“At the very beginning of Black Ops II in 2013, SCUF really started picking up traction,” Clayster recalled. Not only could you get maximum efficiency, but you’d also get maximum comfort. Anyone who could successfully pull off the painful-looking technique had an instant edge on the competition.īut SCUF’s chief innovation added rear bumpers to their controllers that allowed players to re-map the jump button to a place where other, typically unused fingers could reach. “Players using Claw could jump-shot around corners and do crazy stuff that nobody else could,” he explained. So if your opponent was willing to sacrifice their wrist, they might get the kill and ultimately, the win. Otherwise, you’d have to waste a few hundred milliseconds moving your right thumb over to press the jump button. James “Clayster” Eubanks (currently on Team eUnited), who’s been a Call of Duty pro since 2007, remembers what it was like when players began using the “Claw” method of holding a controller, which mangled your wrist but gave you a slight edge on the competition by letting players jump and shoot at the same time. "Claw" techniques can cause strain on parts of the hand and wrist. SCUF eventually had a better option, but what came before that wasn’t pretty. What if you could avoid wasting the milliseconds it took to move your right thumb from the analog stick to the front-facing buttons that allow you to jump, melee, reload, or crouch? By now, Ironmonger can confidently say, “We’ve created equipment that allows the pros to play at a higher level.”Īs competitive gaming, especially among shooters like Call of Duty, became more popular over the last decade, gamers struggled to find different tactics that might give them an edge. But as you look at games now, there are hundreds of millions of dollars invested by the studios to make these AAA titles really big with enormous functionality in the game.”īut Scuf Gaming wanted more from a controller. “So you were very limited as to how much of your hands you could use,” rationalized Ironmonger, “which was fine when consoles were much less complex. The Birth of SCUFĪccording to CEO Duncan Ironmonger, Scuf Gaming began in 2011 with a simple idea: “There has to be a better way to use more of a controller.”Īs ergonomic and comfortable as most controllers were at the time, innovation had plateaued. Having tried out some of their controllers for myself (I’m an avid competitive Overwatch player on PS4), I have to say, I’m convinced. It’s less that the company has the market cornered and more that through their design innovations, customer support, and direct sponsorship of many pro teams, they’ve actually elevated the level of competition to places that might otherwise be impossible.įor those reasons and more, people seem to love SCUF. The relationship between Scuf Gaming and the esports industry is a symbiotic one. The 90 percent figure seems like a lot - almost too much - so it’s easy to wonder if this might be some kind of monopoly in the industry, right? But ask almost any pro gamer, and they’ll have nothing but giddy love for the SCUF brand, which does directly sponsor perhaps more than 20 pro teams. Chief among their innovations is a patented rear bumper system that allows gamers to do things like jump, melee, reload, or switch weapons without having to take their thumb off the right joystick. Handmade from scratch with a dizzying array of enhancements and alterations meant to fashion the perfect device, Scuf Gaming controllers have become a must-have in the pro scene. Through the far corner of the pump-up hallway, the convention center space opened up into a massive space full of vendor booths, game demos, areas for open competitive play, and right in the center of it all: a resplendent stage set up so two teams of four could kill each other in a video game set during World War II, all as a crowd looks on.Īt CWL Dallas, more than 200 teams played more than 490 matches for a $200,000 prize pool, and that’s just the start of a season with more than $4.2 million on the line.įor more than 90 percent of all top pro players that come to events just like this - both within Call of Duty and in other pro gaming leagues on consoles - they couldn’t make this walk without a Scuf Gaming controller in their hand. Walking into a competitive Call of Duty tournament is an intimidating experience, even if you’re not the one playing.Īfter making it through security at the Call of Duty World League (CWL) event in Dallas this past December, players and spectators alike were greeted by a grand entranceway full of team banners, thunderous music, and a dazzling light show leading you to the championship trophy at the end of the hall.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |