Staff Bios

Case Jeremy "Case" Rusnak founded Case's Ladder in February of 1996. While in college, Case played Command and Conquer with friends online. People were debating who was the best player, so Case created an online ranking system - Case's Ladder - to settle the arguments. It then grew from several dozen players to the millions of users that we have today. Case spent 25 years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before moving to Seattle, Washington. He enjoys programming, online gaming, movies, hockey, fantasy football, keeping up with current events, and trying to invent a few more hours in each day to sleep. CURRENT PLAYLIST: Warcraft 3, Dark Age of Camelot, Counter-Strike, Case's Ladder Online

Abigail Ann Aynes joined Case's Ladder in March of 1996 when she started playing Command & Conquer online and discovered that nobody wanted to play unless it was for 'Ladder'. She started working behind the scenes in August of 1996 when 'Case' advertised for someone to fill the position of 'War Crimes Officer'. That position was the start of what is now Case's Ladder's Support Department, which she was responsible for organizing and currently manages. In between dealing with LadderOps and TD Managers Ann has found the time to climb Mount Everest three times over the past six years. She is actively involved in the fight against hunger in Southeast Asia, as well as being a key figurehead in the ongoing battle to make sure that each and every child in Indonesia has access to Sesame Street Online. Ann is still actively involved in and very much enjoys online gaming. Recent games she has wasted countless hours playing include Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, Counter-Strike, and Warcraft3. She is very much looking forward to the soon to be released Command & Conquer Generals---a return to the roots that started Case's Ladder and it's amazing online community! Ann lives in Washington State with her husband, 2.5 children and the newest addition to the family---a Labrador puppy. Her spare time is pretty much consumed with poopy diapers and puppy potty-training. What a life, eh? Well, just remember you wanted to know. ;)

Jay Jarom Severson, aka Gadianton, designed and developed the tournament system for Case's Ladder. He continues to maintain the rapidly growing tourney system and works closely with the T.D. Managers to constantly provide new features and upgrades to the tourney toolkit. Jarom, along with the help of over 15,000 tournament volunteers, now oversees the largest tournament system online, hosting over 120,000 tournaments per month. Jarom Severson currently lives and works out of his home in San Jose, California. He graduated from San Jose State University in the spring of 2002 with a degree in Computer Science. Jarom is an avid computer gamer and has a competitive edge in his blood as was proven when he was crowned PGL Starcraft World Champion in 1998. He now enjoys a fun game of Counter-Strike every now and then, and especially favors the M4-A1 counter-terrorist assault rifle. His other hobbies include chess, basketball, and snowboarding.

Will Will Olsen is the lead windows developer at Case's Ladder. He is working on Case.s Ladder Online, which will be Case's own classic gaming service. Will graduated from the University of Washington in 1998 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering with extra coursework in computer graphics, Industrial computing, and Embedded computing. Prior to joining Case's Ladder in Nov, 2000, will worked in the field of robotics, creating motion planning software for one of the worlds largest five axis robots. Will has also done windows development consulting for several companies.

John John Sandstrom (...aka ShulessJohn) is in charge of the Marketing department at Case's Ladder. John has been with Case's Ladder since July of 2000. He currently lives with his wife and 2 children near the Case's Ladder headquarters. John's interests outside of Case's Ladder include Golf, Softball, and pretty much any sport you can play. He is also the 2 year reigning champ of the office Fantasy Football League. If you have any ideas for features or Ladderbux prizes, feel free to email John @ john@igl.net.

Brook Sherri Cole, aka Brook, joined Case's Ladder in 1998 when her son & daughter introduced her to Command & Conquer. She began working as a volunteer with Case's Ladder in 1998 and has enjoyed being part of this great gaming community. She has been the Premium Accounts Customer Support Representative for Case's Ladder since February 2000 when she became a full time staff member. She assists our Diamond, Platinum and Gold Members with any problems that they may be experiencing with their Premium Accounts. When she is not working, she and her husband love spending time with their 3 children and grandchildren. They love camping, riding motorcycles and slumber parties with the grandkids. They are kept busy attending school functions, baseball games, and recitals. She has worked in customer service related jobs for 20 years and enjoys working with people and having the opportunity to help you with any problems that you are experiencing.

Tammie Tammie Ulmet, aka Thauriss, Joined Case's Ladder in October of 1998 as a volunteer Ladder Op for the Heart's Ladder. In February of 1999 she became a part time Staff member and was moved to SrStaff. In June of 2000 she became a full time Staff member and was Head Of The Volunteer Op Program until June of 2002 where she is currently working in the Premium Accounts Customer Support Department along with Brook. In her free time she loves the internet, hiking and horse back riding. She has met the most wonderful people on the ladder (including her husband) She lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains and loves her job.

Susan Susan Conarroe (a.k.a. Ellerit) is the development lead for league and tourney services, working with Perl and PHP. She joined the Case's Ladder team in March of 2002. You'll see her around the site dealing with bugs and enhancement requests as well as new development projects. Susan came to Case's Ladder after a few years at Sierra Entertainment. Outside of work, Susan is active in the gaming community as a volunteer moderator for several of the the message boards at the Sierra Forums (community.sierra.com). She is a frequent inhabitant of the #arcanum and #qfg_blueparrot channels on Gamesnet.net, where she goes by (surprise) "Ellerit." She is involved with the collegiate community service organization Alpha Phi Omega as a sectional staff member and webmaster. Other hobbies include roleplaying, reading, strategy gaming, horseback riding, and yoga. Susan lives in Redmond, WA with her two cats, Esper and Byron.

Mikel Mikel Tidwell (FireMyst) joined Case's Ladder on March 25th, 2002, as a perl/PHP programmer. Mikel has been using perl for over 5 years, and hopes to use his skills to make Case's Ladder a better place for everyone. He lives in Bothell with his wife, Erin, and their two cats, Flicker & Flame. Mikel enjoys playing video games. His favorite genres are Role Playing and Sports titles, but also enjoys Super Smash Bros Melee, the Spyro the Dragon series, and Dance Dance Revolution. Using this natural addiction to games as a premise for creating a website, he created and runs the largest Role Playing website in the world, RPGamer (https://www.rpgamer.com/). RPGamer covers over 500 different RPGs for all consoles and PC, and takes up far too much of Mikel's "free time". Mikel's Home Page: FireMyst's Lair

Ryan Ryan does a number of things around the office including: server administration, programming, and graphics manipulation. Before joining Case's Ladder, Ryan worked for Her Interactive where he managed a number of web servers, and solely developed all their web applications. He also spent some time working in the commercial cabling industry, where he helped install massive networks into office buildings. On his off time he enjoys gunning people down in a friendly game of Counter-Strike, creating artistic masterpieces, and doing pretty much anything computer related.

Patti Patti Nelson (pattiyork1) joined Case's Ladder as a player on the Yahoo Gin ladder in late 1998 and we haven't been able to get rid of her. She's been a TD, a Head TD, a TD Manager and is now a member of our Customer Support Staff dealing primarily with our tournament program and our MyLeague support operations. While she was a volunteer, she figured the only way she'd get away was if she was out sailing the ocean, so she helped to organize two cruises as live tourney events. Patti has also attended several other live events and loves to meet the players in person that she's known so long via the web. She remains an active player on several ladders and participates in as many tournaments as possible. A connoisseur of fine frozen foods, she enjoys an expertly prepared Stouffer's French Bread Pizza and will search every store in town seeking just the right one. The variety is much smaller in the Northwest so she's campaigning to have more frozen foods brought in to the local grocery stores. Have you figured out yet that she hates cooking? Patti, a born and bred New Yorker, had lived on the East Coast her entire life. She and her cats are now adjusting as best they can to the Pacific NorthWET.