It is a bittersweet coincidence that the joyous one year anniversary of the Frag Dolls has also come with the news that our beloved eekers will be leaving the team to pursue her dreams of a career in the games industry.  We are sorry to lose her, but happy that she has been given a great opportunity to move on. 

This is eekers’ last blog as a Frag Doll, but luckily for us she’s promised us that we will still see her still lurking ninja-like in the shadows of IRC, our forums, and gaming events to come.

Leaving the Frag Dolls

One year ago UbiSoft flew us all out to meet in San Francisco for the first time.  I remember my flight getting in way too early and being in a rainy city I had never been to before. I checked my notes of the address I needed to be at, and got into a cab. Honestly I think it was the first time I had ridden in a taxi anywhere. 

I got there hours early, so I sat there in the empty UbiSoft entry way waiting for people whose faces I didn’t know. I was really nervous and excited to see who I’d be working with and playing games with every day. Jinx and Seppuku came in and we exchanged greetings that I can think about now and only giggle at.  We used our real names!  I think that stopped after a day.  It wasn’t so strange then but now everyone has been calling me “eekers” for the past year. hehe! 

We decided to go get some coffee and wander around a bookstore. It seemed like we shared the same love for robots, pirates, and the like. It was great ditching the unknowns of taxis and the itchy nervousness of a new job and talking of familiar things you normally don’t find women talking about, like ninjas… haha

After the day was through I got to meet all of them. My first impression of each of them was, “Man, they’re the coolest humans on the planet.”

Seriously, the awesome factor of these women is off the hook, it’s into the reds, it’s TO THE X-TREME.

My nervousness dropped after we all met and from then on I was excited to travel, doing what I love, with the team UbiSoft magically created. Really, how many good gamers can you group together that instantly get along with each other without ever even talking prior? Not many my friends. This team is fantastic.

So if you haven’t followed the Frag Dolls in the past, here’s what you’ve missed that are some of my best memories!

Our first big event was the Penny Arcade Expo of ‘04.  Our teamwork was flawless. We won the Rainbow Six: Black Arrow tournament and were undefeated for those 15 hours of playing each day. We made that teamwork bond that you can really only get by practicing for so many hours each day for long periods of time. The practice really paid off! That and of course Valkyrie’s strategy leadership. She keeps us all together to get to that win.

Months after PAX, Jinx and I created a team for Splinter Cell that simply dominated at every event we showed up at.  We had flawless victories in Splinter Cell at every Best Buy EGC, beat the people of EGM, held our undefeated title at E3 on an unknown platform of the game for us, just to name a few. 

At E3 we talked with the Army guys who ended up asking us to drive the convoy outside and shoot turrets and other guns! Jinx and I have great chemistry in-game together. ^_^

Everyone works together so well, Rhoulette is always there keeping the team on the same page, setting things up so we can focus on the game.  I love Seppuku’s crazy melee Halo 2 skills. Brookelyn is a prodigy of shooters, she will own you. Katscratch seems to get better the later it gets, we had some good times on Splinter Cell at 3AM. haha.  If you don’t know the team, I will tell you they are some of the nicest and greatest people I’ve ever met, which makes it hard to make the decision that I had to make.

I have recently been offered a game industry job that is said would conflict with me being a Frag Doll. Though it’s really hard to say it, I have made the bittersweet decision to move on from the team. I have a great chance to follow my dream.

We’ve grown to all know each other, shared stories and hung out together for the past year. It feels very weird to not be with the team any longer, but know I will be around still.

There’s no way I’d give up playing games.

Love you guys! I’ll be cheering for you!