Lasers? Nothing new to gamers. But Jason Mishler’s laser is 2,000 pounds and slices through steel. Armed with that kind of power, the gamer known as CaNiBaL Elite has created hundreds of custom Xbox Live keychains — but if you want one, you’re going to have to earn it.

“I’ve played on Xbox Live since the beta,” says Mishler, a 31-year-old father of three from Rockford, Minnesota. “When the first Xbox merchandise was released, I saw a plastic Xbox keychain and thought it was okay, but felt they needed something better. I work with CNC machine tools, cutting steel plates and sheets with lasers, plasma cutters, and turret punches. I realized I could design my own keychain and cut it out of stainless steel — a lot better than plastic!”

Using CAD design software, Jason played with a prototype (seen below) but ultimately hit on reproducing the Xbox Live logo as a dogtag (which used to appear on Xbox.com) instead. “I bought and used stainless scrap from my work,” he recalls. “I would cut as many as I could out of each piece.” That turned into roughly 700, not counting the prototypes. Logically, the only thing to do with 58 dozen keychains is give them away. “I attempted to do indie contests twice, and both failed badly: I was a solo player with no way to present a contest and no structure for it,” he tells us. But once he started gaming with Team Exile, both problems were solved. If you think you can beat his crew at Rainbow Six Vegas or GRAW, sign up for the ladder tournaments at dccombat.com and prove it. If you pull it off, Jason will send your team keychains as trophies for your victory.

So far, the club is fairly exclusive — only a handful of gamers have claimed the prize. Microsoft even gave Jason’s efforts its semiblessing (“They said I can’t sell them, but I can give them away”), which is only fair, since his efforts are born out of enthusiasm for Xbox Live and its community. “I thought that people would like to win something that would last for a lifetime,” says Jason. Better still, he’s working on a new design based on Xbox 360.

You're next! We love celebrating the superfans of Xbox, but it takes more than a cool tattoo or a custom license plate to make it into the Nerd Corps. If you think you have what it takes, send us an email and tell us why you deserve some extraordinary love.