The Frag Dolls, Ubisoft’s competitive/promotional team of girl gamers, is recruiting a slew of Cadettes for a 6-month “internship” that promises a whirlwind tour of the gaming industry. Hells yes. I am ON BOARD.
Along with the absolutely darling Michelle a.k.a. Sunie (blog: Oh Geeze), I have spent that last few weeks compiling my application. It consist of a Gaming Resume, a Gaming History, and a Video Q&A. Cadettes will be selected at random for the pool of applicants. Naturally, I’ve waited this long to post about it because I didn’t want to risk alerting any potential competitors…and not at ALL because I’m too addicted to Modern Warfare 2 to do more than poop out the occasional tweet or e-mail. The girls already applying are, for the most part, awfully pretty and grossly qualified.
Fortunately, I’m pretty cute ad talented myself, so we’ll see how the cookie crumbs when the Frag Dolls announce their 12 winners the first week in March. Early birthday present to me? IT BETTER GODDAMN HAPPEN.
Anyway, my application video and Gaming History shall make up the remained of this post. Stick around if you’re into that sort of thing. 😀
The Gaming History Of Rachel “Seltzer” Quirico
As part of a family that saw the value of staying on the cutting edge of technology, I enjoyed access to computers and gaming consoles from early on in life. First there was Crystal Caves on the PC, then Mario games on the Nintendo, Japanese imports like Final Fantasy and Monster Rancher on the Playstation, and finally non-stop Pokémon on the GameBoy. Through high school, I played mostly role-playing games and Dance Dance Revolution until my younger brother inadvertently turned me onto World of Warcraft my junior year. My junior year was also when I became acquainted with Trevor/H2O TorcH who introduced me to PC first-person shooters with the release of Battlefield 2 that summer. I was instantly addicted to Battlefield 2 and to seeing my name at the top of the post-game score charts.
My freshman year of college (2006), I attended DigitalLife in New York City. It was my first gaming event and I was dazzled by the professional gamers from Asia competing at Warcraft 3, the oodles of swag offered as promotional game prizes, and my brief encounter with the ladies of PMS Clan. I spent the rest of the year trying (with limited success) to learn Warcraft 3 but mostly just shooting people in Battlefield 2.
Shortly before DigitalLife rolled around the following Fall (2007), I picked up Team Fortress 2 freshly out of beta. My intention was to learn it well enough to win prizes at the event, but I became addicted. When I learned about on-line tournaments, I joined a team with Trevor and some of our friends from high school. The team performed poorly, so Trevor and I joined a more competitive team.
During my early days of Team Fortress 2, I trucked my skills down to VGXPO in Philadelphia with the dual intention of winning some swag and interviewing Amber Dalton of PMS Clan for an essay on Girls in Gaming. I did in fact win some neat swag and, during my interview with Amber, she took notice of my prizes and suggested I campaign for a Team Fortress 2 team within PMS. A few weeks and many forum posts later, I was co-leader of the first PMS TF2 division.
That season was a lesson on the ins and outs of on-line leagues wherein I learned much about competition, strategy, and a woman’s place on the internet. I was frustrated by all the negativity coming my way, but very pleased when I and a contingent of my TF2 team took a solid first (the team we played in the finals rage-quit after the first round!) at the Digital Overload LAN (spring 2008).
At that summer’s Nvision LAN, my TF2 team took first in the GeForce tournament and competed admirably in the main event. I also made it out of groups into the elimination bracket with my first attempt at Unreal Tournament. I continued to work hard at TF2 and that fall, my team advanced to the play-offs in both CEVO and CGS online.
Inspired by Ultimate Gamer’s debut last winter, I acquired an Xbox and began training in a multitude of games, mainly Street Fighter 4. I competed in SF4 at WCG Fighter Club, Summer DreamHack, GVN Summer Bash, The E-Spot, and another WCG Fighter Club. I’ve also picked up Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3: ODST and will compete in both games at WCG’s Crossfire tournament at the end of this month.
In addition to my own gaming, I’ve done shoot-outs for Sapphire and Commodore at VGXPO 2008 and helped work the main stage at GameX 2009 with PMS Clan. NoobTube TV has used me for on-camera interviews at NY Comic Con, MLG Meadowlands, GVN Summer Bash, and various WCG events in New York City. UFrag TV, another gaming coverage site, also hired me to help cast their live, streaming coverage for VGXPO 2009 and Big Apple Comic Con 2009.
I am very interested in continuing my involvement in the gaming industry and increasing its scope, so working alongside the Frag Dolls would be a dream come true!
The Seltzer Project 