"Finally!  Some progress!” I can hear you all thinking it and I can’t blame you even though we’ve been working our butts off behind the scenes.  Nearly 8 months after the first announcement that we were accepting applications, we are happy to be able to show you some results. 

It literally took months of collecting resumés, weeks of interviews, and hours upon hours of nail biting and hair pulling to get the applicant pool down to our the final 8 candidates.  Even those of us who have full faith in the wonderful diversity of the world’s girl gaming population were surprised at what an incredible collection of applications we received.  The competition was fierce and we had to make some tough decisions, but in the end we were reassured by the fact that we have 8 outstanding girls left and for those other outstanding girls we couldn’t make room for this time, we will undoubtedly hire again in the not-to-distant future (assuming the next hiring process doesn’t take 8 months, of course). 

It is my honor to announce our Elite 8, the final candidates being considered for the Frag Doll team.  Each girl has been interviewed and their applications thoroughly examined.  The selection itself was based on things like writing proficiency, public speaking experience, extent of game knowledge, community involvement, and of course l33t gaming skills.

The next step of the Casting Call will be an in-person Audition in San Francisco.  We will be flying out all 8 candidates to join the existing Frag Dolls in a weekend of playing games and interviewing.  Sounds like a fun party, eh?  Luckily for you, GameTrailers.com has agreed to come film the whole thing to create a web series that will show the selection process in all it’s glory.  We wouldn’t want you to miss out on all the excitement. 

I’ll be writing more about the Frag Dolls Casting Call in the near future, but in the meantime let me introduce our final candidates.

Alyson
Game name: Nin9tyNin9
Hometown: Phoenix, Arizona
Started gaming:Alyson began playing video games at age 4 and grew up competing against her 5 older brothers.
Favorite games: Halo 2, Quake 3, Far Cry, Fable, Prince of Persia
Competitive highlights: Halo 2 team ranked in top 32 at MLG Las Vegas, 2005; came in 2nd place (out of 106 gamers) in GameRiot Halo 2 FFA, 2005.
When not gaming you might find her: designing and maintaining websites, gardening, taking care of a multitude of pets, or working on her VW Jetta.
GT.com GamePad: nin9tynin9.gametrailers.com/gamepad/

Angel
Game name: Ang3L
Hometown: Vero Beach, Florida
Started gaming: as soon as she could hold a controller.
Favorite games: Halo 2, Final Fantasy 3, Mario Kart 64, Halflife2, Harvest Moon, Zelda series, and Battlefield 2.
Competitive highlights: competes in regular clan matches as a member of the PMS Halo 2 Bravo division.
Stage experience:Has played theater roles like Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Mike TV (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and Snow White.
When not gaming you might find her: driving a truck around, cuddling her dog, or hamming it up.
GT.com GamePad: ang3l.gametrailers.com/gamepad/

Jennifer
Game name: Calistah
Hometown: Issaquah, Washington
Started gaming: on the Atari playing games like Pitfall and Frogger.
Favorite games: Crimson Skies, Project Gotham Racing, Ghost Recon 2, World of Warcraft, Rainbow Six: Black Arrow, Ultima Online, and Gran Tourismo.
Competitive highlights: participation in PMS Ghost Recon 2 and Rainbow Six: Black Arrow clan matches and tournaments.
Community involvement: Jen has held leadership roles in multiple MMO guilds, regularly hosts co-op servers in GRAW for the Xbox 360, and has earned her right to the self-bestowed title of “PGR3 Driving Instructor” .
When not gaming you might find her: playing volleyball, flying helicopters, racing her car, hanging out in the Frag Doll forums and IRC, or geeking out over techie gadgets.
GT.com GamePad: calistah.gametrailers.com/gamepad/

Kari
Game name: The Don Wan
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Started gaming: playing MUDs with her mom on their BBS.
Favorite games: Halo 2, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Mario Party, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Jak, and Neverwinter Nights.
Competitive highlights: member of The Cavegirls clan, competed again Bungie in the Humpday Challenge. 
Community involvement: frequent contributor to the bungie.com forums, the “Mob Of Angry Peasants” IRC, myspace.com, and multiple girl gaming communities.
When not gaming you might find her: studying psychology, rocking out on the dance floor, shopping, reminiscing about Hawaii, lurking on forums and IRC, or hanging out at car shows.
GT.com GamePad: cgdon.gametrailers.com/gamepad/

Marcella
Game name: CELLA
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
Started gaming: when she was 8 years old
Favorite games: Unreal Championship, Wolfenstein, Halo 2, Ghost Recon, Final Fantasy XI, Quake 4, Age of Empires II, and Super Mario World.
Competitive highlights: PMS Halo 2 team placed 6th at Summer CPL 2005; 1st place in local GameStop 64 person Halo 2 FFA
Writing highlights: has reviewed for sites like www.TomsHardware.com and ControllerFreaks.com. 
When not gaming you might find her: when is she not gaming?  Seriously though, the rare moments between games might contain dancing, swimming, traveling, or vogueing for the nearest camera.
GT.com GamePad: cella.gametrailers.com/gamepad/

Nikki
Game name: Gypsy
Hometown: Norman, Oklahoma
Started gaming: before she could write in cursive
Favorite games: Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy VII, Halo 2, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario Bros 3, God of War, and Phantasy Star Online.
Gamer highlight: game collection contains more than 150 games and 13 consoles including rarities like the Sega Nomad. 
Writing highlights: this avid game journalist has written for publications like Pop Entertainment Weekly, Lord of the Rings Online, and GirlsGamingGuide.com.
Stage experience: participation in competitions for dance and theater. 
When not gaming you might find her: studying journalism, hanging out in the Frag Doll forums, traveling, or being a social butterfly. 
GT.com GamePad: gypsy.gametrailers.com/gamepad/

Renelly
Game name: PerfectDark or Dangel
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Started gaming: with her cousins on their NES.
Favorite games: Ghost Recon 2, SOCOM, Super Mario Bros, Perfect Dark (original and Zero), and Super Smash Bros. 
Competitive experience: PMS Ghost Recon division clan matches
Gaming passion: online FPSs
When not gaming you might find her: studying psychology and information technology, answering any and all game-related questions as a GameStop employee, kicking butt with her Martial Arts Club, traveling to the Dominican Republic with her family, or practicing her trash-talk in Spanish.
GT.com GamePad: perfectdark244.gametrailers.com/gamepad/

Shannon
Game name: Moe
Hometown: Pasadena, Maryland
Started gaming: around the age of 7.
Favorite games: Toejam and Earl 1&2, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Dead or Alive 3, Halo 2, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, American Mcgee’s Alice, and Final Fantasy 8.
Competitive experience: only girl in the 2006 Magest Halo 2 2v2 tournament.  Has also competed in local Halo 2 competitions.
Community Involvement: a regular member of the Frag Doll community forums and IRC, she has also maintained a regular and popular presence on 1up.com and in web comic circles.
When not gaming you might find her: hanging out with friends, studying languages, drawing and maintaining her art website, hanging
around online, reading comic books, traveling to various anime conventions and cosplaying.
GT.com GamePad: themoe.gametrailers.com/gamepad/