Pyroteq – My Story

Hi, I’m Jason.

Many know me online as Pyroteq. I am a former semi-pro Halo player. This is my story about my journey into eSports and competitive gaming. Stay awhile and listen…

Semi-pro? Well, I played competitively during a time where the biggest prizes to win were t-shirts and boxes of cereal (Yes, I’m being serious about the cereal) so I guess I can’t really say I was a professional gamer since there was never a chance of me making a career from it.

I immediately fell in love with Halo the first time I played it. There was nothing like it at the time (there still isn’t) and this was during a time where my PC sucked and me and my brother had to fight over turns on the computer. I longed for a game that we could play campaign with each other, where we could play against each other and where we could team up together. I finally found that game.

The first time I played Halo I was renting it at my friends house. I didn’t even know what Halo was but after finishing the campaign and looking at the clock it was about 4am. The months that followed I would put my Xbox in a backpack, ride my bike to my friends house and play system link multiplayer with friends and that sparked my desire to be the best.

I would use every chance I had to play online and become better. One day I finally met my match after playing Davman, a member of Perfect Play who were the best Halo clan in Australia at the time. If playing against my friends could be considered a spark, I guess Davman beating me off host on XBC was the roaring inferno that followed because after that me and my brother got pretty serious about Halo…

We would go to every single tournament possible, once even travelling by public transport for hours to a very dodgy area at night with a bunch of Xbox gear just to LAN with a bunch of dudes we had never even met before.

When Halo 2 was released my brother Craig (Satiex) and I were considered 2 of the best players in Australia. Some even compared us to the Ogre twins, Halo pros from USA. We ranked highly in many tournaments, our biggest achievement winning the 2005 World Cyber Games New Zealand national grand final and being flown to Singapore to compete against the worlds best Halo players.

Unfortunately the glory days are over now. I started the Australian Cyber League in 2007 (resurrected from the ashes of the Australian Console League, a Halo 2 tournament run in 2006) and now I watch the new upcoming stars from the VoD desk.

I love eSports of all kinds and I love playing competitive and well balanced games… Even if it means getting my ass kicked.

This website is my outlet of all things to do with eSports and game development, my analysis of competitive games, settings, rules and more. I’ve made many long posts and epic threads on a bunch of forums I’ve frequented over the years but a lot of them have been lost in the abyss. I hope for this to be a home to my thoughts and to create some interesting discussion and debates with other competitive gaming enthusiasts.

Achievements

Halo 1

  • 1st – Games Wizards Halo 2 midnight release tournament (4v4 2004)

Halo 2

  • 2nd – Microsoft Tsunami charity tournament (4v4 2005)
  • 2nd – BigPond Halo 2 tournament (4v4 2005)
  • 2nd – WCG NSW qualifier (2v2 2005)
  • 1st – WCG ACT state qualifier (2v2 2005)
  • 1st – WCG New Zealand National Finals (2v2 2005)
  • 1st – SD10 Game On tournament (4v4 2005)

Halo 3

  • 3rd – WCG NSW qualifier (4v4 2008)
  • 3rd – WCG QLD qualifier (4v4 2008)