SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

A bit over a month ago I managed to take first place in the BSG Cup sponsored by Clan Carnage and Razer. I figured now that I've had the chance to get some use out of everything, I'd write up a little review on each item.

I've posted some generic pics for now, but I plan to take some pics of the actual swag when I get home from work.

StarCraft 2 Messenger Bag

This surpassed my expectations by a mile. I expected a regular bag (with or without a laptop compartment), and was surprised to find that the bag itself is really great quality. The shoulder pad is suede - I'm no leather expert, but it seems to be pretty good quality. It's a plain nylon strap with a good width, and the suede pad means that it never digs in.

The "top" of the bag is waterproof, and is made (or at least covered in) a waterproof material. I should also mention that the way the bag closes actually doesn't leave any huge gaps for water to get in, so the bag is going to protect things even if you get a bit of a splash, or strong wind pushing the rain at you horizontally.

In terms of storage, the rearmost compartment houses the laptop with a pretty large catch, so the whole thing is pretty secure. Then, there is another large compartment, this one open, that will hold whatever you like - books, mouse, charger, another laptop. The front-most compartment has a zipper, and is suited to storing a few bits and pieces (pens/mouse/keys).


The messenger bag has become my new go-to bag for uni - it's really comfortable to wear, easily houses my laptop, books, pens and those sunglasses with the eyes painted on so that you can sleep but still appear to be awake, and is weather-proof so I don't need to go to a tute unprepared just because the weather is crap. As a bonus, I can rep SC2 wherever I go. I would definitely go out and buy this myself if I didn't win it, and recommend it to anyone who could use it. Just like the race depicted on the front, this bag is imba.


Razer Lachesis Mouse

The thing about mouse reviews is that it can take a long while to adjust to a new shape of mouse. Turns out though, I used the Lachesis for about a year at one stage, so I can dig into my experience with it from then too. The other thing is, grip style and hand size/shape are big factors, so I'm going to try to consider these.

I have a fairly big hand, but actually quite short stubby fingers. The size mainly comes from a fairly broad palm. I prefer a claw grip.

My current mouse is the Tt Theron. The Lachesis is slimmer than the Theron at the palm end, but at the fingertip end has this really wide scoop design that I actually really like. The contours give your fingers a very natural base to return to, and allow you to get increased control from your fingertips. If you are all about wrist movement, then this probably doesn't matter, but I find I use my whole hand to grip, and my wrist is more of a rudder, directing the motion.


The Lachesis, like the Theron, has a rubber-matte surface, which I prefer in any mouse - I find that dirt and oil build-up is minimal when compared to a gloss or any other kind of solid surface.

The Lachesis is an ambidextrous mouse - perfectly symmetrical. It has a pretty huge 5600dpi which is more than I need.

The primary weakness of the mouse I feel is in its profiles. The Lachesis allows 4 different profiles and you can customise them accordingly. Unfortunately though, there is only the one light colour, and the razer logo light, while customisable to "off", "on" and "flash", is not a part of a profile, so there is no real way to tell which profile you're in if there is no obvious difference, such as DPI.

As for grip, the long drawn out front of the mouse doesn't suit my claw grip as well as I'd like - I find that to get my short fingers all the way to the optimal clicking space, my wrist actually sits a little higher than I like. For me, this results in fatigue while playing RTS, but I actually prefer it for most other types of games, like FPS or MMO, where clicking doesn't happen as furiously.

The Lachesis won't replace my Theron as my go-to mouse, since SC2 is my biggest timesink, but I'll definitely keep it close - I feel very spoilt when I can say "I'm going to use my CS mouse now". I think someone with longer/more slender fingers may enjoy this mouse a lot more, and probably avoid the fatigue issues I get from clicking constantly with a high wrist position.


Since this is a product review, I won't go into detail about the other portion of my prize - the coaching I received from Dippa. I've given some feedback directly to cR about my lessons already - they were excellent. And I say they because it ended up being 2 lessons, when I only won one. Dippa has a great work ethic, great attitude and a great approach to coaching, and basically threw the notion of "1 hour of coaching"out the window - he claimed he aimed to provide an experience I would benefit from, and that meant teaching a concept until it was taught, rather than stopping at an hour. Turns out, he delivered this and then some, and every time I play more than a month later, the lessons still benefit me. I plan to maybe make mention of this in a future article, where I might talk more generally about coaching.

Huge thanks to ChadMann and all the boys at Clan Carnage for making this happen and injecting such a great prize into the scene, especially at the BSG level which is unprecedented. Also a big thanks to Razer for throwing a bunch of their products into this every month - these are awesome products to aspire to win and speaking from experience, are just the sort of thing that can motivate people to improve. It means a lot and was a really huge motivator for me to get out of BSG and try to keep finding competition.