The basement looks like a typical slacker hangout: randomly placed TVs, some well-worn sofas, a set of bunk beds against the wall and a pile of video game equipment. The two 20-something characters who use this place as their base of operations appear to fit right in to the décor. Both are rail-thin college dropouts with perfect skater haircuts who sleep in after long hours spent on the Xbox.
David ‘Walshy’ Walsh, second from right, holds a $100,000 check after winning a Major League Gaming competition in Las Vegas with twins Dan and Tom Ryan at his side on Oct. 15, 2007. Dan and Tom, who are twins, make a living playing video games. They are among the best professional gamers in the world, and are probably the most accomplished “Halo” players of all time. For the entirety of their brief but impressive careers, the brothers have lived just outside of Columbus, in Pickerington.
“A lot of people think it’s not a lot of hard work,” Dan said. “They think, ‘You’re playing video games, what can’t be fun about it?’ “
His brother echoes his sentiment.
“It’s definitely more fun than working a regular job but it’s not as fun as you might think it would be. There’s a lot that goes into it,” Tom said.
The brothers are better known by their game tags Ogre1 and Ogre2 (Dan is Ogre1 because he was born first). They started playing in organized competitions when they were just 16, and gradually worked their way up through larger and larger events. Their freshman year they attended Ohio University full time, but dropped out to focus on gaming.
The Ogres have played in dozens of tournaments all over the country and overseas. One high point was a 2005 event in Singapore, where the twins represented the United States in the World Cyber Games. They beat a Canadian team to be crowned the best “Halo 2” players on the planet.
The brothers see their unique relationship as a big part of their success.
“We’ve always been really competitive, we’ve played sports our whole life, uh, lives,” Tom said.
“I think it’s definitely an edge to be not only brothers but twins,” Dan said. “We played competitive sports growing up and we’ve always been on the same team. We know how each other work as teammates and people.”
Their slight builds mask the fact that they were both serious athletes in a more typical sport, playing soccer for well over a decade. Those years are commemorated on the same walls that bear their checks, in the form of two big posters showing the brothers in action on the field. These images are the only thing in the basement that embarrass the Ogres. They practically cringe when looking at their young inelegant selves in uniform. The game that they used to play for fun sits practically a lifetime away from the game that they turned into a business.
At their gaming peak, they were going to competitions or group practices every two to three weeks. It’s impossible to count the hours spent on the road and in the air. Fly out of state, stare into a screen in a noisy ballroom or dark basement for the weekend, fly home, maybe crank out a paper due in class that Monday, sleep.
This hard work has earned them not only cash prizes but also a cult following. Their fans even show up at international events.
“I had no idea we had fans in Singapore. It was mind-blowing,” Tom said.
“There were maybe 20 or 30 kids that showed up wearing Ogres T-Shirts,” Dan said. “The one kid that spoke pretty good English said, ‘Yeah, this is pretty much everyone in Singapore that plays Halo.’ “
At regular competitions stateside, the fans are far more prevalent.
“I definitely sign well over 100 autographs,” Tom said. “Every event it’s a new record.”
Their notoriety occasionally spills out of the venues that host the competitions and into the street.
“I’ve been recognized publicly quite a few times, even recently,” Dan said. “I think we’ve grown used to it now. Most people are cool but some have been pretty creepy.”
Major League Gaming
Most of the competitions the Ryans enter are events through Major League Gaming. The league is the biggest organization in the U.S. for video game tournaments. MLG is holding five major events this year for several video games, but “Halo” is by far the biggest draw. In June, MLG will host it’s first event in Columbus. Hundreds of four-person teams will jam the Greater Columbus Convention Center in hopes of taking the top prize of $20,000. The Ogres will be among them.
It is with MLG that the Ogres have had their greatest continuous success, in the form of their team, Final Boss. Along with a small group of other teammates, Final Boss tore through event after event for almost three straight years without finishing below second place.
Michael Sepso, co-founder and chairman of the league, remembers that the Ogres established their dominance quite quickly.
“There were all these early-stage rumors of them having some kind of twin ESP,” he said. “There were a lot of conspiracy theories about the Ogres.”
As the popularity of the competitions has grown, so has the audience.
“There a lot more people that show up at tournaments just to watch, as spectators,” Dan said. “Gaming in general is becoming more mainstream and popular. All these kids hear about it and might not get to make the competition but they’ll come to watch.”
Dan says tournaments have become more regulated in recent years, to avoid trash talking and fighting, but the pressure to rack up kill after kill on virtual battlefields can be quite a drain on the players.
“Some people have cried when they lost. I’ve seen it before,” Tom said. “When you’re playing for $100,000 and you lose in game 10 of a best of 11 series, it gets really serious.”
A game in the life
Tom says his daily routine is pretty simple.
“I wake up whenever I want to. I pretty much create my own schedule. My team practices almost every day. We assume we are getting on around 7 p.m. and play until 1 or 2 a.m.,” he said. “I treat that as my job, and those are my work hours.”
Practice intensifies as a competition approaches. Tom said in the week or two prior to an event, he will consistently practice up to eight hours a day. The Ogres see practice as the key aspect that separates professionals from amateurs.
“If you’re going to try to play professionally, you have to try to put in as much time as you can,” Dan said.
In other sports, athletes usually get most of their income from contracts with the team they play for and sponsorship or endorsement deals. In pro gaming, sponsors are scarce and teams are not franchised. Only the top eight teams in an event win prize money. To make it a financially sound profession, teams must do better than just finish in the money.
“The only people really making any money are the top four or five teams. The other teams are maybe making enough to cover the rest of their weekend,” Dan said.
MLG competitions usually involve almost 250 teams. Since the teams need to consistently make it to those top few spots, just 16 to 20 people out of about 1,000 win a significant cash prize at a given event.
“You pretty much have to be in the top half of a percent of players to make a living playing Halo professionally,” Tom said.
‘My Xbox doesn’t even work right now’
Though they spent
years together on the team Final Boss, Dan left the group after the end of last season. He is taking a break from competitions and returning to school. After his next competition he intends to study abroad via Ohio University.
“I plan on attending the event here in Columbus, and after that I’ve already been accepted to study in Australia this year,” he said.
Dan said he has found it increasingly difficult to win the largest prizes on a consistent basis. Since “Halo 3” was released in September 2007, no teams have been able to dominate the way Final Boss once did.
“As it stands right now, I don’t think it’s a very reliable source of income,” Dan said.
Tom has the same concern.
“Back during ‘Halo 2’ we were making a very good living, but we were always in the top two. Now it just seems impossible to consistently place in the same area,” he said. “Considering 95 to 100 percent of my income is based on prize money, it’s harder to consider it a job when it fluctuates so much. I’m considering going back to school, at least part time.”
Despite the new difficulties, Tom is still going forward with Final Boss. The team finished fifth at the last MLG competition in April and is ranked fourth going into the Columbus event.
Dan is in the opposite position – the team he plans to play with isn’t even listed on the fully professional roster. The semi-pro status of his squad has led to a deeply laid-back approach to the Columbus competition. When asked about practicing for the event, Dan tilts his head and shrugs, as if being accused of something he cares too little about to offer an alibi.
“My Xbox doesn’t even work right now,” he said.
Since the average age of the gamers at the events is 16 or 17, the Ryans realize they are now the old guard. They seem reluctant to call themselves legends, but it’s a term that has been used frequently by others.
The Ogres, who turn 23 this summer, are among the oldest players in MLG. In their experience, only a handful of the top pros are old enough to legally drink alcohol. They said former Final Boss teammate David “Walshy” Walsh is the oldest. Walsh is 24.
“He’s like the grandpa, cracking the old jokes,” Tom said.
Because the league itself is so young, it is unclear just how long a player can remain professional.
“People have quit for other reasons, not because they can’t compete anymore,” Dan said. “No one really knows how long someone can last and compete at the top.”
Jared Chaney can be reached at [email protected].
