This is just a quick little note cause I was thinking recently, and I wanted to get some words out there to the people. With Continental Champs coming up, testing has been in full effect for wow players across North America. I'm pretty excited that Gencon takes place less than 10 miles from the apartment my girlfriend and I have. The little group I test with has become fairly organized, and that has led some friends on other "teams" to lead to ask me what our teamname is.

Let me be first in saying that I like anonimity, for the most part. I'd rather be the underestimated, unknown guy than the one expected to take down the field. I feel this is probably due to the fact that up until now, I've not really done anything ridiculously deserving of people knowing who I am, in the wowtcg anyway. Being associatted with a "team" gvies you an identity, good or bad, that people impress amongst you when they know someone from that team. I don't know what I think about that...

So in thinking about a team name, I thought about what I knew of that sounded cool. I referred back to a group of guys with matching T-Shirts at Gencon last year, who had a picture of a buddy and in big bold text "Team Stevie Stayed Home". I thought about "Team Alternate Win Condition", and their much less original, almost uninspiring new name "Team East Coast". Regionals around here, people from "RIW Hobbies" show their colors in matching polo shirts. Not feeling it...

Much like the bands of the early "00s" and the word "the", a lot of teams feel the need to put "team" in their name. Then there's "Cheatyface". They've got no "team" in their name, and it sounds way cooler. Almost like a gang...

A lot of the Cheatyface guys used to play magic, and I chatted extensively with Brad Watson and Armando about the origin of their team name. They attributed it to their days of playing magic, and one of the funnier cards they've ever had the pleasure of playing with. **

** No one from Cheatyface, nor Brad or Armando were contacted about this, and the author is totally pulling things out of a hat.

Now one last team that I almost forgot is "Clan Tao". The have a website, even - Clan Tao . Check it out, it's pretty badass, and it even has the sweet collaboration of Helmet and House of Pain as a theme song, Just another Victim. These guys got about every MMO covered, and as Damien Dufresne (WOWTCG Metamart?!) has shown, they are no slouches when it comes to raging your face for a spectral tiger. I wonder if they had started TCGs first, if they'd be named "Team Tao".

So with that, I think I know where I'm heading... And at the next tournament you need to keep an eye out for a hardcore group of playtesters with mustaches showing way too much chest hair, wearing cowboy hats and matching "southern style" button down shirts with a Trans Am logo on the back. That's right, you're about to go up against one of... Los Banditos