Towey

Ryan "Towey" Towey is the former coach of Evil Geniuses. He is also well known for his time coaching Instinct, managing the Gaming Lessons website, and founding The LAN Network.

Biography
Ryan Towey was born on January 1, 1991 in Edina, Minnesota. He grew up playing the Nintendo 64 and Playstation, with his favorite games being Mario Kart 64 and Super Smash Bros. His first Halo game was Halo 2, which he still considers to be his favorite in the series. Quickly after starting Halo 2 online he became friends with future professional players Elamite Warrior and Victory X, both of which whom take credit for introducing Towey to competitive Halo. He attended Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska graduating in 2012 with a degree in business intelligence and analytics as well as information systems management. In 2012, he moved to Chicago, Illinois to live with Justin Kats (FearItSelf) and Cameron Thorlakson (Victory X). He currently resides in Chicago and works full time downtown at the Chicago Board of Trade in addition to competing on team Evil Geniuses.

2007
In both 2006 and 2007 Towey competed in several MLG events for Halo 2 without any notable placings. However, throughout 2007 he founded and managed the website 'iP Tourneys' which revolutionized the way that professional players were able to offer instruction to other players online including individual lessons, team lessons, gametime, account boosting, and more. Towey received heavy criticism from both the community and the pro players offering services for placing Snip3down on the list of professional players through the company before he had ever attended a tournament. Despite the controversy at the time, Towey kept Snip3down as an instructor throughout the end of 2007 and 2008.

2008
Towey attended Orlando 2008 and Dallas 2008 as a player as well as the 2008 National Championships first coaching team Classic (consisting of long time friend Victory X, Mackeo, Soldier187 and AnT) at the 2008 MLG Las Vegas National Championships. The team finished in 6th place. Throughout the 2008 season Towey continued to manage iP Tourneys and developed many close relationships with the professional players he worked with, ultimately leading to a partnership with Tsquared to join the Gaming Lessons company.

2009
Throughout 2009 Towey worked alongside Tsquared to provide over 50+ player services through the Gaming Lessons website including individual lessons, team lessons, gametime, account boosting, weekly articles, editorials, and the first of it's kind 'Str8 Camp' that offered players the chance to join the team for 1 on 1 boot camp training in person for the weekend. Gaming Lessons was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine in July of 2009 as well as many other media publications drawing mass attention to the website. At the same time during the summer of 2009 Towey founded 'The LAN Network' with Mr. P (Totz's father) out of suburban Chicago, IL. As a full time student with 20+ credit hours, LAN events every other weekend, MLG tournaments once per month, and Gaming Lessons responsibilities, it all added up to be too much and after heavy debate Towey decided to part ways with the Gaming Lessons company after the 2009 National Championships. Towey attempted to compete as a player in the 2009 MLG season but due to issues with teammates leaving his team on the Friday of the tournament three separate tournaments in a row (Columbus 2009, Dallas 2009, Anaheim 2009) he was unable to place consistently in the pro bracket.

2010
Throughout 2010 Towey continued managing all logistical operations, live events, sales, and customer support for The LAN Network attending every LAN event that was broadcasted while remaining a full time student and competing at every MLG tournament. The LAN Network grew to be extremely successful gaining over one hundred and twenty countries in total viewership by member status and livestreamed several multi-pro team LAN's prior to each MLG event of the season through the 2010 season. Towey finally found success as a coach when he joined Instinct in 2010. The talented squad of long time friends Roy, Lunchbox, ElamiteWarrior and Cloud would win their first event under his guidance, MLG Orlando 2010. They would repeat as champions at MLG Columbus 2010 before finishing 2nd at MLG Raleigh 2010. They would finish a relatively disappointing 5th at MLG Washington, D.C. 2010 before closing out the season with a 3rd place finish at the 2010 MLG Dallas National Championships.

2011
Throughout the offseason and the 2011 season Towey continued his involvement with The LAN Network. Due to a credit load of 24-27 hours per semester his senior year of school he refrained from commuting to Chicago for every single LAN event but opted to provide technical support and manage the livestream remotely towards the end of the year. Additionally The LAN Network offered 'Pros vs Joes' events for the very first time allowing up to twenty players the chance to visit for the weekend and play on teams alongside their favorite pro players. Following the 2011 National Championship and with only six months left in college, Towey decided to part ways with The LAN Network to focus on completing all requirements necessary for graduation. In addition to The LAN Network, Towey remained with Lunchbox and Roy on Instinct for the entirety of the 2011 season. With a new lineup of Roy, Lunchbox, Totz and Tsquared, Instinct finished in 6th at the MLG Dallas 2011 season opener. Totz and Tsquared were then replaced with prolific players iGotUrPistola and Ogre2, forming a team often referred to by fans as "the God Squad". They lived up to the hype, winning their first two events together, dropping only a single game in the process. They were dethroned by Infamous at MLG Raleigh 2011 and placed 2nd, and finished a disappointing 5th at MLG Orlando 2011. However they turned things around when it really mattered, reclaiming the throne at the 2011 MLG Providence National Championships.

2012
Following the 2011 National Championships Towey decided to focus the majority of his time on school, ensuring that all requirements for graduation would be complete by May 2012. MLG would host their only "no bloom, no sprint" tournament of Halo: Reach's lifespan in 2012 at the Major League Gaming 2012 Winter Championship where Team Instinct found it's back against the wall several times throughout the tournament. Instinct managed to win four consecutive game 5's to advance to the grand finals, ultimately losing to Status Quo 50-48 in Game 11. Towey and the rest of Instinct competed one last time in Halo: Reach at AGL 2 Columbus, where they again finished in 1st place. Following graduation from college in May 2012, Towey would move to Chicago, Illinois to live with Justin Kats (FearItSelf) and Cameron Thorlakson (Victory X) of team Final Boss.

Halo 4
Towey started off Halo 4 remaining on Instinct alongside Lunchbox, Roy, iGotUrPistola, and OGRE 2. The team competed at the MLG Fall Championship 2012 exhibition, the tournament which famously involved several top teams illegally downloading the game early to gain an edge over 'the God Squad'. As the tournament was only an exhibition in partnership with 343 studios, the date of release for Halo 4 was set several days after the tournament to provide marketing for the launch of the game and teams in the tournament were supposed to be playing for the very first time. Having not illegally download the game Instinct was at a severe disadvantage and placed in the top 12, the lowest career placing for every member of the team. After taking over a year off, the next team Towey would coach would be Status Quo at AGL 3 Chicago, with a roster of Victory X, FearitSelf, Enable and Flamesword. They would finish 3rd place without much practice, having attended the event locally in suburban Chicago last second. Towey then returned to coaching Roy several months later, this time in a return to team Classic with a roster of Roy, Chig, Mikwen and APG. They finished 5th at AGL 7 Knoxville again without much practice having attended the tournament last second. Following the tournament, Towey announced his retirement from competitive Halo to focus on his career.

Halo 2: Anniversary
Towey was convinced to attend and coach Triggers Down at the PAX Prime Showdown 2014 last second by his roommate FearitSelf and long time friend Heinz. The rest of the roster included Hysteria and Lethul, they would finish in 4th place. With only 10 days notice to the tournament Towey, FearItSelf and Hysteria then joined The Agency with Victory X and Ninja for the ESL MCC Launch Invitational, where they finished in 5th/6th. Following HaloFest and the launch of Halo 2: Anniversary Towey, alongside longtime best friends and teammates Lunchbox and Roy, announced they were officially coming back to compete again together.

HCS Season 1
Towey joined Evil Geniuses with a roster of Roy, Lunchbox, iGotUrPistola and Snip3down in November 2014. They finished 2nd at the inaugural HCS event, Iron Games Columbus 2014. The injured Pistola was then replaced by Lethul, and they finished 3rd at UGC St. Louis 2015. Evil Geniuses then went on a tear, winning Gamers For Giving 2015 and the HCS Season 1 Finals to close out the season on top.

HCS Season 2
The Evil Geniuses roster stuck together for Season 2 and went undefeated throughout the season, winning Iron Games Atlanta 2015, HCS Indianapolis and the HCS Season 2 Finals to end the season with over $100,000 in prize money. Following the conclusion of HCS Season 2 the team cemented it's place in Halo history becoming only the 2nd team to win five consecutive tournaments or more (Final Boss: 2005, Final Boss: 2005-2006, Evil Geniuses: 2015) throughout more than a decade of competitive Halo.

Halo World Championship 2016
The dominant EG squad predictably stayed together through the offseason. In their first Halo World Championship-affiliated tournament, NA Qualifier #1, they continued their official tournament winning streak, defeating Team EnVyUs in the finals. Their streak was broken the following week, as they finished top 4 in NA Qualifier #2. After EG failed to win the next two cups as well, Lethul was confirmed to have left the team on January 21st in a forum post by Snipedown. EG replaced him later that day with Hamza "Commonly" Abbaali. Despite the last minute change, EG continued their streak of event wins, defeating Lethul and CLG in dramatic fashion in the finals at the X Games Aspen 2016 invitational after losing to CLG earlier in the event in Group Play. In addition to prize money, EG were awarded X Games gold medals for their efforts. The next month at the HWC NA Regional Finals, EG were defeated 4-0 in the semifinals by CLG, ending their historic winning streak with a top 4 finish. At Worlds, EG came out struggling, losing a close series to Renegades in their group. This resulted in a quarterfinals match against CLG, which EG lost 3-0, exiting the tournament with a top 8 finish.

Pro League
On March 22nd, two days after the conclusion of HWC 2016, Evil Geniuses announced the release of Commonly and the signing of Ayden "Suspector" Hill, formerly of Team Allegiance.

Trivia

 * Winningest coach of all time (MLG: 5 wins, AGL: 1 win, HCS: 6 wins)
 * Longest tenured coach of any team (Instinct: 14 tournaments, Evil Geniuses: 10 tournaments)
 * As a trio: Towey, Lunchbox, and Roy have teamed together for 20 national tournaments. They have made it to the grand finals in 15 of them, taking 1st place in 11.
 * Renowned for his world class juggling skills.
 * Is so unlucky in his daily life the hashtag #LifeIsTow has been given to him on Twitter to represent without fail how consistently unlucky he generally is, specifically while traveling.

Interviews

 * http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/news/killer-instinct-mlg-interviews-cbus-reach-champs


 * http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/715144/team-instinct-and-team-quantic-leverage-mlg-anaheim-winner-interviews/


 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UktfUqaY_k


 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STkbqhNwoJk


 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR7GCKNRsG0


 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrnGw6GT1O4


 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HZ9b0HiBk0


 * https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/blog-posts/ryan-towey-breaks-down-the-art-of-coaching

Articles

 * http://business.creighton.edu/news/recent-graduate-pays-college-gaming


 * http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-newest-job-in-sports-videogame-coach-1438142460