Signature Plastics eSports Keycaps

[Glod]

OK so i played a few hours of battlefield 3 with them

They oddly feel like they need more force to us than the rest of my keys and i don't know why they don't weigh any different.
honestly i think they would be better with reds instead of browns i would try them on reds but i'm in the middle of desoldering them off my rosewill   
they are also louder than my other caps oddly.

So there is a pdf somewhere i need to fill out for SP but here are my own made up questions...

Do They Feel different than normal profile and shape
- Yes, you can notice and keys feel like they require more force to use

Do they feel better when typing
- cant really judge that with only a half set; i think it would be alright

Do they feel better when playing games (specifically FPS)
- They dont feel good but they may feel better with reds with an even lighter spring meaning I would love to try korean 45g springs with red switches and these (woooo)

Would i buy a full set
- Im a sucker so probably if they are affordable. i could learn to like them.

[TheSoulhunter]

Just sent my PDF...

My summary: Either I had a lucky streak or this caps really helped me!

Played a lot Battlefield 3 and some Quake 3 Arena with em on my Poker (MX-Reds) and I did rather well compared to the days before. The flat low profile makes it really easy to slide from key to key when using em for a cluster, but they also help to find "the right key" when mixing em with normal caps (ie. WASD+X,V,G,R->flat, C,F,E,Q->normal). The texture makes em "non sticky" (I also have relegendable caps which are  flat, but they feel sticky as the clear top lacks any texture) and kinda similar to the KBC PBT caps, but imo the texture could be even slightly rougher. The flatness and the rounded edges makes maneuvering around really easy, I like it. What I didn't like was that the "cut marks" are on the keycaps front, they should be at the back where you don't see em, no? Also my suggestion is to offer different variants of this caps, flat ones like the current and ones with concave spot or nibs (like found on F and J caps) helping you to differentiate misc keys in between the rest.

[SmallFry]

Since the cap is symmetrical, what would happen if you rotated the cap 180 degrees so that the spruce is on the back?

[TheSoulhunter]

Since the cap is symmetrical, what would happen if you rotated the cap 180 degrees so that the spruce is on the back?

The ones I got are angled on 3 sides and flat on one side...
Putting the flat side in front make em look awkward as all other caps have the angled side at the front :3

[Sifo]

I posted my review to reddit, I'll cross it over to here:

I'm sure you guys are sick of these... but they finally arrived in Canada. Background on me, I'm a competitive StarCraft player who goes to LANs and other live events. My APM is around 300.

http://i.imgur.com/y9QwP4j.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/enMbnf9.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/PoIZTkJ.jpg

eSports -> SP Double Shot -> imsto thick PBT

These are actually pure black, excuse my yellow lighting.

So first thing I noticed of course is the unique profile. They're all uniform, they are low, and flat, unlike my thick imsto keycaps which have have different profiles for each row, and have the curve on top.

Honestly, the texture is familiar; they feel like PBTs at first. But after a while of usage they start to feel sticky, a sign that they're beginning to get shiny. From just using them I'm going to say they're ABS keycaps.

But a surprise to me was they feel pretty good to press down on. I don't mind it at all unlike regular ABS doubleshots or blanks. They feel okay.

So, how did the lower profile affect my gameplay? It didn't really because of how I'm used to lifting my fingers to reach for keys. As a Brood War player with no key remapping I'm used to jumping all over my keyboard, using every key in a game. So for me, it was pretty redundant.

The texture? It feels good, like I said... but I enjoy my PBT better. The only advantage that I've experienced so far is having different key caps on my board can help me out with longer reach keys like 0 or B, but that could be accomplished with just any other different keycap...

The angle and slope of the keycaps didn't help too much at all either because of how accurate I am at hitting the keys anyway. Overall as aa RTS player, these will not give you an advantage in any way if you're good with the keyboard.

As for the thickness and weight, I didn't really notice much of a difference by just looking at them. They're thinner than imsto caps, and don't seem too much thicker than regular SP caps. However, it is nice to have a lighter set of keycaps when gaming.

Thank you Melissa for the samples, I really appreciate what you guys are trying to do for eSports. I think to truly judge these, we would require a full set of them. In the future if it ever is released, I will purchase them to give another review.

Is that it for me? Nah, I'm going to keep using these until I get bored of them.

Oh, PS I already got bored of them.

[SmallFry]

Since the cap is symmetrical, what would happen if you rotated the cap 180 degrees so that the spruce is on the back?

The ones I got are angled on 3 sides and flat on one side...
Putting the flat side in front make em look awkward as all other caps have the angled side at the front :3

Ah, my bad. I presumed that they were symmetrical. I didn't get a set personally. Have you tried them while typing?

[infiniti]

Wow, they gave these to international people and paid for shipping? I had no idea

Edit - I forgot Halverson got a set, so I should have known. Did they really pay the shipping? lol

Yup, they really did pay for shipping but they sent it by standard mail; so nothing fancy like FedEx or DHL.  I will however have to take care of taxes and duties if there are any.  Considering that I'm in the Philippines, I'm at the mercy of the customs examiner.

I hope to get my set in the next week or so.   Its routing was probably delayed by the Easter holiday here.

[baldgye]

By 'gamer' set it looks to me like they really mean 'FPS' set.
They look pretty horrible and the fact they are a diffrent profile dsnt make much sense at least to me.

Looking at them as someone who pretty much only plays Starcraft 2, they wouldn't be of any use to me personally and as for anything else, they just look kinda bad lol.
If you have a WASD cluster with these at a normal profile and not flat, then surly you wouldn't need other caps because using the wasd cluster you could position your hand and not miss keys?

Like the only thing off the top of the top of my head that these would seem good for is if you have macro keys, or if your function row is above your number row without any gap...

[L4yercake]

Also you never ever take your hands off WASD in FPS so... I still wish to try a set just because but I'm sure I'd end up moving back to quality caps.

[TheSoulhunter]

Since the cap is symmetrical, what would happen if you rotated the cap 180 degrees so that the spruce is on the back?

The ones I got are angled on 3 sides and flat on one side...
Putting the flat side in front make em look awkward as all other caps have the angled side at the front :3

Ah, my bad. I presumed that they were symmetrical. I didn't get a set personally. Have you tried them while typing?

Unfortunately I didn't get enough caps to replace all alphas, so judging em for typing is hard...
I imagine it would be like typing on my relegendable Tipro caps, here I prefer my KBC PBTs by far!

[TheSoulhunter]

Also you never ever take your hands off WASD in FPS so... I still wish to try a set just because but I'm sure I'd end up moving back to quality caps.

What? This is perhaps true for "classic" FPS games like Quake, but in some games (like Battlefield) you need a bunch of other keys as you need to do timed reloading (shoot->cover->reload), quick switch between gun and gadgets (shoot->resurrect->shoot), also ducking/prone, spot, knifing, nades, use/enter... you cant assign all this on mouse buttons.

[Photekq]

Forgot to post what I thought of them here..

I think they're completely useless. They feel horrible, my fingers actually slip off them more single they're flat, and they don't make anything easier. Terrible.

[TheQsanity]

They are heavier than oem but flat keys account for more errors. Like hitting caps lock...

[Halverson]

Any two people want to send me their sets for cost of shipping to Canada? Going to try a full alpha of these out if I can. Maybe a full tkl if more folks would like to join the effort.
Shoot me a pm if you can help me out!

[baldgye]

Honestly looking at these all I can think is the wasdkeybaords textured caps would be better in pretty much every way

[L4yercake]

Also you never ever take your hands off WASD in FPS so... I still wish to try a set just because but I'm sure I'd end up moving back to quality caps.

What? This is perhaps true for "classic" FPS games like Quake, but in some games (like Battlefield) you need a bunch of other keys as you need to do timed reloading (shoot->cover->reload), quick switch between gun and gadgets (shoot->resurrect->shoot), also ducking/prone, spot, knifing, nades, use/enter... you cant assign all this on mouse buttons.

Ok let me re-phrase that. At any competitive level where these key-caps would make any difference you rarely take your fingers off WASD cluster.

edit: nevermind I see what you're saying. I guess my muscle-memory is locked into where my fingers return to after pressing a command. ie. Index finger from D to 3-4-5 then back to D.

[TheSoulhunter]

Again, it really depends on the game, some may require to leave WASD 2 or 3 times in just one second in certain situations...
Anyway, for me its not really about finding back to WASD, but finding the misc keys (1,2,3,Q,E,R,F,G,X,C,V) accurately and fast ;)
While this works by muscle memory in most cases, mixing flat and normal caps seems to help when muscle-memory fails, at least it did for me.

Perhaps, when you are a super elite gamer, you never ever miss-press a button, yeah,
and I'm probably not super elite, so i miss-press buttons from time to time, ok...
Perhaps this caps are not meant for super elite gamers to begin with?

I mean, selling stuff to a super small minority like flawless elite gamers wont result in much money.
Perhaps this caps are made for less perfect people who miss-press a button from time to time?
Perhaps they are made for people like me? :3

[baldgye]

Wouldn't you rather have keys that are the same profile as your current keys?

Wouldn't the textured wasdkeyboards keys be better in almost every possible way ?

[TheQsanity]

I just hope when they sell these they dont price them super high just because it says "esports"

[TheSoulhunter]

Wouldn't you rather have keys that are the same profile as your current keys?

Was this question directed to me? If so, did you even read my posts? :/

[baldgye]

Wouldn't you rather have keys that are the same profile as your current keys?

Was this question directed to me? If so, did you even read my posts? :/

...yes?
Should I have randomly pulled a sentence out of your post and quoted that and ignored the rest to make it look like I'd only read your post?

[TheSoulhunter]

Wouldn't you rather have keys that are the same profile as your current keys?

Was this question directed to me? If so, did you even read my posts? :/

...yes?
Should I have randomly pulled a sentence out of your post and quoted that and ignored the rest to make it look like I'd only read your post?

Nah, just asking because...

...they also help to find "the right key" when mixing em with normal caps (ie. WASD+X,V,G,R->flat, C,F,E,Q->normal).

Wouldn't you rather have keys that are the same profile as your current keys?

So, if I would use same profile keys like you suggested, the advantage I pointed out would be gone...
This made you question somewhat confusing if it was directed to me and in regard to what I wrote before ;)


EDIT:

And yes, if you direct a question to someone specific and not general,
you should quote or lead-in with his name/nick, otherwise it can be confusing.

That's also the reason I asked you if it was directed to me...
The "did you even read what I wrote?" would have been kinda inappropriate if it was directed to the public, heh?

Anyway, not trying to be aggressive or act cheeky here, was just confused about your post, please take no offense :)
   

[baldgye]

-keys that are the same profile don't look so bad
-wasdkeyboards textured keys would still feel and look different to your other caps and you'd be able to tell the difference and re-locate your hand quickly without having to look at the kb...

[TheSoulhunter]

Fair enough...
But I still think the different height helps "routing" you to the right position.
As for the looks: It's still better than popping off keycaps like some RTS player do
Also the SP caps blend in with the black KBC PBT caps I use, hard to spot at first glance.

[drdoooom]

i think these things are hideous. but i'm a form over function type of person.

[Skull_Angel]

I think I'll look into DSAs to try out for gaming instead; typing accuracy v. possible movement increase, I tend to favor accuracy in this instance (gaming) since the movement increase is harder to quantify.

[F u r u y á]

Oh, that's the keycap I've dremaing of for the past years! 

I always liked POM keycaps because I can slip my fingertip more easily with them (I type up to 140wpm, so that does make a difference!)

So from a performance perspective, the keycap design I've dreaming of would be:

• POM
• Low profile
• Flat
• Rounded edges
• (also lower activation point in the switch!)

In other words, very close! If those become a reality I will get a full TKL set asap!

[berserkfan]

what I don't understand is how come people think these keys are good for gaming.

don't you need some kind of friction? especially if hands get sweaty?

[TheQsanity]

It is not silk smooth

[Bullveyr]

They now sell them in their Marketplace.

Currently available in black ABS only. Other colors in production.
Tooling in production for a 'dished' top surface 1x as well as other special shapes (ETA August/September)

G20 eSports/Gaming keys are now available on the marketplace. Currently offering 1x flat top keycaps in several colors. Tooling for a dished top surface along with larger keycap shapes is in production - ETA for completion of these shapes is August/September 2013.

[Glod]

ohhh RA Red

i forgot i had these actually, i remember writing in the pdf that i wish there was a slight dish on these. been meaning to try them on my ergodox, would be interesting to try a full keyboard of these. considering i already have like 12 of these, wouldn't be that expensive.

[ApocalypseMaow]

I think I'll look into DSAs to try out for gaming instead; typing accuracy v. possible movement increase, I tend to favor accuracy in this instance (gaming) since the movement increase is harder to quantify.

I've been liking DSA for gaming a lot. Maybe I just like it a lot in the first place, but I think the uniform of the keys is nice. Plus I lay my keyboard flat and kinda dance over the keys.

[Bullveyr]

... i remember writing in the pdf that i wish there was a slight dish on these. ...

Most of us did, 87% or something like that.

[Halverson]

... i remember writing in the pdf that i wish there was a slight dish on these. ...

Most of us did, 87% or something like that.

Guess I was the 13%, didn't even think of it.

[Bullveyr]

... i remember writing in the pdf that i wish there was a slight dish on these. ...

Most of us did, 87% or something like that.

Guess I was the 13%, didn't even think of it.

For the record, I wrote "slight dish might be better" in the survey.

[GeoTang]

Are these just the same profile as the g80-3800/mx2.0?

[Bullveyr]

Are these just the same profile as the g80-3800/mx2.0?

No, the caps have a small angle, unlike G80-3800 which are afaik completely flat.

[TheQsanity]

I wonder if they changed anything.

[Bullveyr]

Afaik they haven't but they are working on dished ones and larger sizes.