MaNiaC

Biography
Nick Kershner was born between on March 15, 1991. He has recently become a popular streamer and eSports celebrity, experiencing a surge in popularity since joining OpTic Gaming and gaining over 100,000 YouTube subscriptions in a matter of months.

Halo 2
MaNiaC made his Professional Gaming debut with a top 32 finish at MLG Charlotte 2007. His team, Joke a ChoKe, consisted of Anthrax, Cloud and Death. His best placing in Halo 2 was 21st, at MLG Orlando 2007.

Halo 3
MaNiaC competed in 3 out of the 6 MLG events in 2008. He placed top 8 twice, at MLG Orlando 2008 and MLG Dallas 2008 with two separate teams. In 2009, MaNiaC found success on Believe the Hype with a roster consisting of Cloud, Clutch and Demon D. They placed 5th at MLG Anaheim 2009 and followed that performance with a 1st place finish at the MLG Orlando 2009 National Championship. Believe the Hype underwent a handful of changes throughout the 2010 season, resulting in their best finish being 3rd at MLG Columbus 2010.

Halo: Reach
MaNiaC and Believe the Hype continued to swap out players in the first season of Halo Reach. In 2011, Believe the Hype placed 3rd in three separate events. They ended the season 3rd at the MLG Providence 2011 National Championship. The roster consisted of Cloud, Reliable and Snip3down.

Halo 2: Annivesary
Believe the Hype won the ESL MCC Launch Invitational in November 2014 with a roster of MaNiaC, Formal, Lethul and APG. This was MaNiaC's 2nd major tournament win and his first since the MLG Orlando 2009 National Championship. MaNiaC brought BtH into the HCS, one of the few top teams to not go the route of signing with an eSports organization. With a roster of MaNiaC, APG, Lethul and Legit, BtH took 5th place at Iron Games Columbus 2014, and 9th at UGC St. Louis 2015. Following UGC, BtH disbanded when Lethul and APG left. This lead to MaNiaC joining Noble Black with Arkanum, Aries and ContrA. Ironically, APG would end up replacing ContrA and teaming with MaNiaC once again. At MaNiaC's first tournament on a team other than BtH since MLG Meadowlands 2009, MaNiaC and Noble Black placed a disappointing 9-12th at Gamers For Giving 2015, but managed to hold onto the 8th seed and qualify for the season finals at PAX East 2015. At PAX, Noble Black had a much better showing, going on a huge Losers Bracket run that narrowly ended in the Losers Finals against Counter Logic Gaming to end their season with a 3rd placing and $10,000.

On March 15, 2015, MaNiaC announced that he was leaving Noble Black to join OpTic Halo with Flamesword, Ace and Assault. After a contract dispute, it was made official later that day. MaNiaC's first event with OpTic was Iron Games Atlanta 2015, where they finished in 6th place. They improved slightly on their placing at HCS Indianapolis, finishing 5th, but closed out the season with another 6th place finish at the HCS Season 2 Finals.

Halo 5: Guardians
MaNiaC and OpTic were the only North American team invited to compete at the Gamescom Invitational 2015 four-team event. They were defeated in the first round by Supremacy, finishing in the bottom two. Ace left OpTic soon after to join Team Liquid, leaving OpTic to pick up StelluR in his place. After four online qualifiers with StelluR, he and Assault left the team and were replaced by Chaser and Lifestyle. The new roster qualified for the HWC 2016 NA Regional Finals as the 16th seed. At Regionals, OpTic finished top 16, failing to qualify for Worlds.

After Worlds season, OpTic underwent roster changes, finalizing a roster of Maniac, Flamesword, Ace and Naded. When this roster failed to qualify for the Summer 2016 Pro League at the Invitational Qualifier, Flamesword announced his retirement and moved to the position of coach, allowing OpTic to pick up Str8 SicK. With Str8 SicK on board, the team again failed to qualify at the Summer Qualifier, placing 3rd in their group. OpTic finally qualified by finishing 2nd in the Last Chance Qualifier. Shortly after the LCQ, Naded left the team and was replaced by APG before the season began. The season did not go well for OpTic, with a final record of 2-12 and an 8th place finish. They managed to keep their spot in the Pro League by finishing 2nd in the Relegation tournament.

On September 14, MaNiaC announced the release of his team from the OpTic organization, and his subsequent retirement from competitive Halo. He stated his intentions to play out the initial weeks of the Fall 2016 Season until the team is allowed to make a roster change. Despite this, the team, now named LOL, played with RyaNoob in MaNiaC's place during their second match in Week 1.

Vlogs

 * Questions were asked. Answers were given. - 03/21/2015
 * MaNiaC to OpTic? - 03/19/2015