Uji, or Donny, is one of our most productive and idea-driven members. It's incredible how much this guy can come up with, and equally incredible how much he can put into action and execute. He's fond of brushing himself off as just the ideas guy, but that doesn't do his brilliance or his dedication justice.

Besides his recently running, organizing, or co-organzing over 42 unique competitions in the last several months alone, which Braecen will detail for you, he's also been an active and participating member himself, and taken part in 39 competitions across House and Brotherhood. Rather than merely taking part on his own or merely creating content, Donny twines both together and optimizes each. He gets down in the trenches and leads by example, taking the head of the gaming charge with our members in 15 PvP matches and 89 PvE matches that have earned him 403 Clusters of Fire and 382 Clusters of Earth. When he saw people discussing fiction comps, he got in and encouraged them there too, showing that it was easily achieveable to write both fictions and three ACC battles, despite fiction never being his strongest suit. He still managed to earn eight Clusters of Ice and write over 2220 words, as well as earning several placements in various competitions, garnering seven Crescents, from Sapphire to Amethyst, Ruby, and Diamond. It is most encouraging to participate when you are participating with others, when you are shown that your skills may not matter, and your doubts can be overcome if you try something new, practice, and get better. This is what Donny shows his members every day, and it is one of the most precious qualities a leader or member can have.

Donny is, however, a leader, and has been performing admirably both in his competition-creating and member-encouraging capacity as Aedile for the last four months since he was promoted. He's managed to compose and post two reports for his House in that time, trading with his Quaestor, and had been a machine in sending out emails with comp reminders, member highlights, encouragement, and communiques with his fellow summit members. Tireless recommendation writing, content producing, and organizing make him one of our cornerstone summiteers, and I know for a fact his Battleteam leaders and fellow members haven't been happier in a good while. Donny is an inspiration to not only his House, but his Clan and this Brotherhood, and he more than deserves this Grand Cross.

Congratulations.

Atyiru Caesura Entar

Consul of Clan Arcona

Master Ruka Tenbriss Ya-ir, 2015-11-10 00:07:28 UTC

Uji — or Donny — has been my Proconsul for three months now. I say this not just to give reference to the metric of continued service that we consider so highly, but to highlight the sheer impact he has had in that short time. Arcona would not be functioning or thriving as it is now without him as one of its leaders — end of story. He is a stellar member and leader, my right hand man, and the keystone to the multitude of moving parts in this summit.

Since he was last recognized some four months ago, Uji has been hard at work, championing the reintegration and organization of his summit along with day to day management tasks and his own steady stream of personal activity as an example to others. He’s (co)organized 6 competitions, including features for the Arcona Flash Series and the Clan event, Fall of Perdition, and has participated in 45 competitions, placing in 7 of them to earn himself a Crescent with Amethyst Star, two with Sapphire Stars, and four with Emerald Stars. In completing some of these, he has participated in large-scale events like the Dark Council’s Celebration Run-On, writing 1716 words over three posts for 5 Clusters of Ice, and has also completed 20 PvE matches and 7 PvP matches to garner 125 Clusters of Fire and 70 Clusters of Earth. In addition to all this, Uji’s taken the time to explore the Shadow Academy to pass the new Diablo III course.

Uji’s most admirable accomplishments and services, though, are not in his personal activity, but in the work he does in leadership. He was an inspiration as an Aedile to Galeres, and has continued to be that and more as Arcona’s Proconsul. The simplest analogy is really that of a fish to water — he’s tackled the job with such finesse and dedication that not one member of our strongly voiced summit would have anything but praise to speak of. His ability to flawlessly mediate difficulties in our Clan of intrepid personalities and visions, as well as delegate tasks and projects; perform administrative functions; aid in development of content and identity for the Clan and Houses; oversee promotions and awards; effectively manage the chain of command; and still lead by example in both competing and community building within the Clan and across Clans are all invaluable to Arcona. And these highlights are, truly, just scraping the surface. He has overseen every recent hiring from Quaestor to Aedile to Battleteam leaders, helped reconcile disputes, driven organization projects within Trello and proposed new ideas for structuring meetings, held several G+ Video conferences, written a multitude of recommendations and aided in writing reports with gathering statistics and content, served as constantly available morale and technical support — just about anything. A day scarce goes by when he doesn’t ask me and ask the summit what we need from him.

That, then, is why it’s my honor today to recommend him for this Grand Cross, for his activity and, paramount, his role as Proconsul thus far. Thank you, Donny, for all you do and continue to do, and congrats.

Atyiru Caesura Entar

Consul of Clan Arcona

Master Ruka Tenbriss Ya-ir, 2016-05-30 01:54:24 UTC

Maaz Sawyer (or Donny, Uji, Log, whatever) was instrumental in the testing and implementation of Hearthstone as the DB's newest gaming platform. With the loss of our beloved Pazaak site, I culled DB Gaming and my staff for ideas of how we could fill the huge gap left in the free card game category. Donny immediately brought Hearthstone to my attention, and offered to test it as a potential for support. Donny played more matches than any other member (even though he forgot to submit them), provided detailed notes and cluster value recommendations, and co-wrote the rules for how the game would be implemented as a PvP platform.

Additionally, Donny took the charge on testing additional modes for StarCraft 2, specifically the PvE and vs. AI modes. Donny took it upon himself to drive interest in the game, leading to a sizable interest level with the club's gaming community. In the end, and based completely off his recommendations we added a new PvE mode for StarCraft 2, adding a much needed element to a game that is free to play for our membership base.

Donny is an incredible asset on the Fist staff, and truly pushes initiatives that have the club's gaming community in mind.

This award is only a small token of my appreciation for all he has done as M:Fist, and I look forward to everything he will bring to the team in the future.

Master Dracaryis, 2018-01-23 03:31:31 UTC