This either makes me the worst wife in the world or the most dedicated gamer that the industry has ever laid eyes on…

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend the first E3 since the transformation.  Work-wise it was great; it’s amazing how much more efficiently I can do my job when I’m able to hear myself think. Although working the Ubisoft booth was a lot less stressful than in previous years, it’s safe to say being a spectator at this year’s E3 would’ve been a tab bit frustrating. Someone thought it would be a good idea to divide the event into 3 separate locations, all 20 minutes away from one another. I’d be curious to see the industry’s cab fare expenses for this year. Since I was working the Naruto booth, I only got to check out one section of E3. I’m assuming it was the largest area of the event, considering it was set up in an actual airplane hangar.

Upon arrival, the Frag Dolls all decided to set aside two hours to explore the booths. I was first up...and 45 minutes later I was back and bored. I had seen everything there was to see. The pro to this year’s E3 is that I could actually sit down and play the games (no crowds). The sucky part was half of the games I wanted to see were being displayed at a different venue (i.e., Assassin’s Creed ). I did manage to sit down and play the new Katamari on 360. YAY! (I guess.)

One thing that didn’t change was the Ubisoft PARTEEEY!!  Seppuku and Valkyrie head banging is my fav.

Then, OFF TO BOOT CAMP WE WENT...

A few months back, Valkyrie had a genius idea that we should attend a Rainbow Six Vegas boot camp before MLG Dallas. It happens that one of the H2O members, Rafik (a top Quake player) has his own boot camp called “Lost Cause.” He was nice enough to let the Frag Dolls, two PMS teams, Zero Hour and Honor and Integrity (all Rainbow teams) stay there to practice. We couldn’t have asked for a better place to attend boot camp. The 5,000 sq ft. ranch style house was equipped with everything we needed to survive. We had eight Dell monitors hooked up, where each team was scheduled to practice no less than eight hours a day. We never had to worry about getting burnt out as there were plenty of things around the house to keep us entertained, such as: acres of land to play football or Frisbee on, a Guitar Hero room, and - my favorite - an in-ground pool. 

There were just so many exciting moments at the Lost Cause boot camp to write about. I would need ten page lists to name all of them, which is why I’m glad we took lots of pictures. This way you can see for yourself. Check them out!

Zero Hour vs. Honor & Integrity

Chicken Fight - Storm PMS and I win!! Our strat was to push them back to the deep end until they drowned. It worked.

Do you remember doing this as a kid?

Proof those video games can be hard work…

LAN’ing it up

When we arrived at MLG on Saturday, I think we could all agree that we felt prepared. The typical feeling of being worried was long gone. Boot camp gave us the confidence we needed to play great - and we did! Sort of… :/ There is something that the Frag Dolls lack and it’s our mental ability to stay focused. Although we ended up beating the top Gamebattles team, we generally tend to fall apart when the game doesn’t go our way. Round after round, we would gain control of the map and then, BAM, something bad would happen - like 3 of us dying at the same time, after which we can’t seem to pull it together mentally to regain control.

I’m convinced this is the Frag Dolls only downfall.  We know we have the skill to play with the best; we just need to learn to not let our minds get the best of us. Rhoulette, being the great coach she is, ended up ordering us a book called The Mental Edge.  I’m only on the third chapter but, so far, I think this book is going to teach us exactly what we need to overcome our faults. According to the book, we tend to overanalyze everything we do in the game. We don’t just let our bodies do what they were trained to do. For example, have you ever gone bowling with friends and ended up bowling strikes or spares from the start, then suddenly you find yourself mentally going over the steps that lead to that strike (from the position of your feet, to the way your hand gripped the ball)? You bowl again and the ball is nowhere near the center.

This is what happens to us. We don’t just let our body do its thing. There have been numerous tests proving that mental training can either make or break the game. I really believe this sort of mental training is what the Frag Dolls are lacking.  If we can just spend the time teaching ourselves the “Mental Edge,” there is no doubt in my mind that we’ll be able to take top 8 at future MLGs.