When my plane touched down in Phoenix, the abrupt halt shook me awake from my nap. A little dazed by my recent adventure, I asked myself, “Did that all really happen?” The past few days seemed too fantastic to be real.

My trip to San Francisco was filled with many firsts. For example, it was my first time traveling alone. To keep myself from the scary thought of flying (3rd time flying ever!) I busied myself by striking up conversations with strangers waiting for the same plane. That’s usually not very easy for me, but I thought it would be good practice and loosen me up. I also had my first cab ride; we don’t use them much in Phoenix. Taxis aren’t as great as I imagined. But I did get some bonding time with Valkyrie (who is amizazing, BTW!) which made up for the stinky cab. We arrived at the hotel and I scouted my way into the room where all the other contestants where. We clicked immediately, sharing stories and filling the room with laughter.  After a night of pizza and getting kicked out of the hot tub (and not seeing any fireman pants! ), I fell fast asleep in my hotel room bed.

The next day was a lot more rigorous than one would think. Being a Frag Doll isn’t all just fragging and dolling, it’s a lot of PR and hard work!  More than knowing what to say, you hafta know how to say it!  Keeping cool, staying in control of an interview, interpreting words to dig down to the root of a question fired at you.  Beadle was there to help us with that; Frag Doll Boot Camp.  I learned so much about poking the public eye with a stick! 

I played in three Major League Gaming events last year which prepared me for the tournament I played in with the other Frag Doll contestants. One thing I learned about competing, it’s much different than playing at home on your cozy couch with your 52” screen and a box of Cheez-itz in your lap. Your game play changes with your environment. Luckily I got used to people watching me play when I competed in the MLG tourneys. During the games, I realized that the whispers of “Holy crap! Did you see that?” and “How did she do that?” were about me! I think it actually made me play better, whereas before my tourney experience, having someone watch me play would have made me nervous.

That night we partied! They treated us to a fancy French restaurant (another first!) in a limo (first!), which was way better than the taxi. Mmmmmmmm, I still have dreams about the hazelnut ice cream dessert Seppuku and I shared. 

The final day of game play and interviews was intense! We were each separately interviewed by “The Jury.” Scary sounding, I know. I hadn’t eaten for about 7 hours.  My nerves were shot to pieces from interviews and from lack of sleep because the stupid fire alarm beeped all night in mine and Nikki’s room. So, I wasn’t too surprised when I was the first one to lose it when Roulette started getting teary-eyed. What? I didn’t cry. What are you talking about?

Anyway, it definitely was one of the most memorable affairs I have ever been apart of. I’ll never forget the friendships I made or the time Beadle busted out his sweet break dancing skillz. That was awesome. Thanks to all the candidates for your extreme level of awesomeness. The THX people were super cool, and the GT crew went above and beyond. And of course Ubisoft and the Frag Dolls rock my world! Hopefully I’ll be able to eat hazelnut ice cream dessert with Seppuku again someday, because it’s all I can think about