Dave "Walshy" Walsh

Barely into his twenties, Dave Walsh doesn’t feel like a pioneer. Or a legend. Or a role model. But as captain of the dominant team in the first professional league for the world’s fastest-growing sport – pro video gaming – he’s all three

Best known by his gamertag, “Walshy” has led his Final Boss team to multiple Major League Gaming (MLG) championships with masterful strategies, thrilling gameplay, and outside-the-box thinking. Already, gamers commit his tactics to memory the way chess addicts study the masters of old. Yet if Walsh goes down in history as the guru of Halo 2, no one will be more surprised than the down-to-earth competitor himself.

“A NO-BRAINER”

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.

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 today is the MLG circuit’s longest-standing roster and the most successful Halo 2 team the game has ever seen, at one point boasting a winning streak of a year and a half. At every stop on the circuit, Walsh and Final Boss are the team to beat.

“NOTHING LIKE IT”

Final Boss captain Walsh is quick to give recognition to his teammates. “I don’t look at it like I make all the great decisions,” he states. “I guess I’m just organized!”

And organization is key. Video gaming pros not only practice for hours on end – as much as 30 to 40 hours a week in season – but they also study replays to assess their own strengths and weaknesses and gain insight into the strategies of their opponents. For key events like the season championships, Final Boss will go so far as to sequester themselves out of town for a couple of weeks to finalize their gameplan. The hard work pays off not only with top honors, but with financial rewards: winners of a season title can expect to share a prize of $100,000, and Final Boss’s overall dominance and sportsmanship earned the teammates a three-year, one-million-dollar contract with Major League Gaming, as well as outside sponsorships including support from basketball star Gilbert Arenas.

The gifts Walsh brings to the group are undeniable. Called a “human highlight reel,” Walsh is widely touted as the circuit’s most brilliant tactician, known for a level head, innovative tricks and strategies, and the versatility of his “claw” grip on the controller (which he says looks “ridiculous” but was inspired by play in amateur paintball events). With typical modesty, the gaming star muses, “I think I just make really good decisions. I know when to fight and when to run away.”

Thanks to the debut of the “Boost Mobile Major League Gaming Pro Circuit” series on the USA Network, fans can tune in to watch Walsh and Final Boss put their skills to the test against the league’s top competitors. And viewers who happen to like what Walshy is wearing should check out another debut: Walsh and a friend recently launched a clothing company, www.kiaeneto.com. “It’s for people who want to get involved with a cool style that represents what we do – but not blatantly,” the pro says, adding, “for example, you won’t see graphics of a controller!”

Walsh hopes that Kiaeneto will grow right along with professional video gaming, so that when he’s ready to retire, he’ll have the business to fall back on. But that’s years down the road. “When people call me one of the founders of this new type of pro competition, it’s weird to think about,” Walsh comments. “I’m just a young guy having fun with something brand new. There’s nothing like it.”