Hello once again audience! Teamwork. I think it’s one of the most crucial elements a company needs for everything to run smoothly. I thought it would be fun to tell you a story of the best team building experience I’ve ever had with coworkers. It started with an idea that turned into a ten day “Brocation” with my buddy and fellow Umbrella employee, Lucas Pieper.
The concept began months ago, when the company Blizzard Entertainment announced a new expansion for their game and largest MMORPG, (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) called World of Warcraft. We were told that a legion of demons were invading the world of Azeroth, and champions needed to come together if there was any hope of survival. Needless to say, I was unable to contain my inner nerd and started talking all about it with everybody at Umbrella. I wasn’t surprised to find that my fellow gamers were pretty pumped about the expansion as well.
Through various talks about demon slaying strategy, it was decided we would form an Umbrella guild in the game so we could work together to take down the demon lairs and huge boss fights. It was also decided I was to be named Guild Leader!
Responsibility of being a guild leader can be a massive undertaking. It involves setting up the guild, setting up a website, scheduling, and understanding all the new expansion content. And the list goes on. With over a third of Umbrella wanting to form a guild, I decided to take a week off work during the game release to prepare. I happened to be speaking with Lucas at his desk about the week off I was taking for prep, and he found that he also had some vacation time available. Before we knew it, an epic Brocation had been scheduled, and the future of World of Warcraft depended on Umbrella!
I’m a fortunate guy. The fact that my wife allowed Lucas and I to transform our living room into a stinky boy pit where all adulthood goes to die is more than I thought we could get away with. But there we were, two desks, dual monitors and a 72 inch TV between us. Lucas had brought his homemade Italian noodle salad in bulk, and we were well stocked with energy drinks and junk food.
At 12:00am Tuesday morning, the World of Warcraft server floodgates slammed opened. The legion expansion was live, and terror had been unleashed. Lucas and I immediately teamed up and started cutting our way through the massive hordes of demons that stood before us.
We managed to play most nights until about 4:00am. We were exhausted. We could go no further. So we would take a break for four hours of sleep and then jump right back into the fray. Countless high fives ensued. We were twitchy from the amount of caffeine that was consumed, but we pushed on.
Near the end of the week, we had accomplished our goal. We’d beaten most of the game’s story content, but that’s when the game truly begins. In order to advance further into end game content, you needed to have a group of at least five players to tackle the difficult dungeons and raid bosses. Since we were as far as we could go without help, we spend the last few days of our Brocation creating the guild that other Umbrella coworkers would join. And with all of our teamwork combined, we could destroy the legion for good.
All said, Lucas and I spent around 165 hours playing World of Warcraft:Legion. I wouldn’t have it any other way. We are your IT team by day, and a team that can overcome any challenge the legion throws at us by night.
World of Warcraft has helped form a bond between the Umbrella members that play together. It’s helped improve internal communications and our relationships.
So, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you are needing support from a great group of people, be it crushing monsters or assistance with your IT related problems, give us a call at Umbrella. You won’t find a more dedicated team.
