David Walsh is a retired American professional esports player. His professional career in gaming began in 2004 under the name Walshy. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most successful ''

Halo Halo, halos or haloes usually refer to: * Halo (optical phenomenon) * Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head HALO, halo, halos or haloes may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Video games * ''Halo'' (franch ...

'' players of all time.

Early life

Walsh grew up in

Grandville, Michigan Grandville is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 15,378 at the 2010 census. Grandville is just southwest of the city of Grand Rapids and is part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. It was first settled i ...

. He graduated from Grandville High School in 2003. He was a member of the school's tennis and wrestling teams. Prior to becoming a pro, he worked with his father at a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

. He decided to leave college after a year to pursue a gaming career.

Career

Professional gaming

Walsh became a professional gamer in 2004. He co-led teams including FFA, DtO and

Team 3D The Dudley Boyz (also known as Team 3D) are an American professional wrestling tag team that consisted of kayfabe half-brothers Bubba Ray Dudley (Mark LoMonaco) and D-Von Dudley (Devon Hughes). The team was also joined by various Dudley family me ...

, eventually becoming the team captain of the

Major League Gaming Major League Gaming Corp. (MLG) is a professional esports organization. MLG is headquartered in New York City, New York and was founded in 2002 by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso. MLG has held official video game tournaments throughout the ...

four-on-four team Final Boss from the 2004 season through July 23, 2008, when it was announced that Final Boss had released him from the team. He signed a contract with

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...

. Walsh has been featured in

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...

, 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 the ''

Boost Mobile MLG Pro Circuit ''Boost Mobile MLG Pro Circuit'' is a television program on US cable television network USA, and later G4, airing recordings of the Major League Gaming (MLG) ''Halo 2'' Pro Circuit in 2006 and 2007. It was sponsored by Boost Mobile and Scion. ...

'' episodes on USA Network in 2006.After his former team, Final Boss, placed poorly at two of MLG's 2008 tournaments, (San Diego th Orlando th his teammates ( Ogre2, Ogre1, and Strongside) decided to drop him from the team for fellow MLG Pro Player Neighbor, formerly of

Str8 Rippin Str8 Rippin is a professional ''Halo'' team in the United States that competes in the Halo Championship Series. Str8 Rippin was first formed in 2005 for ''Halo 2'' on the Major League Gaming (MLG) Pro Circuit. Their most successful period was duri ...

. 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." Then soon after in MLG Dallas his new team

Instinct Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour, containing both innate (inborn) and learned elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a v ...

placed 5th behind Final Boss, who placed 3rd once again.MLG Article on Neighbor Joining Final Boss
/ref> 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. On March 1, 2012, Walsh announced his retirement from competitive gaming.

Kiaeneto clothing line

In 2006 Walsh co-founded Kiaeneto, a line of clothing for gamers. On March 1, 2012, he said that he will no longer be working with Kiaeneto.

Author

Walsh wrote the

Prima Games Prima Games is a publishing company of video game strategy guides in the United States. Formerly, Prima was an imprint of Dorling Kindersley, a division of Penguin Random House, and produced print ''strategy guides'', featuring ''in-depth walkth ...

guide books on ''

Battlefield 4 ''Battlefield 4'' is a 2013 first-person shooter video game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released in October and November for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, and is the ...

'', ''

Titanfall ''Titanfall'' is a series of video games that mainly feature first-person shooter games. The series was created by Respawn Entertainment and debuted on Xbox and Microsoft Windows; it has expanded to other consoles and platforms. Gameplay In ''T ...

'', and illustrated maps on the '' Halo: The Master Chief Collection'' multiplayer map book.

Commentator

Walsh was a Halo commentator at the Winter Championships in Columbus on March 23-25, 2012.

Personal life

Walsh serves on the board of directors of the

Gamers Outreach Foundation Gamers Outreach Foundation (stylized as Gamers Outreach) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides entertainment to hospitalized families through video games. The organization was started in 2007 in response to a canceled Halo tournament. ...

. He started the virtual gaming chapter of the

Entertainment Consumers Association Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) is a United States-based non-partisan, non-government, non-profit organization dedicated to the interests of individuals who play computer and video games in the United States and Canada. History Hal H ...

References

External links

Dave Walsh Facebook
{{Professional Halo competition Living people People from Kent County, Michigan Halo (franchise) players American esports players American non-fiction writers People from Grandville, Michigan Esports commentators Final Boss (Halo team) players Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)