Ive got some terrible news.
I found out today that Zippzap AKA Quickburn died of a heroin overdose on March 11th, he was 33 years old.
Those of us who knew him well, remember Zipp as a goofy but reliable friend who was very active when it came to helping players with tasks or missions or anything that you might need the services of a good tank for.
In the weeks before his death, his behavior took a dramatic turn for the worse.
He became depressed because of his very close brothers poor health and began to abuse drugs as his way of self-medicating.
His abilities in game became poor and his speech was often slurred.
I feared very much that something was wrong and tried to support him by whatever means I could. Marquele and I even invited him to take a weeks vacation in San Diego at our place to get out of his destructive environment, but he declined. Who knows how much it may have helped, but it will always be a horrible what if.
I prefer to remember him not for those last few weeks, but as a solid tank that was intelligent and quick to action and a good friend that was there to help any time you needed. Zippzap contributed emensely to data mining logs for spell info or emotes to help us beat new events and he put the guild on his shoulders at the beginning of TBM right when we lost all those tanks that we relied so heavily on.
Heroin is a killer. It kills the rich and poor, doctors and lawyers and the unemployed without any discrimination.
There is no high that is worth your life.
Rest in peace Zippzap, your troubles are over.
