A comfortable chair is no less important "tool" for a professional esports player than a computer mouse, keyboard, or gamepad. Several companies in the industry produce special furniture specifically for gamers, and these brands often act as sponsors and partners at tournaments — identical gaming chairs help to convey the atmosphere of the event and look good on camera, not to mention the comfort for the participants.
However, this is not always the case at all tournaments: in some disciplines, organizers use regular office chairs, and sometimes this decision is quite justified. In this article, we will talk about which gaming chair brands were most commonly used at major LAN tournaments in 2023 with prize pools of $300,000 or more.
Organizers used Razer gaming chairs most often at tournaments in 2023. Since 2005, this company has been involved in the development and creation of professional gaming equipment, and in addition to traditional devices, it also has a line of gaming chairs. Nearly 35.7% of major LAN tournaments in 2023 provided Razer chairs for their participants. This high share is related to the fact that Razer was the official partner of the large gaming festival, Gamers8, in Saudi Arabia. Several major esports tournaments for CS:GO, Dota 2, Fortnite, Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege, and other disciplines took place as part of it. Razer chairs were also used at the CS Asia Championships 2023, the first international Counter-Strike 2 tournament in China. The most popular model among organizers for these tournaments was the Razer Enki Gaming Chair.
Gaming chairs from Secretlab were also frequently seen at tournaments, with a share of 26.2% among the analyzed events. Chairs from this brand were used at the largest championships for the most popular disciplines, such as BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 (CS:GO), The International 2023 (Dota 2), the 2023 World Championship (League of Legends), the M4 World Championship (Mobile Legends), as well as the Valorant Champions 2023 and the Overwatch World Cup 2023. While there were fewer tournaments for Secretlab, they were more prestigious. Notably, one of the flagship and widely adopted models for these events was the Secretlab TITAN gaming chair.
Herman Miller, a manufacturer of office furniture from the United States, rounds out the Top 3. This brand accounted for 7.1% of all major tournaments in 2023. This is a rather expensive brand, which was represented in esports at the ALGS: 2023 Championship, and also as a sponsor of the G2 Esports.
Some tournament organizers intentionally conceal the brand of gaming chairs used at an event. For example, they may cover the logo with black tape or use a cover with the tournament's logo. This is often done by ESL — we have seen similar practices at the IEM Katowice 2023, the ESL Pro League Season 17, ESL One Berlin Major 2023, and other tournaments of the company.
Sometimes, unique gaming chairs are produced specifically for a particular event or arena, meaning they are not mass-produced products that can be simply ordered online. For instance, such chairs were used at the RLCS 2022-23 Winter Split Major and the Wild Rift League Asia 2023 Season 1. For the ESL R1 2023 Spring Major tournament for the racing simulator Rennsport, the organizers used a unique cockpit, combining it with a steering wheel and monitor.
Different gaming chairs on the stages
Sometimes tournament organizers don't bother with gaming chairs at all and provide participants with regular office chairs. This was evident at matches in the Call of Duty League as well as at Magic: The Gathering and NBA 2K tournaments. Sometimes the choice of such "simple" chairs is indeed justified. For example, in disciplines where two or more players have to sit next to each other in front of a single screen (at NBA 2K, Super Smash Bros, Tekken tournaments, etc.). It's inconvenient to use big gaming chairs at such tournaments. As for Magic: The Gathering, at the Magic World Championship XXVIX, organizers used a circular seating arrangement where several players sit at one table (similar to poker). In this case, regular office chairs proved to be more practical than gaming chairs.
When it comes to the variety of brands within disciplines, the most diverse range of gaming chairs was found at Dota 2 tournaments — with four unique brands featured within the discipline. Three different brands were represented at PUBG: Battlegrounds and CS:GO tournaments. Competitions for these disciplines are organized by different tournament operators, who collaborate with or prefer to work with different brands. At the same time, franchise leagues (such as in Call of Duty, Overwatch, or Valorant) have a more centralized structure, so they typically work with one brand.
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