Walshy
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
No issues specified. Please specify issues, or remove this template. |
| Dave Walsh | |
|---|---|
| Current team | |
| Team | Team Carbon |
| Games | Halo:CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 |
| Leagues | Major League Gaming |
| Status | Active |
| Personal information | |
| Nickname(s) | Walshy |
| Born | June 23, 1984 |
David Walsh (born June 23, 1984, grew up in Grandville, Michigan) is a professional gamer and entrepreneur.[1] His career Electronic sports began in March 2003, originally under the pseudonym Hotshy, and later under the name Walshy. Graduated from Grandville, High School in 2003.
Professional Gaming
Walsh co-led teams including FFA, DtO and 3D, eventually becoming the team captain of the Major League Gaming four-on-four team Final Boss from the 2004 season until July 23, 2008, when it was announced that Final Boss had released him from the team.[2] In June, 2006, he signed a contract with Major League Gaming worth 250,000 dollars over three years. Walsh has been featured in Electronic Gaming Monthly,[3] BPM, WZZM news station, Lansing State Journal, Game Informer Monthly, MTV, and The Grand Rapids Press. Walsh is the second runner-up in MLG one-on-one championship and has also been shown on all of MLG's shows on USA Network in 2006. After his former team, Final Boss, placed poorly at two of MLG's 2008 tournaments, (San Diego [7th], Orlando [5th]) his teammates (Ogre2, Ogre1, and Strongside) decided to drop him from the team for fellow MLG Pro Player Neighbor, formerly of Str8 Rippin. He then played for Team Instinct with whom he placed second with at MLG Toronto ahead of his former team, Final Boss, who finished 3rd. When asked how it felt to beat his former team, he replied, "It was like taking candy from a baby, but I think the baby would have put up a better fight." [4] Then soon after in MLG Dallas his new team Instinct placed 5th behind Final Boss, who placed 3rd once again.[5][6]
In 2009, Walsh and Team Instinct dropped Soviet from the group and added Neighbor to their roster, with this new line-up they placed 2nd at MLG Meadowlands, ahead of Walsh's old team Final Boss. He was then dropped by Instinct and went into Dallas with his new team, Carbon, which placed 2nd. Following their 2nd place finish in Dallas, in Anaheim 2009, Instinct placed 3rd.He also serves as a board member of Gamers Outreach Foundation - a charity that uses video games for various community projects.
Early Life
Born in Michigan in 1984, Walsh seemed like a typical kid who loved sports and played video games on the side. The teenager’s sometimes outrageous strategies in traditional contests offered a hint of his ability to innovate – like the time he was losing in a tennis match and decided to switch things up by sending every single shot back to his opponent as an easy lob. “I didn’t know if it would work,” Walsh shrugs, “but he got so frustrated that I won the match.”
As a member of his high school wrestling team, Walsh would work off post-match adrenaline by playing video games all night. When he was a senior in 2003, he heard about a video game tournament and decided to see what it was like. Out of a field of some 300 competitors, Walsh finished fifth.
Still, it didn’t seem like a way to make a living. Walsh spent the summer working 65 hours a week in the post office to pay for business classes at Grand Rapids Community College. But he kept on entering tournaments. By the time the next summer rolled around, Walsh realized that he could make as much money playing video games as he could at the post office. “It was a no-brainer,” he states.
“I NEVER FEEL LIKE THERE IS NOTHING ELSE I CAN LEARN.” -DAVE WALSH
When Major League Gaming, the largest organized league and international sanctioning body for professional video gaming, launched its first season with Halo 1 play in 2004, Walsh and his teammates won the final four rounds, including the National Championships. As the 2005 season began, Walshy and the Ogres (Ogre 1 and Ogre 2) welcomed a new teammate, Saiyan, to officially form Final Boss, which became the most successful Halo 2 team the game had ever seen, at one point boasting a winning streak of a year and a half.
After two more national championships and a runner-up finish with Final Boss, the team split, with Walsh taking a spot on the Instinct team for about a year before moving on to his current home with Carbon. In both cases, the team’s results dramatically improved – in fact, Walsh has never finished out of the top three in national championships since MLG began.[7]
Quotes
"Gaming is evolving."
"Everyone assumes gamers sit around all day. It's not true, I was a regional champion for tennis and our team took second for state for wrestling."[8]
"It was like taking candy from a baby." (Quote from beating Final boss. They they dropped him from the team)[9]