Spartan

One of the most prominent new names to emerge during Halo 2: Anniversary, Spartan has played for the likes of Team Liquid, Renegades, and Ronin Esports.

Biography

Tyler "Spartan" Ganza is from Lacey Township, New Jersey. When he was four or five years old, he began playing video games, and some of his first titles included Super Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong before starting Halo.

Halo 3

Spartan first appeared in the competitive scene at MLG Meadowlands 2009 where he finished 3rd in the Gamebattles FFA Arcade.

Halo 4

His first event was the Halo 4 Exhibition at MLG Dallas 2012 where he finished top 32 as a member of Supernatural with Tripolar, Status and SkimpyTheElf. He attended AGL 4 and 5 as a member of Adventure Time getting an impressive 2nd place before finishing top 8. He then joined Pure for AGL 6 on route to a 4th place finish. He attended AGL 7 Knoxville with Siege, SickStory and Showtime calling themselves Hold Your Applause finishing 9th-12th. He finally joined Severence alongside his current teammate Gabriel for AGL 9 Atlanta where he would bounce back to secure an impressive second place finish.

He also competed in the Halo 4 Global Championships making top 16.

Halo 2 Anniversary

Spartan joined Fatal Ambition before the Halo Championship Series season one started. He placed 3rd in the second preseason cup, and 3rd in the HCS Cup #1 beating Str8 Rippin. Fatal Ambition then competed at Iron Games Columbus 2014 where he finished 9th and at the Griffball Championship taking first place. He then joined Elevate for UGC St. Louis where the team placed 7th. They improved slightly at Gamers For Giving 2015 taking home 6th place. Spartan and the eLevate squad closed out HCS Season 1 with a 7-8th finish at the PAX East 2015 finals.

On March 15, Spartan announced his free agent status, confirming that he had left eLevate. He joined eXcellence in April 2015. eXcellence placed top 12 at Iron Games Atlanta 2015. Spartan soon left eXcellence to team with Ninja, Aries and Shooter. First competing as "The Other Guys", the team was quickly acquired by Team Liquid. Spartan and Team Liquid finished 7th at their first event together, HCS Indianapolis. They followed up with a top 8 finish at the HCS Season 2 Finals. Halo 2: Anniversary served as a breakout game for Spartan, garnering him significant attention as he competed and fared well against top-tier players.

Halo 5: Guardians

Early in the pre-Halo 5 offseason, Spartan, Aries and Shooter were dropped from Team Liquid. On August 31st, it was announced that he and Shooter were joining Winterfox alongside Ryanoob and Arkanum. Spartan was officially released by Winterfox in January 2016. He eventually found himself on a Renegades roster alongside Ninja, Victory X and StelluR, after many team changes in a short time period. Renegades' first event was the X Games Aspen 2016 invitational, where they finished 4th. Spartan and friends came out strong at Worlds, upsetting the highly favored Evil Geniuses in group stage. They went 3-0 in their group and drew Team Allegiance in the quarterfinals. Despite going up 2-0 in the series, Allegiance would battle back, winning the series 3-2 and ending Renegades' night with a top 8 finish.

Soon after worlds, Spartan and StelluR would part ways with the hyped Renegades squad and scrim with multiple teams during the off season, eventually finding his place on Team Liquid alongside APG, and Eco. The team first attempted to qualify for the Summer Pro League at the Summer Qualifier, but were unable to place in the upper half of their group. After replacing the injured APG with Assault, Liquid qualified for the League by finishing 1st in the Last Chance Qualifier. Liquid had a rocky start to the season, not winning a single match until Week 4, after dropping Assault for Danoxide. The new roster would end up finishing 2-12, good enough for only 7th place. At Relegation, Liquid were able to keep their spot by finishing 1st. Following Relegation, Liquid formed a new roster around Spartan, acquiring Commonly, Penguin and Rayne. After a 3-3 start to the Fall Pro League season, Liquid attended HCS Orange County 2016, where they finished 3rd. Liquid ended up finishing the season with a 7-7 record, good enough for 3rd place. Weeks later, Team Liquid attended HCS Las Vegas 2016, where they nearly took 1st, defeating Team EnVyUs in the Winners Finals before EnVy came back to take two consecutive series and steal the event from Liquid. At the Season Finals, Liquid were only able to win against Str8 Rippin and placed 3rd out of the four teams in attendance.

On December 29th, during the offseason, Spartan and Commonly left Team Liquid and joined the newly formed Problem Solvers alongside Danoxide and Suspector. On January 13th, the Problem Solvers roster was acquired by Team Allegiance. The new roster's first event was UGC St. Louis 2017, where they battled out of the Open Bracket to finish top 8. After UGC, Allegiance dropped Danoxide and replaced him with TriPPPeY for ME Las Vegas 2017. In Vegas, Allegiance placed top 8, narrowly missing out on Halo World Championship 2017 qualification after a 4-2 loss to Danoxide's new team - Pnda Gaming. Spartan left Team Allegiance shortly after his team again failed to qualify in the Last Chance Qualifier.

On April 1st, Spartan joined Crowd Pleasers alongside Cratos, Suspector and Str8 SicK. The roster was soon acquired by Ronin Esports. At UMG Daytona, Ronin finished 4th in its pool. After a win over Wise Gaming, they were swept by Team EnVyUs and sent to Losers, where they beat DoZe Esports before being eliminated by Str8 Rippin for a top 8 finish. After a weak start to the Summer 2017 Pro League season, Ronin replaced Cratos with eL ToWn during the transfer period. Despite the change, Ronin's performance did not notably improve, as they ultimately finished in 7th place in the season and faced relegation at DreamHack Atlanta. In Atlanta, Ronin were able to defeat eRa Eternity in five games and move on to the Relegation Final match against Oxygen Supremacy. Ronin won the match 4-2, securing their spot in both the Championship Bracket and the Fall 2017 Pro League. Ronin were defeated early in the Championship Bracket by Luminosity Gaming in four games. They rallied back with wins over Wise Gaming and Invictus before being swept out of the bracket by eRa Eternity in a Relegation rematch and sent home with a top 8 finish.

Despite the Relegation success, Ronin released Spartan on July 29th. On August 21st, it was made official that he had returned to Team Liquid alongside SubZero (formerly Penguin), Eco and StelluR. The new roster finished the Fall Season with a 5-2 record, taking losses to only OpTic Gaming and Team EnVyUs. At the DreamHack Denver Finals, Liquid started off with back to back 3-0 sweeps over Radiant Esports and Evil Geniuses. In the third round, Liquid were defeated 3-1 by OpTic Gaming. Liquid took out Europe's finest - Team Infused - in four games to secure a top four placing. In the Elimination Semifinals, Liquid dominated Team EnVyUs in a 4-0 sweep to secure top three. In the Elimination Finals, Liquid handled Summer Champions Splyce in similar fashion, moving on to the Grand Finals after another 4-0 sweep. Waiting in the finals was OpTic Gaming, who took Liquid out with a final score of 4-1.

Going into Worlds season, Spartan and Penguin left Team Liquid to join Team Reciprocity alongside Snip3down and Mikwen of Team EnVyUs. Reciprocity consistently placed in the top four throughout the first half of the season, resulting in the team holding the fourth seed going into MLG Orlando. Reciprocity finished fourth in Orlando, bowing out to Splyce and OpTic Gaming. Reciprocity improved on their Orlando performance at MLG Columbus, easily winning their pool to qualify for Worlds and sweeping Oxygen Supremacy and Renegades in the opening rounds of the bracket to clinch top three for the first time as a team. This was followed by a 4-1 loss to Tox. In the losers finals, Reciprocity lost a 4-2 series to eventual event winners Splyce and took a third place finish. At Worlds, Reciprocity won their pool convincingly and started bracket play off with a 4-0 victory over Str8 Rippin. The following round put them against TOX Gaming once again. Though able to take two games this time, they nonetheless fell 4-2. They responded strongly with a 4-0 win over Renegades. In the losers semifinals, Reciprocity had a heartbreaking loss in a game seven loss that featured Spartan's controller disconnecting at a crucial moment. Reciprocity went home in fourth place.

Trivia

• Controller setup: 3 sensitivity, Bumper Jumper.
• Favorite Halo title: Halo 3
• Has finished top 8 at a Gears of War event in the past
• Supernatural is his favorite show, and he also likes How I Met Your Mother and Arrow.
• Spartan was voted the Halo 2: Anniversary Breakout Player (over ContrA and Randa) on the TeamBeyond forums.
• Spartan is one of the most popular Halo Twitch streamers.
• Spartan is the subject of one of the longest and most well-received Halo 5 montages to date, the Spartan Halo Montage, created by Snipetality.

Media

Interviews

• "We want to prove people wrong": an interview with Tyler "Spartan" Ganza from ESL Gaming

Redirects

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