This week was one of the most emotionally and physically draining weeks of my life, as we wrapped up our four days at PAX and chose our next Frag Doll teammate. I should have realized how hard of a week it was going to be - PAX is always a rough one, since we work our tails off and try to hang out with people as much as possible. It didn’t help that I had already gotten sick with some bug at MLG Chicago. 

We had a couple of camera crews following us during this event, and it made the work week that much more draining and tiring as we had to shoot a ton of footage and cater to shots they wanted to get of us. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun and all the guys were great - it just added to the stress and the chaos of what is already known as PAX. Nine-hour work days, filming at night, and big long dinners can really wear a girl out, especially when you throw a few extraneous party nights into the mix.

Wednesday- All the candidates and Frag Dolls (other than Brookelyn and Seppuku) arrived this night and we all went to dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. This was our first night to meet the girls we didn’t know and I was amazed at the array of personalities and looks. The girls were excited and bubbly and brought in a breath of fresh air and excitement that we hadn’t had around us in a while.  We all sat and chatted while we ate and got to know each other, then called it an early night and went to bed to prepare for the next day.

Thursday- All the Frag Dolls and the candidates had to be up early as we started our rounds of camera interviews. This was the day to get all the b-roll footage filmed and the first stage of try-outs for the girls. We weren’t allowed to watch their interviews, but were given some feedback on them stating that all the girls did fine and Alex, Cella, and Lauren were the strongest.

After interviewing all day, the Frag Dolls got ready to get into a limo the producers had rented for us to go get some b-roll around the city. We met up later with the candidates, some amazing forum members and other friends at Stonelance’s BBQ, but we got there late since our video shoot ran longer than expected. I immediately found the crazy crew and proceeded to aggressively play fight and argue with my favorite arch-nemeses Borfase and Logan. Yes, I talked to others, but you know me - I like the crazy, loud people that are going to keep me laughing.

Friday- We all had to get up early and hit the floor this day with the candidates at PAX. Here was our opportunity to see them in action doing our normal jobs at industry events, which is working up a crowd, demoing games, and smacking people around in multiplayer modes.  I was a little bit under the weather, both from the night before and the fact that I had been sick as a dog, so I popped a bunch of Dayquil and ibuprofen and put on my best Valkyrie smile.

Some of the candidates really shone on this portion of the test - I saw about half of them really engaging people and taking the time to go over the fact sheets of the six or so games we had at the booths.  Others seemed a bit shyer, or perhaps they were as under the weather as I was, but couldn’t turn the “work” mode on. Whatever the case, our booth was certainly popular as nobody can doubt the attraction of real-life gamer girls (lol). When the day ended, everyone got ready for another large dinner, but I bailed out, got a quick bite to eat and went to bed, as I really needed some recuperative rest.

Saturday- I was still very sick and continued to eat Dayquil like candy, trying to suppress my hacking cough.  Today was the day for throwing the candidates head-to-head on the games.  Before the event started, I had made my predictions as to who would win what game titles.  My predictions were: Cella takes Quake, Faith takes Rainbow, and Alexis takes Halo. Now, these predictions really weren’t that difficult at all, since the people I named actually PLAYED those games quite a bit and, of course, would have the advantage knowing the maps and controls to a T. 

Unfortunately, Halo wouldn’t work and we kept getting the “failed to join map” message, so Tart never got to show off her stuff in that game but everyone knew what would have happened anyway, as she had already competed professionally in Halo 2 for a couple of years. We did roll Rainbow PC as well, and Kendra, Faith, Cella, and Lauren seemed to swap leads on this one.  What did amaze me on the PC AND the console games is that people that were primarily skilled in the opposite system actually were close to others who played a certain platform all the time.  The games were so close and you actually saw Xbox 360 players ahead of PC on PC titles, and vice versa. It was quite surprising indeed.

Saturday night we had a big community dinner at another Italian restaurant with everyone we knew attending. It was very fun and relaxing and I think everyone had a great time. I had a couple of glasses of wine but I was still sick and tired so I took it easy and went to bed again to prepare for the next day, the hardest one yet.

Sunday- We all got up super early again to get ready and were down at the venue at 10am. The Frag Dolls all worked the booth, while the candidates did some more filming for the crews until their panel started at 3pm.  The panel for the candidates was a chance for them to get thrown into the spotlight in front of 80 or so people, where they were asked questions from the moderator, Rhoulette, then left to the good graces of the audience probing.  It was quite interesting to watch, as some of the girls simply shone like rainbows and others had our hearts go out to them as they struggled with shyness. 

While a lot of the girls did fine, to me the ones that stuck out the most were Alexis and Megan.  It appeared that the audience agreed, since we had a vote afterwards and those girls won that panel hands down. A couple of the other girls had great moments and were still awesome, but these two really nailed that panel, engaged the audience, and were the most articulate of the bunch on this portion of the test.

After the panel, we continued working till 7 p.m. then went back to the hotel to get ready to film the selection. The deliberation in our pow-wow was quite intense and we spent a good two hours going through our observations of the week and who we thought would be the best Frag Doll to join us.  When we had started our search it was supposed to be a hardcore PC girl, but we discovered that it was just to do shootouts at Dell booths (not a pro circuit) so we still needed someone who could kick butt on PC, but she didn’t need to be the World’s Best. We discussed all the necessary factors - we needed a competitor, a great player, someone that could represent sponsors well and speak articulately, a personality, and most important someone that could mesh with our very tight team.

After the decision had been made we all went down to the conference room where the candidates were waiting.  At the conference table, Rhoulette proceeded to do one of her lovely motivating speeches meant to make it easier on everyone, but it only made it harder as many of us started to cry. I couldn’t look anyone in the face as I would have broken down completely. When the winner was announced, most of the girls were amazing in congratulating that person (find out in the next few days, noobs!) and hugging her. There were tears from some, but not the same as last year where everyone broke down. I don’t know if that made it harder or easier.

In the end, we all know we made the right choice. We chose a girl whose competitive nature is almost unmatched, a girl whose passion will show in front of a camera and who will be engaged in what she’s talking about, a girl that will fit with all of us, and a girl that will simply kick ass on any game we throw her on.  It just sucks because ANY of these girls could do that and deserved to be the next Frag Doll.

NOTE: I want to thank Gypsy and Expo for the amazing hard work this last week - we are used to working our tails off at these events, but they both sacrificed most of their spare time to work right along with us.  They deserve our recognition. You will always be a Frag Doll to me, Gypsy. =P