How great gaming peripherals can give you a competitive edge

Not all of us have the supernatural reflexes of a caffeine-fueled ninja that seem to be required for success in the upper echelons of eSports. But back down here in the realms of human ability, we still strive to improve. With each match we get that little bit better, until we can take out that bunny hopper or drop the habitual crane-top sniper. 

Of course, there’s no substitute for putting in the hours, learning the maps and knowing not to peek T-ramp because a team-mate just smoked banana. But if your mouse isn’t tracking properly, your keyboard is lagging or your headset isn’t giving you those crucial audio cues, all that practice may come to naught. Investing in quality kit means your performances are limited only by your ability, not your setup. 

And as it happens, it’s upgrade season. As Black Friday draws near, there are plenty of great deals already available and Razer has even more bargains ready to go on Cyberweek. Here’s how premium peripherals designed for gaming performance like the Razer picks below can give you that vital edge over other players.

Let’s kick off with probably the most important part of your set-up: the mouse. As anyone who’s been within 100 feet of a Quake Champions server can attest, it’s often the smallest margins of accuracy and click speed that decide who gets the kill and who becomes jam. 

The Razer DeathAdder V2 covers both these requirements. At the heart of the DeathAdder V2 is the Focus+ optical sensor, with a native 20k DPI sensor that translates all your fine motor movements into pure, concentrated headshot. Razer’s optical mouse switches give you reliable and accurate clicks, too—imagine lining up a chicken dinner-winning snipe in PUBG then watching the screen fade to black because your killer click didn’t register. That’s why good switch components matter. 

Moving to your other hand, you want reliability and durability from your keyboard, no matter how frenetic your inputs, and a tactile feedback style from the mechanical switches that suits your taste. 

The BlackWidow V3 is the latest iteration in Razer’s longest serving, most popular keyboard range and ticks plenty of boxes. Razer mechanical switches, available in either their Clicky Green or Silent Yellow, both give a swift, positive input and are good for millions of presses. Topped off by super-tough ABS keycaps with a subtly textured surface for minimum finger slippage, you can be safe in the knowledge that when you’re hammering those keys every press is being translated into the gameplay.

MMO and MOBA players will enjoy that n-key rollover, which means you can press loads of keys at the same time and they will all be registered, and there's macro-recording so you can really ramp up your APM without getting RSI. And of course, the BlackWidow V3 is fully colored up with Razer Chroma RGB, so you can have your board configured to whatever colour scheme you’ve applied across your setup.

Next on the upgrade list: game audio. Hearing sound cues and being able to pinpoint them really does give you an advantage over players using imprecise headsets. Using Triforce Titanium drivers, Razer has designed the BlackShark V2 Pro so the sound box holding the drivers actually splits the audio frequencies out, giving a wider, crisper and more vibrant soundscape. With clear highs and mids, and rich bass, music and sound effects feel more encompassing. It’s all balanced so you can hear those all-important audio cues in-game that give away an enemy’s location. Using sound alone, you can get the drop on your foe.

And for comms with your teammates, the BlackShark V2 Pro uses a supercardioid mic on a flexible arm, with a focused pick-up pattern to block out unwanted surrounding noise and keep your shot calls and chat crystal clear. No cables to get tangled up in either with Razer’s proprietary HyperSpeed wireless tech. 

Head to Razer’s official site for more info, and keep an eye out for amazing deals on Razer kit this cyberweek.