The Professional Gamers League (PGL) showcased its newly upgraded tournament rig specification prior to the kick-off of their (still ongoing) CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 esports event. As reported, over a week ago, competitors have been treated to modern systems decked out with AMD's popular gaming-oriented Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards, while BenQ's ZOWIE XL2566K 24.5" 360 Hz gaming monitor delivers a superfast visual feed. A hefty chunk of change has been spent on new hardware, but expensive cutting-edge tech can falter. Virtus.pro team member—Jame—experienced a major software crash during a match against rival group, G2.

PCGamesN noted that this frustrating incident ended the affected team's chance to grab a substantial cash reward. Their report put a spotlight on this unfortunate moment: "in the second round of a best of three, Virtus Pro were a few rounds away from qualifying for the playoffs, only for their aspirations to be squashed through no fault of their own...Jame experiences a graphics card driver crash that irrecoverably steers the round in G2's favor, culminating in Virtus Pro losing the match 11-13. Virtus Pro would then go on to lose the subsequent tie-break match as the round was not replayed. In effect, the graphics card driver crash partly cost the team their chance at winning an eventual $1.25 million prize pool." PGL revealed, via a social media post, that officials are doing some detective work: "we wish to clarify the situation involving Jame during the second map, Inferno, in the series against G2. A technical malfunction occurred due to an NVIDIA driver crash, resulting in a game crash. We are continuing our investigation into the matter." The new tournament rigs were "meticulously optimized" and tested in the weeks leading up to CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024—it is believed that the driver crash was a random anomaly. PGL and NVIDIA are currently working on a way to "identify and fix the issue."

ZOWIE, BenQ's professional eSports equipment brand, is pleased to announce the U2 wireless eSports mouse with an all-new shape, developed through cutting-edge sports science research and development to meet the demands of competitive gamers. The U2 boasts a distinctive inward-curved design on both sides, catering to claw grippers who prioritise agility during multi-angle movements. Additionally, the U2 features an enhanced receiver for superior wireless signal stability and offers plug-and-play convenience. Its newly redesigned mouse feet ensure a glide experience reminiscent of other ZOWIE wired mice.

Sports Science in ZOWIE Mouse Design
At ZOWIE, each new shape undergoes meticulous research. Thorough qualitative interviews and usability tests on prototypes are conducted prior to each product launch. By leveraging sports science experiments, the team can evaluate various design proposals more objectively. ZOWIE believes that designs rooted in both qualitative and quantitative data empower our players to achieve higher levels of performance.

Today, Logitech G, a brand of Logitech and leading innovator of gaming technologies and gear, introduced the two newest products in the award-winning PRO Series line, the Logitech G PRO X TKL LIGHTSPEED Gaming Keyboard and Logitech G PRO X SUPERLIGHT 2 Gaming Mouse. Over the past three years, Logitech G has been working with hundreds of the world's most skilled professional esports athletes to create the next generation of PRO Series gear. These new products, when combined with the Logitech G PRO X 2 LIGHTSPEED Gaming Headset launched earlier this year, complete the PRO Series line, offering the highest level of PC performance across mice, keyboards and headsets.

"The exciting new PRO Series portfolio represents a pure and uncompromised product collection, designed for maximum performance of elite esports professionals and the most competitive gamers playing at the peak of potential," stated Brent Barry, Head of Esports and PRO Series at Logitech G. "These products exemplify our commitment to pushing the limits of performance, speed, and reliability, which is only made possible through our multi-year, collaborative design process with professional esports athletes. Our elite athlete partners help design, develop and test our products, ensuring they deliver the highest level of performance, quality and cutting-edge innovation."

innish esports company UNEVN has launched a new gaming setup meant for professional e-athletes and professionals-to-be. The new setup called BASE is designed to make organizing boot camps easier, improve performance, and help players move ahead in their career. BASE is a portable gaming setup that comes with a high-end computer, screen, keyboard, mouse, and the gaming desk itself. The setup can be put together in minutes, and it is easy to transport.

UNEVN was founded by brothers Aleksi and Santeri Rinkinen together with Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka, one of the most famous Dota players in the world. Vainikka is a former world champion in Dota 2. "One of the biggest challenges for professional e-athletes is having to deal with insufficient tournament setups that often disregard the importance of ergonomics. We've designed the setup with a smooth gaming performance in mind. BASE is portable and easy to transport, and it is compatible with various components. With our gear, players can maximize their performance and focus fully on what matters most - winning," explains CEO Aleksi Rinkinen.

Thermaltake, the leading PC DIY premium brand for Case, Power, Cooling, Gaming peripherals, and enthusiast Memory solutions, is excited to hold the Thermaltake Indoor Cycling Esports Tournament at COMPUTEX 2023. In recent years, cycling esports has been gaining traction in the esports industry, and the CYCLEDESK 100 Smart Gaming Desk is a multi-functional desk designed for gaming, working, and professional cycling esports. At COMPUTEX 2023 you can not only watch the Thermaltake Indoor Cycling Esports Tournament, but also experience the CYCLEDESK 100 and other cycling esports gaming gear firsthand.

The CYCLEDESK 100 Smart Gaming Desk is an essential part of any cycling esports competition. Standing out from most desks on the market, the CYCLEDESK 100's small footprint and mobility makes it perfect for a variety of usage scenarios; from cycling esports, to gaming stations, and workplace scenarios. The CYCLEDESK 100's multi-functional design provides ample space for a PC monitor or laptop setup, allowing users to comfortably watch videos while cycling at the same time. Empowered by the TT Smart Control Unit, the CYCELDESK 100 comes with a smart height-adjustment function that can be controlled through your mobile devices via WiFi or PC. It also features an interface which displays the current desk height, and offers easy height-adjustments through a push of a button located at the front panel. The CYCLEDESK 100 takes smart design to the next level, and is perfect for cycling esports competitions and regular workout sessions.

QuakeCon 2023 Returns to its Roots, Reuniting Fans with a Modern Upgrade to the Classic BYOC - It's official! After three years of digital-only events, QuakeCon 2023 will mark the return of the beloved BYOC, in-person at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas from Thursday, August 10 through Sunday, August 13.

"QuakeCon is our favorite event of the year, and we can't wait to finally see our incredible QuakeCon community in-person again, celebrate games, and frag all weekend with thousands of friends." said Marty Stratton, Studio Head, id Software. "For our first year back, QuakeCon 2023 is focusing on the fan favorite BYOC and the players that made QuakeCon the best gaming gathering for more than 25 years."

AQIRYS, the trending Romanian gaming brand, announces the launch of the newest gaming keyboard in the portfolio, ALUDRA, and the updated version of the original model, ALUDRA TKL. Designed to deliver a pro-level gaming experience, quietness, and future upgrade possibilities, the revealed models appeal to all gamers looking for unconventional, remarkable setups.

Named after a blue supergiant star in the constellation Canis Major, the ALUDRA keyboard fuses exceptional design with the updated version of one of the best mechanical switches available to deliver performance and a richer, more silent gaming experience in a full-size form factor. Rated for 80 million keystrokes and retaining the unmistakable silky smooth typing feeling, the Gateron G PRO 2.0 Red switches installed on the ALUDRA provide a more stable linear response. In addition, they are just as quiet as the previous version, only this time factory lubricated and improved to reduce wobbliness, increase durability and enhance backlight transmission.

CHERRY MX, the market leader and expert for mechanical switches in keyboards, is expanding the MX Ultra Low Profile series (ULP) with a tactile version without an audible click. The manufacturer of innovative switches thus offers end customers another option in the areas of "high-end laptop keyboards" and "ultra-thin desktop keyboards". The CHERRY MX Ultra Low Profile Tactile comes with all the unique features and distinctive characteristics for which the series is known worldwide. Since the ULP switch is not only an absolute technical masterpiece but has also set a patented standard and allows new technical possibilities for designing ultra-low profile laptop and desktop keyboards within the premium segment, the product received the "German Innovation Award". This makes CHERRY MX an award-winning innovation leader.

In March 2021, the MX Ultra Low Profile switch was introduced as a completely new development and a milestone in switch development: With an overall height of just 3.5 millimeters, CHERRY MX unveiled the shallowest model in its product range. Particularly for laptops, this allows the realization of fully mechanical high-end keyboards that clearly stand out from previous solutions in terms of pleasant tactile feel, intensive feedback during gaming or typing, and increased reliability as well as greater durability without changing the format. The CHERRY MX ULP also opens up new possibilities for desktop keyboards that were previously technically unfeasible. The exclusive and patented switch design incorporates the feature set of CHERRY MX switches that have been proven for decades, ensuring maximum precision and perfect function even in the new design.

SteelSeries, the worldwide leader in gaming and eSports peripherals, today debuts a new limited-edition collection of products featuring the iconic CS: GO Neo Noir skin. SteelSeries has long been ingrained in the CS: GO community and this marks the fifth year the brand has created special game-related gear in support of CS: GO fans. Previous collections include the Fade Camo, Hyper Beast, Howl, and Neon Rider series.

For 2021-2022, artists Blazer and Donschi crafted original pieces of art in collaboration with the SteelSeries design team for the Neo Noir collection. The unique stylings were inspired by old-school manga comics and anime art, and fused with the wild, multi-hued sophistication of CS: GO's iconic Neo Noir skins. This is noir for the new age.

SteelSeries, today announced the launch of the all-new Prime Mini and Prime Mini Wireless eSports mice. Building on the award-winning success of the Prime franchise that revolutionized gaming mice technology with the first-ever optical magnetic switches in eSports, the newest edition to the Prime series introduces a lineup of smaller, lighter mice featuring the same cutting-edge Prestige OM technology. Fit, feel, and lightning-fast response time are crucial for fast attacks, melees, and (ultimately) wins. Featuring an ultra-lightweight, ergonomic shape with a smaller profile, the Prime Mini is engineered to be 12% lighter and the Prime Mini Wireless is sculpted to be 9% lighter within a form factor mini silhouette.

Each mouse in the Prime lineup is equipped with Prestige OM switches that are engineered to last 5x longer than the competition, providing crispy clicks with lightning-fast response times that harness the power of light. The revolutionary Optical Magnetic switches, the first OM switch in eSports, actuate at quantum speeds so that gamers can beat the competition to the trigger every time. Not all clicks are made the same - most degrade with each click of the mouse. The unique Prime design utilizes a magnetic core to ensure that the 100 millionth click feels just as crispy as the very first.

MSI, the world's leading manufacturer for true gaming hardware, is proudly expanding the hardware possibilities for all gamers. Artemis is formerly known as Ἄρτεμις and derived from Greek mythology. It is at the same time known as Luna (New Moon) and Goddess of Hunting. When hunting, she wore a silver bow and rode a silver cart pulled by a female deer with golden antlers. The image shows both kindness and majesty, just like the moon.

1000R is the most suitable curvature for the human eyes. It perfectly fits the curvature of the human eye so that you can see the entire screen without any fatigue. The curved surface design can also enhance the sense of coverage and immersion so that you will not be disturbed by the outside environment during the game, which greatly enhances the gaming experience.

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards, all-in-one gaming and multimedia solutions, and high-performance storage, proudly presents the iGame M600 Mirage - the brand's latest gaming PC featuring the latest 11th generation Intel Core processors and the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30-Series graphics cards. It comes with flexible configuration options to cater to different types of gamers from casual gamers to demanding eSports professionals.

The COLORFUL iGame M600 Mirage features vibrant RGB lighting across the entire chassis having more than 70 individually addressable RGB LEDs to create a Dynamik Light effect on top, in front, and at the bottom of the chassis. Unique to the iGame M600 Mirage, it uses a magnetic Power Key to turn on the gaming PC which gives it personalization and ownership. The iGame M600 Mirage comes in a solid side panel and tempered glass side panel options and comes with a graphics card bracket to support heavy high-performance GPUs.

[Editor's note: HyperX is still part of Kingston while the acquisition from HP is being formalized.]

HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., today announced it is joining forces with the Red Bull Racing Esports team as the Official Peripheral Partner. To provide a competitive edge and take their esports racing to the next level, Red Bull Racing Esports will have access to HyperX's market-leading gaming mice and keyboards and award-winning Cloud headsets for training and competitions. As part of the partnership, HyperX branding will be featured on the team kit and in-game livery of the team cars.

HyperX has built a reputation among gaming communities around the world by creating quality peripherals that enhance the gaming experience and provide comfort and playability, enabling pro players to stay sharp and focused whether a race lasts for 30 minutes or six hours.

AOC, a global leader in high performance gaming monitors, today adds true mechanical keyboards, gaming mice and mousepads to its eSports and gaming line-up. The new products include:

• Gaming Keyboards: the AGON AGK700 tournament-grade mechanical keyboard for eSports, and the mid-level AOC GK500 gaming mechanical keyboard
• Gaming Mice: the AGON AGM700 tournament-grade RGB gaming mouse for eSports, and the mid-level AOC GM500 RGB gaming mouse
• Gaming Mouse Mat: the AGON AMM700 RGB mouse mat

In competition, the right equipment often makes all the difference. AGON and AOC gaming monitors with have set a standard, enabling fast and accurate visual feedback to gamers, allowing their unhindered skill to determine their performance. AGON and AOC peripherals similarly enable competition-level performance, while providing complimentary design for a striking desktop system look.

"Ever since AOC entered the gaming market, we have strived to put the best-performing, feature-rich, and most reliable products in the hands of our fans. As we continue our growth in the eSports and gaming space, adding these high performance and highly customizable products to our gaming arsenal is a seminal moment," says David Ray, Director of Marketing at AOC North America.

As a world leading gaming brand, MSI is the most trusted name in gaming and eSports. We stand by our principles of breakthroughs in design, the pursuit of excellence, and technological innovation. Integrating gamers' most coveted extreme performance, realistic visuals, authentic sound, precise control and smooth streaming functions into its gaming rigs, MSI frees gamers from tedious trial and error and pushes gaming performance beyond limits. The determination to surpass past achievements has made MSI a True Gaming brand with gaming spirit throughout the industry!

MSI announced a gaming desktop equipped with Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake-S processor. The 11th generation Intel Core processor adopts Cypress Cove's new architecture, which changes hardware and software efficiency and improves their performance. This allows users to achieve the perfect balance between gaming and productivity. The graphics card comes with NVIDIA RTX 3090 specifications, allowing players to enjoy the most extreme gaming experience. MSI launched a total of five models this time, from the flagship Aegis Series to the eSport Gaming Infinite Series, as well as the compact-sized Trident Series, to meet the hardware needs of different players.

Sharkoon Technologies is an international supplier of high-performance quality PC components and peripherals. Sharkoon now presents the SKILLER SGK30. This is a mechanical keyboard which has durable mechanical switches, available with or without feedback, and should thus be suitable for prolific writers and casual gamers as well as eSports enthusiasts. It also has an integrated RGB illumination which can be customized thanks to the downloadable software.

Using the downloadable software of the SKILLER SGK30, numerous settings can be made, allowing the keyboard to be modified according to personal preference. Once created, the modifications can be saved in up to 20 game profiles. Also, thanks to the macro function, input commands can be created and saved, while preset function keys enable access to various multimedia actions.

As a world leading gaming brand, MSI is the most trusted name in gaming and eSports. We stand by our principles of breakthroughs in design, the pursuit of excellence, and technological innovation. Integrating gamers' most coveted extreme performance, realistic visuals, authentic sound, precise control and smooth streaming functions into its gaming rigs, MSI frees gamers from tedious trial and error and pushes gaming performance beyond limits. The determination to surpass past achievements has made MSI a "True Gaming" brand with gaming spirit throughout the industry.

With high anticipations, MSI will begin selling NVIDIA RTX 30 series graphics cards today. For gamers and developers, GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs offer the ultimate performance. They are supported by Ampere, the 2nd generation RTX architecture of NVIDIA, with new RT Cores, Tensor Cores, and multiprocessor streaming for the most practical raytracing graphics and cutting-edge AI features, providing players with an immersive visual perception. With the improvement of RT Cores, the RTX 30 series graphics cards can go up to twice the performance of the previous generation, allowing players to run high-quality game scenes smoothly. The improvement of DLSS technology allows players to balance the picture quality and performance, and raise the visual fidelity to a new level to enjoy high picture quality without losing smoothness.

Tencent is set to win big after it was announced that Chinese game streaming companies Huya and DouYu would be merging, Tencent owns significant stakes in each company and will hold 68% of voting shares after the merger is complete. This merger will significantly reduce marketing costs and see a combined monthly active user base of over 300 million accounting for an over 50% market share making it the largest game streaming venture in the Chinese market. Tencent will also integrate its Penguin e-Sports game streaming platform into the new Huya service to further consolidate its offerings. The merger will help Tencent to gain control over the entire gaming ecosystem in China allowing the firm to generate large eSports revenue and reach a larger audience for game distribution.

The first XL monitor was launched in 2010. Back then, 3D technology was all the rage and almost every brand used 120Hz panels for 3D display applications. However, the very first XL monitor, the XL2410T, adopted the same panel for a totally different 2D application; esports. This was the result of a collaboration between BenQ's engineers and the original ZOWIE team, a group of veteran Counter-Strike players and enthusiasts. XL2410T was well accepted by the Counter-Strike community, not because of its cutting-edge technology, but because it was the first monitor able to support higher refresh rates at lower resolutions such as 4:3, 640 x 480 or 800 x 600 - the resolutions adopted by many CS players early on. It also had display modes and smart scaling to convince players that TFT LCD displays could compete with CRT monitors when it came to gameplay.

The development of the XL series has been steered by the focus of providing precise and customizable adjustment for players to perform to the best of their abilities in-game because in the world of eSports, players who take this sports seriously are the true stars. New technologies are not introduced unless it can enhance the in-game experience. Over time we have learned that each player has different visual and physical setup preferences. This is why every iteration of the XL series has been designed to help players see more clearly and play more smoothly and comfortably. During this process, BenQ acquired the ZOWIE brand along with the ZOWIE team in 2015. This was done with the objective of furthering the development of professional esports products.

MSI, world's leading manufacturer for true gaming hardware, is proudly expanding the hardware possibilities for gamers. This time, we are honored to introduce our latest flat eSports Gaming Monitor: Oculux NXG253R. MSI Oculux NXG253R supports the latest NVIDIA G-SYNC technology, accompanied with extremely high refresh rate of 360Hz and fast response time of 1 ms GTG, giving gamers the smoothest gaming experience. The mystic light feature allows you to personalize your gaming rig, giving you a full grip of your game in a blink of an eye. In addition to providing the best hardware performance, MSI is committed to providing players with the best gaming experience, cooperating with NVIDIA, and introducing the latest NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer function.

The "Gaming Accessories Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2020-2025)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global gaming accessories market is expected to reach a CAGR of 9.5% during the forecast period of 2020-2025. Increasing adoption of smartphones, rapidly evolving technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) are fueling the growth of the market across the globe.

Major gaming console manufacturers like Nintendo and Microsoft have realized the potentiality of AR and are leading the charge. AR can free gamers from their world' and usher them into the real world to play. For instance, Human Pac-Man is a game that allows the users to wear goggles and chase each other in real life, just resembling the characters in Pac-Man. Such developments are aiding the development of gaming accessories to provide enhanced gaming experience to gamers.

Xilinx, Inc., the leader in adaptive and intelligent computing, today introduced two real-time computing video appliances for easy-to-scale, ultra-high-density video transcoding applications. Based on the new Xilinx Real-Time (RT) Server reference architecture, these new appliances will enable service providers delivering applications such as eSports and game streaming platforms, social and video conferencing, live distance learning, telemedicine and live broadcast video to optimize video quality and bitrate at the lowest cost per channel for significant TCO savings over both software-based and fixed-architecture approaches.

Designed for edge and on-premise compute-intensive workloads where video channel density, throughput and latency are critical requirements, the new Xilinx Real-Time Video Appliances feature optimized hardware architectures and software to deliver the industry's highest channel density and lowest latency performance. The appliances are available in two pre-configured options integrating Xilinx Alveo data center accelerator cards - the High Channel Density Video Appliance and the Ultra-Low Bitrate Video Appliance.

Building on the success of previous Logitech G Challenge eRacing competitions, Logitech G, a brand of Logitech, and leading innovator of gaming technologies and gear, alongside McLaren, the racing and technology brand and creator of luxury, high performance sports cars and supercars, today announced the 3rd Annual Logitech McLaren G Challenge 2020.

"Over the last few months, we've seen an explosion in eRacing," said Jim Hoey, Head of G Challenge at Logitech G. "It's clear that the line between virtual and real racing has been blurred, and now more than ever people everywhere have access to an incredible racing experience. With the Logitech McLaren G Challenge 2020, we've upped the ante. The season has been extended to include even more adrenaline-fueled racing, and the drivers will be battling for bigger prizes. We can't wait to get started."

Intel at the Intel Developer Conference 'IDC' 2019 in Tokyo revealed their performance projections for mobility Xe GPUs, which will supersede their current consumer-bound UHD620 graphics under the Gen 11 architecture. The company is being vocal in that they can achieve an up to 2x performance uplift over their previous generation - but that will likely only take place in specific scenarios, and not as a rule of thumb. Just looking at Intel's own performance comparison graphics goes to show that we're mostly looking at between 50% and 70% performance improvements in popular eSports titles, which are, really, representative of most of the gaming market nowadays.

The objective is to reach above 60 FPS in the most popular eSports titles, something that Gen 11 GPUs didn't manage with their overall IPC and dedicated die-area. We've known for some time that Intel's Xe (as in, exponential) architecture will feature hardware-based raytracing, and the architecture is being developed for scalability that goes all the way from iGPUs to HPC platforms.

Blizzard employees protested the company's decision to ban Hearthstone player "Blitzchung" from an event for his opinions on the ongoing situation in Hong Kong SAR. Some employees covered up a portion of a floor decal in the company's office that read "Think Globally," and "Every Voice Matters," in protest. Blizzard's MMORPGs are "massively" popular in China, with Chinese Internet giant Tencent holding an equity stake. Some see the move to ban "Blitzchung" as the company "bending the knee" to China by taking a position on the situation in Hong Kong, instead of remaining neutral. The picture of a ruled piece of paper covering up the company floor decal with duct tape was tweeted by former Blizzard employee and eSports industry observer Kevin Hovdestad.