FPS icon Matthew “FormaL” Piper may have now played the final game of his legendary career, spanning multiple championships across multiple FPS titles.

The final match, a 4-1 win by Shopify Rebellion in the Grand Final of the Halo World Championship 2025, saw the North American team leave FormaL’s OpTic Gaming with little hope for success in what was a dominant showing. 

FormaL speaks out after Grand Final defeat

With the 2025 World Championship being the final esports event of Halo Infinite, there has been plenty of speculation as to whether 30-year-old FormaL would call time on his career following the event.

He even spoke about it in a recent interview with OpTic owner Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez, whilst also leaving the door open to potentially staying active, or even trying his luck at a third esports title in Apex Legends.

Leaving Halo would be nothing new to FormaL, having previously quit playing the game in 2014 to pursue a career in Call of Duty. He then retired from Call of Duty in 2021 after becoming known as one of the greatest players in FPS history, and went back to Halo for Infinite.

Since FormaL returned to Halo, OpTic have been one of the most consistent teams in the game, winning the World Championship in 2022 before finishing as runners-up in the following three years. 

After the defeat to Shopify Rebellion, FormaL opened up on Twitter. Speaking about the “what ifs” since returning to Halo, he said that the defeat in the Grand Final was “obviously not where we wanted this journey to end.”

He added, “Not really sure what’s around the corner for me, but I just wanted to say thank you for the support throughout these four years, it truly made a difference.”

So many what if’s throughout my journey back in Halo. I appreciate anyone who paid attention to it even at all, the tournaments the streams the wins and the losses. Obviously not where we wanted this journey to end, but I’m still glad I decided to play again. We put in so much…

— OpTic FormaL (@FormaL) October 27, 2025

Should FormaL retire after this final stint in Halo, he will go down as one of the greatest competitors in the history of esports.

A champion in multiple iterations of both Halo and Call of Duty, his career has spanned 14 years in which he has consistently been at the top of both games.