There's no doubting that the best eSports champions have to have to have the skills to pay the bills, with natural talent, dedicated training, and vast amounts of team work needed to reach the top.
However, there's also no doubting that top gaming products can help optimise that raw ability and take it to higher levels, as evidenced by eSports players often using the absolute best gaming products on the market.
After all, at this high-end level every last small details counts, and can be the difference between winning and losing. Which makes the marginal gains delivered by top gaming hardware naturally very desirable, and a no-brainer for gamers looking to perfect their play.
We cover a lot of these high-end gaming products here at T3.com, with our guides such as best gaming mouse, best gaming keyboard, best gaming headset, best gaming monitor, best gaming chairs, and best gaming laptop rounding up what we consider to be the best. However, we were intrigued to see which products the eSports professionals themselves use, so decided to get in touch and ask...
Kevin ‘Klutch TI’ Brooks (Team ExceL- FIFA 18)
Kevin ‘Klutch TI’ Brooks
Kevin says: "I would recommend getting a Scuf Gaming controller, one of BenQ's quality gaming monitors, an Xbox One X, and an Astro Gaming A50 wireless headset. That’s the setup I have, and it put me in a great position to succeed."
Brian ‘Brian’ Thompson (Team ExceL – SFV)
Brian ‘Brian’ Thompson
Brian says: "In Street Fighter we’ve almost taken it back a couple of years – we use old school joysticks. I personally chose the Razer Panthera as my weapon of choice. The Panthera is a fight stick designed by Razer that is nicely weighted, it doesn't slip even after a lot of playtime. It's also very easily accessible to replace parts."
Alexandre ‘Mout’ Moutarde (Team Envy – Rocket League)
Alexandre ‘Mout’ Moutarde
Alexandre says: "I use our Envy-customised Scuf Xbox One Controller. The grip on the pad is superb and allows for a comfortable feel over a prolonged period of time. The buttons are really responsive and it’s an all-round fantastic pad that I would highly recommend.
"I also use the HyperX Cloud II gaming headset. It’s got a decent level of noise-cancellation and optimised for voice chat so it’s definitely a good one for competitive gaming!"
Ryan ‘Hashtag Ryan’ Pessoa (Team Hashtag – FIFA)
Ryan ‘Hashtag Ryan’ Pessoa
Ryan says: "The Hashtag United Scuf Controller can be customised to suit your game. I play with a higher left thumb stick, this gives me more mobility and allows me to turn faster.
"The grip on the back of the controller to help reduce my hands from slipping from sweat whilst playing and is really comfortable. I use a trigger stop on Right Trigger to help me activate sprint quicker. I use the paddles on the back (A/X) to help pressing so I do not need to release my right thumb off of the right analog stick when defending - these paddles are remap-able and can be configured based on my gaming needs which is great for Fortnite."
Steve ‘Undacuva’ Allen (Team UniLAD – Street Fighter)
Steve ‘Undacuva’ Allen
Steve says: "The fight-sticks I use are manufactured by MADCATZ and are now rare due to the company going under. I favour them as they have the original Sanwa joysticks and buttons found in the old school arcade cabinets. I play on PC running a ASUS ROG Strix GeForce 1080 Nvidia GPU for grunt.
"My monitor is also an ASUS ROG SWIFT. Due to the low latency and high refresh rates needed for fighting games! I love a Corsair RGB keyboard, too. I have the Corsair K70 RGB….got to love the satisfaction and ‘clickyness’ of a mechanical keyboard.
"I have this paired with Corsair M65 RGB mouse and Corsair RGB Polaris mouse mat. Not only for the pretty lights but because in my opinion, corsairs build quality is the best around.
"I use a Blue Yeti mic for when I stream due to its quality and plug and play functionality. My headphones are Audio Technica ATH M50s which offer the best audio performance for under 150 quid on the market. I have a DXRacer gaming chair because its comfy and is just what’s needed for long sessions with a fight-stick in your lap."
Catch all of the action from the Gfinity Elite Series from 6pm on the 26th October - https://www.gfinityesports.com/’
