Team Swords & Team Amber tees for charity

Okay, by now, you can tell that I want to defeat Team Amber in the increasingly more dramatic Blur Double XP weekend showdown on October 29. The trash talk is good, but with pride on the line and double XP in the offing, I think the actual racing will be better. But now…it’s getting intense. We both have official logo merchandise.

Amber said she was making t-shirts for Team Amber. I didn’t know if she’s serious or not, but hey — I married a designer, so rapid product development is technically my turf. “Kat, can you create a logo for Team Swords that looks awesome?” “Of course,” she said nonchalantly. “How awesome?” “Totally awesome,” I replied. And this is what she came up with:

Please add your own choir-of-angels sound effect when gazing up on it.

You can download a version for yourself here, suitable for use as Twitter icons, temporary tattoos, or a makeshift sticker campaign.

So, the next logical step? T-SHIRTS! And they are available right damn now, just by clicking on that link or the image below:

For a limited time, I’m hijacking my band’s merch site at Spreadshirt.com and offering men’s and women’s t-shirts, as well as a long-sleeve t-shirt with the Team Swords logo on them. They’re all shown on take-no-guff black, but you can choose another color if you prefer navy blue or hot-rod red, among others. I went with British racing green, myself. Now you can be a walking billboard for the inevitable defeat of Team Amber!

UPDATE: Amber was not bluffing — she also has a logo (which you can download):

It's okay I guess, if you like that sort of thing. I give it a 6.8 out of 10.

And she does indeed have t-shirts, which I am happy willing to offer through the same venue in the spirit of friendly competition:

Now, before we go any further…yes, this is obviously taking it to ridiculous extremes. As a competitive gamer, I want to win, but really, I wanted to take the joke all the way. However, I’ve come up with a way to make this bit of silly smack-talk do some good.

Hopefully, some readers of the site will recognize the Call of Duty Endowment — a charity Bobby Kotick set up to help aid veterans who face unemployment after returning to civilian life. Earlier in the year I got to take part in a massive donation to the Navy and actually shipped out on an aircraft carrier for a few days, which left me impressed, humbled, and incredibly seasick. While gamers have proven their generosity time and again with other charities, I think the this one could use some more exposure. So, for every Team Swords or Team Amber shirt that is sold this week, all the profit (a little over $5 each; everything else just covers costs) will go to the Call of Duty Endowment. I don’t expect to sell a ton of them, but hey — every one that does sell will support  a better cause than Amber and I teasing the hell out of each other. And…we still get to tease the hell out of each other.

That said, this changes nothing for the actual showdown on October 29th. I might be a softy when it comes to charity but my shirts look bad-ass and my foot is still made of solid lead. There will be no more mercy.