Twitter @ MVRetrograder
Dear Readers, My, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? We have a lot of catching up to do. Since we last met, BIGBITE has been through a lot of changes. Shortly after RTX last year, we left BIGBITE Magazine in favor of a traditional web format. We also launched a YouTube channel and even began creating our own original content. We grew a lot in a really short time. Sometimes, it’s a bit overwhelming to change so quickly. Over the holidays, Team BIGBITE decided to take a hiatus and identify which of those changes were working and which of them were not. One thing we realized was that, while attempting to capitalize on the success we had built thanks to the Rooster Teeth community, we had strayed too far from our roots. We all came together on this journey because of our shared love for Rooster Teeth, its content, and its community, and we realized -- or rather, remembered -- that BIGBITE was made by that community, for that community. Which brings us to today: the official BIGBITE Magazine relaunch. We’re returning to our roots, revisiting what made us special, and reconnecting with you, the Rooster Teeth community. We invite you to join us here every other month as we shamelessly fawn over some of the best and brightest Rooster Teeth community groups, content creators, and personalities! We will also be releasing additional, special issues, as well, and we are happy to announce that we will soon be premiering entire issues continuing the adventures of Azure, Coral, Viridia, and the mysterious fourth member of team ACVA in Aquamarine, based on Rooster Teeth’s RWBY franchise! We’re not announcing a date yet, but it is on the horizon! We have also relaunched our YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/BIGBITEMedia, where we will be providing new, original content such as our own Let’s Play-style videos, animated originals, and podcasts! We would also like to take this opportunity announce our new series, COCKBITE, which will be all about Rooster Teeth content! Again, no date yet, but stay tuned!
Thanks for reading! Joe Dalton CEO, BIGBITE Media Matt “Retrograder” VanDeZande Editor-In-Chief, BIGBITE Magazine
Interview With
Becca Frasier interview by Matthew “Retrograder” VanDeZande
To start things off, for our readers who might not know, could you please explain a little bit about who you are and what you do at Rooster Teeth? Hey there! I’m Becca Frasier, the Web Content Manager at Rooster Teeth. I’m also the voice of Sister on Red vs. Blue, and I occasionally make appearances on our live action and broadcast shows. I’ve been around since the very beginning, but officially got hired by Rooster Teeth a little over a year ago. At last year’s “How to Get Involved with the Rooster Teeth Community” panel, you talked about what makes the RT Community special to you. Would you please expand on that a little bit and tell of anything over the past year that has continued to influence your feelings? Sure! Like I said above, I’ve been around since the very beginning, and the Rooster Teeth Community has always been near and dear to me. There are so many relationships that have been formed among our community members through the years. I love hearing stories about people finding love and friendship via their passion for Rooster Teeth.
Over the past year, I’ve been even more involved with the Rooster Teeth community since I’m now a full-time employee. It is so fun to interact with our community every day, especially when I have opportunities to highlight stories from our community that are especially meaningful. I’m constantly humbled by tales of the role Rooster Teeth plays in people’s lives, and I will never take that for granted. I was scrolling through Poppycock earlier and I continue to be impressed by both the level and the amount of content that community members produce for it. How did you
come across the people who make both recurring content and oneoff content? What would be the best way for someone to become involved?
sion. They can do their own thing on the RT sites, Reddit, or Tumblr in hopes of me noticing, or they can message me on the site with a few article pitches. I’ll jump all over it if I like what I see.
Poppycock requires a lot of behind-thescenes work, and the most crucial component is involvement from contributors. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day for me to create all the content I want to put out there. Beyond that, I think it’s important to mix up the content and voice to keep things fresh.
What challenges are unique to hosting and promoting written content on a site that most people frequent exclusively for video content? What plans do you have to increase Poppycock’s readership going forward?
Most of the contributors who write for
“
The Rooster Teeth Community has always been near and dear to me. There are so many relationships that have been formed among our community members through the years. ” Poppycock come from word-of-mouth referrals. Charles Austin is an old friend of Chris Demarais’s, Alex Branson is a friend of Charles Austin’s, and my friend Letty Leal writes for us on occasion. A few other contributors come from connections to Rooster Teeth staff. The biggest exception to that norm is Jeremiah Palmer, who writes the amazing RT Podcast Answers articles. I saw him doing his thing on Reddit week after week, and decided to reach out to him to see if he’d like to join forces so the RT Podcast Answers could find a new home as official Rooster Teeth content. The best way for someone to get involved with Poppycock is to sell me on their vi-
I think visibility is Poppycock’s top challenge. Most site visitors come for a specific show or episode, and don’t spend much time perusing the other information on the homepage. And even if they do, it’s hard to make Poppycock content stand out given the current setup of our site. Moving forward, I hope to get Poppycock set up with a proper content management system that enables us to post media-rich content you’d find on sites like Buzzfeed. We might have to break it out from the core Rooster Teeth site to accomplish that, but time will tell. You’ve been with Rooster Teeth in one capacity or another for a long time, and you’re obviously really involved with the community directly, but it wasn’t until last week that you appeared on any of the podcasts. What prompted this turn toward a more public role and can we expect to start seeing you on camera more often? You know, that week was a total fluke. Barbara had planned to have me on Always Open for a while, and my time finally came. We recorded that episode about nine days before it aired. I was a bit nervous because I hadn’t been on camera in such a long time, but I eased in as the episode progressed. Then, not even a week later, I was randomly pulled onto the Rooster Teeth Podcast because Burnie was running late. I didn’t expect to be on it at all, but being on Always Open helped me jump right in.
I’m not sure if I’ll have a more public role at Rooster Teeth moving forward, but I would love to be on the Rooster Teeth Podcast and Always Open again. It just goes to show that Rooster Teeth is still a very intimate company in which random employees can end up on camera from time to time.
The Rooster Teeth Podcast has to be my favorite production of ours. I’ve been watching it faithfully since its inception, and it always gives me the warm fuzzies because I’m just so damn proud of my funny friends.
Arguably your most recognizable work with Rooster Teeth is as Kaikaina Grif’s voice in Red vs. Blue. We finally saw her again, albeit briefly, at the end of Season 14. Can we expect to see her back in the future and what are your favorite things about voicing her character?
What is your favorite video game?
Maaaaaaaybe. Now that we know she’s still alive, anything is possible.
Beyond that, I loooove Social Disorder. Chris and Aaron are hilarious together.
Hmm, that’s a tough one. I’m a fairly casual gamer, but Portal, Braid, and Limbo are up there.
“
Maaaaaaaybe. Now that we know she’s still alive, anything is possible. ”.
My favorite thing about voicing Sister is the opportunity to say the most absurd, vulgar lines possible. The writers come up with ridiculous stuff, and then they allow me to riff on it and improvise as we go along. We always end up laughing through the majority of our recording sessions.
I ask it this way because I’m sure it’s the shorter list: which STDs does Kaikaina Grif not have?
And just a couple quick and fun questions before we go!
I think she has everything but the F-word of STDs (AIDS).
What is your favorite Rooster Teeth production?
You get a million dollars, but … the only alcohol you can drink for the rest of your life is tequila. Do you take the money? Hell no. I hate tequila, and tequila hates me.
Crescent Rose
Electric Pink Lemondade
Hibiscus Gin & Tonic
Sharpshooter
Dead Bird
The Man With Two Souls
Interview With
DJ blue with grifballhub
interview by Matthew “Retrograder” VanDeZande
We spoke last year and you talked a lot about how you got started with GrifballHub and the opportunities that has presented you, but this year I want to talk a bit about Grifball as a whole. What can you tell me about its origin story and in what ways has it remained a Rooster Teeth-based community? As I remember the legend being told to me - it originated out from a reference made by Sarge during an episode of Red vs Blue, and one night, during an attempt at breaking through some writers’ block by creative drinking - Grifball was born. Now, that may not be entirely accurate, but it seems reasonable to me. As for remaining a RoosterTeeth community - well, let’s be honest: there’d be no Grifball if it wasn’t for RoosterTeeth. We actually nicknamed RTX “GrifCon” in the beginning. The GrifballHub has had a presence at RTX for years. It’s our home. We will always be the children of RT.
What are some of the hardships that you run into while operating a completely volunteer-run organization like GrifballHub? Volunteers, and Funding. During the year we sometimes rotate through staff, and as the GrifballHub has developed over time we have evolved as an organization. Every year so far the Hub has turned to our community members to raise the money for our RTX booth, last year’s being the largest endeavor yet, and it takes us 4 months of preparation, an on-site volunteer staff of 18-25 people, and an entire week spread out
before and after RTX to create the RTX Grifball Championships. And our volunteers pay for everything themselves. It’s a family affair. We do what we can, with what we have.
As a player in the Grifball leagues, I know that this year has seen a little bit of drama. What are some of the ways the Hub has overcome this so far and in what ways are you adapting to issues moving forward? The GrifballHub experienced some growing pains as we adjusted to some of our new roles, which has been an incredible learning experience. One thing I can say is that in a community like ours, sometimes that struggle creates unexpected bonds. We are an extraordinarily diverse and hilarious group of players that continue to amaze me as we move forward and continue to grow.
GrifballHub had an incredible presence at RTX last year. What are some of the things you were able to accomplish and what are some of things you hope to accomplish this year at RTX2017 to lead into RTX2018? Last year was our largest event ever. We stepped out into unfamiliar territory and engaged in a partnership with a sponsor, nearly doubling what we had raised within the community. This allowed us to have an unparalleled presence at RTX2016, which I can say was outstanding. With the changes in leadership, and the evolution of the Hub’s community, our volunteer staff has shrunk with the retirement of several of our core organizers. RageMoreNerd and I have spent our time since last RTX reaching out and networking with potential sponsors in an effort to create lasting relationships that
we hope to incorporate in the future. At the present time, however, the GrifballHub has decided that we will be foregoing our booth presence at RTX2017 in order to ensure that we have everything lined up for RTX2018, and are able to provide an outstanding experience to our players as well as our fans. If you know of anyone interested in partnering with the GrifballHub for an RTX booth, let me know. ;-)
On a personal note to close things out, what was it like to cast Grifball alongside the man, the myth, the legend: Bravo? Anyone who knows me knows that my first time watching an eSport event was watching Bravo on Twitch. Bravo has been an inspiration to me, and been a joy to get to know as a friend. Bravo is a competitive Arena caster for Halo, which flows at a completely different speed than Grifball, and it wasn’t until we started that first match that I realized he’d never been a caster for Grifball before. It was a chilling realizing that he let me take the lead and run with it, since Grifball games are my specialty. Presently I am about to board a train and head down to sunny Burbank California for the Halo World Championships at the ESL Arena where I’ll be seeing Bravo, along all the rest of the 343 & ESL staff. It’ll be a learning experience as well as a one of the life-altering moments that I seem to keep having so many of in the last 4 years.
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