Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Fatal1ty Gaming Gear



This shirt was thrown to me in a crowd.
At E3 -the Electronic Entertainment Expo- last year the Fatal1ty gaming gear company had a booth and gave out free swag. They were also selling merchandise, but it was really expensive. The way they handed out freebies was by getting a huge crowd of people to stand out in front of their booth and just pitching stuff to them. It was only a promo shirt, the company doesn't make apparel, they only had these made up for giveaways and you can't get them anymore.
As graphic tees go black and red is about as cool as you an get. It's edgy, it's cool, it even says fatality on it. This t-shirt is a great addition to my gaming tees, my promo tees and is unique because it represents PC gaming, a previously unfilled spot. I should have a whole bunch of computer gaming shirts because of all the gaming I do on my desktop: Counter-Strike, MMORPGs, Team Fortress 2, etc. Since the shirt is so new the printing choices available too it were wider and of higher quality. I think that they used 3 colors to make the design, white, grey and red. The ink is printed very well, shows no signs of cracking and does not have a weird heavy texture to it when you feel it. The gradients and halftone dots are extremely detailed, if nothing else this shirt was very technically well made.
 It has nothing on the back but they did concentrate their efforts well on the front. Across the middle of everything it reads "Fatal1ty" yes, with a "1" in there. This is the handle or call-sign of Johnathan Wendel, one of the most famous -if not the most famous- professional gamers in the world. He has taken his fame and created his own company, selling high quality PC parts and accessories with his name attached. As a textured background across the whole shirt it says "Digital Gaming Gear" over and over again in grey and red. On the right-hand side in red it has a big 'ol eye, which has to be his. Along the bottom it has the logos of his brand partners, who are: Fusion-io, Creative, OCZ Technology and XFX.
http://www.fatal1ty.com
I kind of wear this shirt ironically when I get it out. I really like PC gaming and it has been a serious part of my life so I want people to know that. However, Fatal1ty himself, while being a champion of the first person shooter was really quick to sell out and has got to be one of the cockiest public personalities I've ever seen. The man is in his 30s and thinks he's God's gift to gaming. Yes, it's true that I, nor anyone I know, could beat him in a 1 vs. 1 battle and he has made gobs of cash on this move; I just feel that he has lost that warrior's spirit or whatever that the hardcore PC gamer is known for. So when I wear this shirt, know that I am repping Fatal1ty's skill and ownage, not his product line and his ego.

While they had everyone's attention they brought Fatal1ty himself on the stage and introduced their entire line of products. It was around this time that I was walking past the booth. When people are throwing free stuff to a crowd everyone usually goes nuts, the way to "win" is to act really animated/interested and be the loudest one there -I learned that from my brother Lars-. I was at that booth for maybe 5 minutes but I actually got the shirt when one of the people on stage pointed to me directly and was like give a shirt to that guy because I was acting the way they were expecting. Once I got it I bolted though, I really don't like Fatal1ty or what he stands for, I'm just a sucker for a free shirt.

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