Welcome to my first official Kotaku 'Shop Contest. I would have gone with something fluffy and light for my first go round, but when the most important soccer event in the entire goddamned universe is threatened by Pokemon, there can be only one response.
In case you hadn't heard, Japan is bringing Pokemon to the 2014 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro — not as a fun diversion while the other teams are playing football (you're welcome, rest of the planet), but as the official mascots of its national team.
We're going to keep this first one pretty loose. The theme is soccer (football, footie, feetsies, whatever) vs. pocket monsters. Specifically the 2014 World Cup, which is being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil later this year. Such freedom is heady and intoxicating. Should it prove too much for you, I'll tighten the reins next week.
Look up top, I've already started us off, using a simple Pokeball templat from DeviantArts' PokeLabs. Now it's your turn!
Not sure how to upload images? Follow these simple steps and you'll soon be uploading pictures to the internet like a pro image uploading sort of person.
1. Create your 'Shop and save it to your desktop.
2. Go to the bottom of this post and click "Discuss."
3. This brings up a comment window. Click the icon that looks like a picture.
4. This brings up another window called "Insert Image." Click "Choose file" if you're uploading your 'shop from your desktop
5. Alternatively, you can upload the 'Shop to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. Then paste the image's URL into the field that says "Image URL." Note: this must be the URL of the image itself, not the page where it is displayed. That means the URL ends in .jpg, .gif, .png, whatever.
6. Add editorial commentary and hit submit and your image will load. If it doesn't, upload the image to imgur and paste the image URL as a comment. I promise I will look at it.
7. Large-size images may not upload properly, though we have seen some big-ass animated .gifs upwards of 5 MB. If you're still having trouble uploading the image, try to keep its longest dimension (horizontal or vertical) under 1000 pixels, or the whole thing under 2 MB.
Alright! Have at it. Thanks very much for your participation.
To contact the author of this post, write to fahey@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @bunnyspatial.