Anybody who played World of Warcraft in its original version, what we call Vanilla WoW today remembers just how much longer it took to accomplish anything in that game. Thus by proxy, the hours one spent playing with others, the more you got to know them and sooner or later, some pretty awesome friendships bloomed. I was very fortunate to encounter a group of players who has managed to remain close friends over the years.
Our guild Overkill was led by a special guy named Snazzy. Back then Snazzy was just a voice on vent, a personality to interpret based on the conversations that transpired and in my mind, he always appeared as The Dude from The Big Lebowski, mainly because he was one hell of a chill guy, a little bit of a hippy and just an all-around happy dude who chuckled his way into your heart as you heard the ice clinks from his Scotch on the rocks through Ventrilo. Back then, on our server, Snazzy was somewhat of a celebrity because Overkill was far and away the most successful guild our little realm had. I was first introduced to Snazzy by my real-life friend who’d been playing with him since beta and I remember how in awe I was of his full epic gear and how quickly he melted the Horde during late night Tarren Mill & Southshore battles. Back then, running into players with epic gear in every slot didn’t happen often.
As I moved up the chain within the guild, I got to experience many things with Snazzy including opening the gates of AQ and watching him complete the Scarab Lord achievement. When the guild finally went on hiatus in 2008 Snazzy managed to keep a few of us loyal members to stick around, by then we didn’t really care much for raiding anyway and preferred smaller scale stuff like arenas and battle grounds. This smaller group became even closer friends and our little merry band of miscreant old farts chugged along as filthy casuals through every expansion. Although all of us would take breaks from the game from time to time, we’d always find our way back to Overkill, to our vent server and to each other.
I’ve considered Snazzy a friend for over a decade and a little over a week ago I and the rest of our online group of friends were shocked and heartbroken to learn he had tragically passed away. It’s a weird feeling to mourn for a person you’ve never met in the flesh yet share a bond of friendship with. I’ll never get to talk to Snazzy again but I will never forget him. Over the last week I’ve worked on this drawing of his character as tribute and to help with my own feelings of sadness. This is how I will always remember Snazzy; during the peak of Vanilla WoW, rocking a full set of Mage Tier 2, melting Horde with a barrage of fireballs. Rest in Peace Scarab Lord Snazzy, Azeroth will never be the same without you.
Scarab Lord Snazzy, Guild Master of Overkill