Bus Yan! A Review of the SteelSeries QcK Mass Mineski Team Edition Mousepad

In today’s modern world, the gaming industry has ballooned up to be the sport of the future, with prize pools and tournaments growing exponentially each year and companies taking notice of the phenomenon that we know as gaming. Popular MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games such as Dota 2 and LoL (League of Legends) have led the forefront in making gaming as more of a mainstream attraction. More and more skilled players of varying ages coming from different walks of life have turned to full-time gaming as a lucrative profession. Sponsorship deals and career contracts are being offered on a more regular basis with the industry ballooning in total revenue capital.

Aside from practicing day in and day out, these players turn to peripherals or gaming gear to compete at such a high level and elevate their game even more. Just like professional athletes of more traditional sports such as basketball and soccer, professional gamers also have their own set of equipment which they use when in-game. When you’re in an intense gaming session, your mouse and keyboard act as the extension of your hands in the virtual world. You can’t concentrate and make in-game decisions properly if you’re worried about your gaming gear conking out or malfunctioning in that split second that could spell defeat or victory for your team.

SteelSeries is one of the many companies that develop equipment and peripherals for the everyday gamer as well as the professional player. Founded in Denmark back in 2001 by Jacob Wolff-Peterson, SteelSeries engineers and manufactures gaming peripherals and accessories such as headsets, keyboards, mice, gaming surfaces and software. Today, we’re going to be reviewing one of the gaming surfaces or mouse pads that SteelSeries has produced in collaboration with the country’s biggest local gaming organization, Mineski.

Mineski is an organization driven by the pursuit to uplift the professional gaming scene in the Philippines as well as Southeast Asia. It was founded by the Father of Philippine eSports, Ronald “Rhom” Robins. Mineski continues to grow each year, establishing various internet cafes around the country, as well as partnering with different sponsors and companies in holding events and tournaments.

I happen to be the lucky winner of a gaming promotion that the Mineski Events Team held last October. The contest was to send your #PROUDLYPINOYESPORTS moment. I wrote about the time I and my friends had a LAN party — laptops and all — and had an epic Dota 2 game which came down to a 60+ minute comeback thriller. The prize is this very mouse pad that we are going to be reviewing today!

It’s just a mouse pad, you might say, but SteelSeries devotes lots of hours into engineering and research to help create the perfect gaming surface to make sure your movements on the mouse translate into the game as accurately as possible. They’ve got different varieties of mouse pads of all textures, shapes and sizes to fit the needs of different gamers and genres. It also helps that these mouse pads look pretty stylish and sleek.

Taking a look at the packaging, it comes in a standard black carton, with the huge text and logo of SteelSeries on the side. There’s a little history and explanation about the Mineski organization on the back as well as the different features of the mouse pad. The Mineski Events Team also threw in a nice touch with the congratulatory text with my name on it.

On the front of the packaging, you can see the smaller SteelSeries logo and the dimensions of the mouse pad. It’s a really huge mouse pad and taking into consideration the dimensions of the product, it’s almost a full length 1 foot ruler both length-wise and width-wise.

I also like the little touch of carving out a section where you can feel the texture of the mouse pad prior to purchase, which gives it a nice ‘try me’ vibe.

There are no accessories that come with it, aside from this sticker. It’s a matte black sticker with the white SteelSeries logo adorned on it. Everyone loves their stickers. Personally though, adding a Mineski sticker or some other freebie would have been cool.

Here we have it! The mouse pad features a non-slip rubber base that prevents the pad from moving during usage. The rubber bottom also provides extra comfort for your hands and wrists during movement as it’s pretty thick and provides some cushioning.

As you can see, there are only three colors used on this mouse pad: black, gray and white. It’s mostly a black base, with hints of gray and white to give it that contrast and pop.

On the bottom left side, we’ve got the SteelSeries logo and text in white, which provides a nice contrast to the darker tones of grey and black.

On the bottom right side, we’ve got the Mineski Professional Gaming Team text in white and all caps, with a bold emphasis on the Mineski. The logo peeks out from the left side from the text with a separation border, and you can see where the oversized grey logo gets its form and shape.

Taking a closer look at that huge Mineski logo, you can see that it’s a light grey, with a darker grey outlining the shape, which compliments it really well. If you look even closer, there are also three stars and the sun, which is meant to represent the Philippine flag. To top it all off, the black base is accentuated with paint splatters all around that gives it depth and another dimension. These are all small touches, but it was executed very nicely.  Props to the designers of the mouse pad, as it proves to be a cohesive and well-executed design even with the limited color palette.

For comparison, I’ve taken a picture of the QcK Mass Mineski mouse pad next to my regular QcK mouse pad. As you can see, the QcK mouse pad is devoid of any design save for the small SteelSeries logo on the bottom left, similar to the QcK Mass Mineski mouse pad. The QcK Mass Mineski mouse pad is also a tad bigger and wider than the regular QcK.

Another reference is on the thickness of the actual mouse pad. The regular QcK is as thick as a five peso coin, but the QcK Mass Mineski mouse pad is about the thickness of three five peso coins on top of each other.

I’ve had this mouse pad for a while now and I was able to extensively test it with my SteelSeries Sensei [RAW] gaming mouse. The rubber base performed really well, as the mouse pad stayed in place and didn’t slip around at all. This is important in gaming sessions because if your base isn’t stable, it will result in inaccurate tracking and unintended movement of the mouse.

The thickness of the rubber base also provided an extra layer of cushion and support for my wrist and hands, which was an added bonus. One downside to this though is that because it’s extra thick, it’s doesn’t really roll very well, giving it a bit of a portability issue.

SteelSeries used a very high quality cloth surface on this mouse pad. It almost has a glossy-like feel to it, as the mouse glided over the surface really fluidly with no problems whatsoever. I was able to get the perfect tracking, and it was just a really solid and steady glide. Because the mouse pad is also really long in terms of length and width, you will have no problems tracking in multiple directions.

All in all, I was really pleased with how this mouse pad performed. The cloth and rubber base were really high quality which gave this an overall premium feel and it was simply a joy to use. It has a beautiful grayscale design that looks both low-profile and flashy at the same time. This mouse pad will work well for most optical and laser mice. If you’re a fan of SteelSeries, Philippine eSports and/or Mineski, I highly suggest that you check this out!

The SteelSeries QcK Mass Mineski Team Edition mouse pad retails for P899.00.

If you purchase the mouse pad from the Secret Shop or from authorized resellers from Nov. 15 to Dec. 31, 2014, you will get a SteelSeries Baller as well as a chance to win some cool SteelSeries gear.

Well that about wraps it up for today. Catch the next gaming peripheral review soon, as we’ll be looking to review more gear and peripherals to help you in your quest for that perfect gaming session!

Images from The Secret Shop, SteelSeries & Mineski

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