The past raid week was pretty dull, so I figured I would spice it up by interviewing past, present, and potentially future members of vodka! I was able to catch former raider Ezzy, current officer Rabz, and applicant Xdoctor and ask them all a few questions!
Let’s start things off with Ezzy!
Luumis: Could you give me a brief introduction and your history in vodka?
Ezzy: Hello, my name is Kyle, I am 22 years old, reside in Wisconsin and formerly played a restoration shaman for vodka. I joined the guild right at the end of Wrath; clearing Icecrown a total of three times before Cataclysm hit. I went on to make member on the second week of Cataclysm. The reason I remember this is because the day I made member I passed out during HC Conclave of Wind attempts. I continued my run with vodka all the way through HC Madness of Deathwing. A few months afterwards, due to multiple reasons, my year and half with vodka came to and end, as well as my seven year raiding career.
Luumis: What's your best memory while in vodka? Worst?
Ezzy: I had many a good times in vodka(and still do) because of the community that surrounds this guild. I have made some good friends from being in this guild with whom I still continue to converse. As far as in game goes though, my favorite memory would have to be my biggest accomplishment; that would of course be the world 5th/US 1st HC Ragnaros kill. Nothing all too surprising but when I think back on my time in vodka, this is what I see most clearly.
Worst memory, now that is a tricky one because I try to make the best of every situation, even if it looks nigh impossible. If anything, I would say anytime I messed up be it during progression or farm, on my main or my alt; those would be the worst times that come to mind.
Luumis: What was probably the hardest thing you had to do as a raider?
Ezzy: Now this is an easy one and it is what keeps the majority of people from raiding at this level. That is of course the time commitment that is needed during progression. Sleeping is not something I did very much of during progression. I remember one week in particular where I got less than an hour of sleep for six days straight. Work, raid, sleep for an hour and repeat.
Luumis: What do you miss? What do you not miss?
Ezzy: Well I do not miss anything as of right now, but I will miss the only real entertainment that this game has to offer me and that is progression raiding. I have enjoyed getting my first kills on every boss since I first stepped foot into Molten Core. Plus I have managed to defeat almost everything in the game other than the original Naxxramas, which I greatly regret never being able to do. I will also miss being able to read the application forums, those gave me some good laughs. Finally, I am going to miss the people in the guild. Albeit I do still hangout with them in mumble and play games with them, it just will not be the same.
The only thing I will not miss is being confined to a schedule by a video game. I was trying to think of something else to write after this but nothing made sense. I am just happy to be able to do what I want when I want without having to worry about being in front of my computer by a certain time for once in seven years.
Luumis: Who was your favorite and least favorite guildies?
Ezzy: As stated before I try to find the best in every situation and I do that with people as well. I do not come across many people that I dislike. The same goes for almost everyone in vodka. I cannot say that I truly disliked someone especially after I got to know them. I can only say there were those people that I never got to know well because they never gave me the chance. Therefore I did not care for them, but I did not dislike them either. As for my favorite people in the guild, I generally enjoy everyone in the guild, but there are those people with which I bond better and they know who they are.
Luumis: What are you up to these days?
Ezzy: Right now I am just doing more of what I normally did when I was not playing Warcraft. I am currently playing League of Legends, Binding of Isaac, and Tera Online. I love watching streams and video game tournaments of Starcaft 2 and League of Legends. I am also finally getting caught up in most of the anime that I have been meaning to watch for a long time. It is nice to have some more time in my schedule.
Luumis: Got anything else to say?
Ezzy: I wish vodka and the rest of the top end guilds the best of luck in the upcoming progression race in MoP. I really hope it is as fair as possible for a good race.
Now for a couple of shout-outs.
To Luumis for selecting me for an interview and kudos to him for putting in the extra work so that the WoW community can get to know vodka that much better.
To Grafarion and the rest of the vodka officers for running a tight ship but also an enjoyable one.
And last but not least...
Now that we’ve heard from Ezzy, here’s Rabz in order to give you guys an officer’s perspective:
Luumis: Could you give me a brief introduction and your history in vodka?
Rabz: My name is Rabz, I play a healing priest and am also an officer in vodka. I joined vodka during ToGC farm about a month before ICC came out. I was a healing priest in all of my previous guilds but was asked to be shadow when I came to vodka. I played shadow throughout ICC until Heroic LK progression when the previous Disc Priest left the guild and I was asked to step back into my healing role and have been doing so ever since. I became an officer during tier 11 farm, probably about a year now.
Luumis: What's your best memory while in vodka? Worst?
Rabz: The best memory so far was probably the Rag kill. It was such a challenging fight, especially from a healing perspective because we had to 3 heal it. Keeping up the raid during transitions felt like a minor miracle every time we got through. The fact that it was US first made it even sweeter. Our Blizzcon experience was amazing. We had almost 30 people there counting wives and GF's, it was tons of fun. The worst memory was probably spine, if only because it's so fresh in my mind. When the entire race comes down to a fight that revolves around class stacking and you just don't have enough of the classes it's certainly frustrating. That or the time that Contrive, Kevin, and myself ate Orange Oozes on Prof Prutricide on back to back to back attempts that ended up costing us world first on him and maybe a few other bosses.
Luumis: What was probably the hardest thing you had to do as a raider?
Rabz: I mentioned it before but 3 healing Rag was very challenging. I remember progressing on that boss and starting with like 7 healers, if you would have told me then we would 3 heal the kill I would have never believed you.
Luumis: What do you miss? What do you not miss?
Rabz: I miss when resto druids were solely brought to bring my ass innervates. I miss realm first titles. I already miss Have Group Will Travel in MoP. I don't miss all of the little things that quality of life changes have fixed, for example no built in equipment manager or pets taking up space things like that. I certainly don't miss only having one talent set at a time.
Luumis: Who was your favorite and least favorite guildies?
Rabz: Favorite ex-guildie has to be Kevin. Orange Ooze Club for life. This is gonna sound like a cop-out but I can't say I have a least favorite ex-guildie. There's one person in my wow career who I genuinely disliked and he was from way before vodka. If I have to say someone then Tigerlady, only because of the nature of the way he left. Still like the guy though, look forward to giving him a bro hug at blizzcon or something, then shaking my head at him in disappointment.
Luumis: What makes the vodka officer core different from other guilds' officer cores? Could you give us an example of how you guys work/think?
Rabz: We do our very best to treat every member of the guild as adults. We give them the benefit of the doubt and put a lot of trust in them to manage themselves. We're purposely really transparent in the majority of the things that we do because the members have a right to be heard.
When we make decisions we're able to set our egos aside and place the interest of the guild as a whole above everything else. We're not afraid to argue with each other because we know a better decision will be made from it. The stuff that we do really is a group effort, Graf goes out of his way to ask for our opinions on everything. He does a great job in just gathering as much information as he can before coming to a decision.
Luumis: What are you up to these days?
Rabz: Very lazy student who goes out of my way to spend as much time w/ my friends as I can before they all start families.
Luumis Got anything else to say?
Rabz: If people had any idea what a clownshow that vodka really is they'd be shocked. I'm amazed on a nightly basis that we have the environment that we do and still manage to kill things, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Ok, finally we get to meet what the future of vodka might hold for us. Here’s a member of our newest recruit class: Xdoctor!
Luumis: Hey, thanks for taking some time to answer a few questions. Welcome to the guild. Why don’t we start off with an introduction.
Xdoctor: Thanks. I've mained a Resto Shaman and Boomkin in all the raiding content I've done. I started raiding with progression guilds in BT/ZA back in TBC. I've moved through 5 or so guilds since then, most fell apart or stopped raiding before I left as I changed servers from Anub'arak - Black Dragonflight - Ysera - Alterac Mountains. The fastest progressed guild I was in was on Black Dragonflight for Heroic Icc 25man, on my resto shaman.
Luumis: Which of those guilds were your favorite and why?
Xdoctor: Evo and Natural Order were my two favorite guilds. Both had a great community feeling with a fun active group, there were fun to be around and also did raided well.
Luumis: Don’t worry, these questions won’t affect your application process, but what are your thoughts about vodka so far? I understand you joined during farm content so you don't know what it's like during progression. Also, what are the pros and cons you see so far as a new guy to the guild?
Xdoctor: It's been enjoyable so far, there are always people around to do something; from css to lol. The raiding atmosphere I was in was very nice as well, everyone played very well (as expected!). Everyone seems fun to be around, and with a good sense of humor. Only real cons so far is that joining a new guild, I have to learn all the voices and how they joke around, which as my only complaint so far is not bad at all.
Luumis: Who are you favorite and least liked guildies and why?
Xdoctor: Favorite so far is Nykez, he made it easy to like/talk to him. Least liked is Luumis, that guys a jerk in League. But no one has really stood out as someone to dislike yet really.
Luumis: Got anything else to say?
Xdoctor: And as far as shout outs, I'd have to say thanks to the crew of NO, and that KingArthur guy
