How important are peripherals in esports?

Average players search for the best peripherals for their gaming experience, and it’s no different in the highest level of play, where the top teams compete for millions in prize pool funds.

But it begs the question of whether peripherals actually make a difference in the esports scene, and why top athletes strive for the perfect set-up?

Esports Insider was flown out by ZOWIE to attend its sports science lab opening. From there, professional players were asked the age-old question of whether peripherals matter in competitive gaming.

Now more than ever, gaming tech companies like ZOWIE are fussing over the smallest details to push the performance of peripherals for professional players. In the Netherlands, ZOWIE unveiled its esports science lab, which allows the company to collect data from esports players to shape its future mouse products.

In an interview with Esports Insider, Dr Wade KW Lin, Head of the ZOWIE esports science lab, said: “We have equipment like motion capture systems that can record the reflector markers that we press onto the pro player’s skin. And the cameras can record the trajectory in a free space, so that we can calculate hand speed and joint angles that can change due to shifting the mouse.

“Other equipment we use includes EMG. It can measure electrical activity produced by muscle force, and it helps us to understand how much effort they are exerting and whether the mouse is easy to use or not.

“What we want to do is when we have more volunteers to test them, we have more data using this equipment, and we can make better decisions for our designs.”

During the press conference Sunny Chang, Head of marketing at ZOWIE, told Esports Insider that working with players not only benefits professionals in the scene, but also ‘fans who attend these events’ like the BLASt.tv Austin Major and aspire to be professionals themselves.

But why go to such lengths to improve peripherals such as gaming mice? After interviewing multiple professional players, the consensus is that good peripherals can have an impact in competitive games.

Niels Christian ‘NaToSaphix’ Silassen, professional Counter-Strike 2 coach, said: “I think peripherals are extremely important for an esports player’s performance. For monitors, people typically just want what’s best technically. But for things like mice, I think it comes down to preference more because people’s grips are different.

“If you would go and buy a €5 mouse in a computer store that’s non-branded and isn’t made for esports, you’re going to have a bad time no matter what. But if you went and bought a more expensive premium brand, what works would vary from person to person.”

However, some players consider specific peripherals to be more important than others when competing at the highest level of play, particularly for shooters that require more mechanical prowess.

In an interview with Esports Insider, Richard ‘shox’ Papillon, former Counter-Strike pro player and content creator, said: “I would say the mouse is the most important peripheral. When keyboard and mousepads aren’t perfect, it is something you can always get used to, but when a mouse doesn’t fit you, it limits you from unleashing your best performance.”

For a lot of professional players, having good peripherals can sometimes make the difference between winning a match and leaving a tournament empty-handed. In some cases, some professional players take their own mice and mousepads to offline tournaments.

Based on interviews with players, some peripherals bear more significance than others. For a lot of athletes, the mouse is the most important piece of gear when it comes to their performance. So it’s no wonder that companies are going above and beyond to perfect peripherals and earn their approval.

It may not be quite as significant for the average user, but for the top players around the world, peripherals are an important factor that helps define their success in the scene.