showed when CLG took a disappointing fifth 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 brother's wedding, which overall showed on the CLG team. As a replacement CLG snagged Clutch, which didn't work out in CLG's favor. They placed poorly in most of the cups and moved down in the HCS standings as a result.

When Ogre 2 returned, CLG had their worst placing in the 4th online cup but soon changed by taking 3rd in the next two cups. When going into HCS Indy, CLG was a fifth-place seed. Wins in the first couple of rounds would pair them against a more aggressive Cloud 9 and an unstoppable Evil Geniuses who were almost unbeatable during Season 2. After being beaten by Cloud 9, CLG fought through the loser bracket only to take second just behind EG. Much like in season 1, CLG was beaten by EG in the winner's bracket and fought through the loser's bracket to meet back up with EG back in the finals. It appeared that CLG could take the championship after winning the first series, but EG came clawing back to beat CLG 3-0 in the second series. Despite CLG placing second, they became one of the top two best teams to have played in H2A.

Halo 5

After MLG announced they wanted to take the reins of Halo 5 in 2015, people quickly became interested in the new game's potential. The prize pool 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 dropped from the team and 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 appeared to be one of the better teams.

Going into the online qualifiers, CLG faced 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. However, they beat Allegiance in the following tournament. The next tournament seemed to have an effect on the other players of CLG after another 3rd-4th finish. This placing lead to Ogre2 removal from his team for the first time ever on January 24. Ryan joined Mikwen, former teammate Pistola, and Arkanum on the team EnVyUs.^[22] Due to a last minute team change, EnVyUs was unable to play for Xgames. Ogre 2 had to sit out and watch CLG make it to the finals.

Going into the next season which was picked up by ESL, Ogre 2 was struggling to find a team. He tried out with Ninja and the Renegades squad without success. As the Summer Pro League started to come closer, Ogre teamed with Seduce, Arkanum, and Nemassist on team Denial. Denial took second place in the Invitation online qualifier. This gave Denial an automatic invitation to the Summer Qualifier. However, Denial failed to qualify for the last chance qualifier. After another unsatisfying result, Ryan 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.^[23]^[24]

Coach and manager

Ryan became a coach for the Evil Geniuses organization following the previous coach, Towey's, transition to Call of Duty. He remained a coach until EG disbanded their Halo roster.

On August 26 Ogre 2 joined the Florida Mutineers Call of Duty team as general manager.

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