Why Do Pro Gamers Tilt Their Keyboards?
In gaming, people tend to look up to the pros and copy their settings and gaming gear because those guys know what they are doing right? Well, more often than not there are a bunch of things that the current gaming pros do which are just remnants of past-era habits and help with nothing in-game wise.
Such a habit for many pro gamers is tilting their keyboard at different angles which seemingly helps them feel more comfortable. This trend is extremely popular amongst many gaming groups and is almost a given nowadays. However, if you are a beginner in the gaming world this trend might seem bizarre and unnecessary and you would be partly right – here is why.
How It All Started
The initial trend of tilting your keyboard did not start because people thought it was cool but simply because of a problematic situation that the early pro gamers were facing in LAN competitions.
Back then gaming wasn’t exactly considered a real sport and events were mostly organically built by local communities. This meant that players did not have all of the usual commodities we see in tournaments now. They would often have to play in cramped spaces on tiny tables and with full-sized keyboards the size of a surfing board.
There were no small keyboard alternatives back then so the pros had to manage their valuable space and a smart way to do that was to tilt your keyboard to give more space for your aiming arm to move around. This was a solid trade-off since you could still play with the keyboard being tilted and feel comfortable while at the same time gaining more aiming space which is crucial.
Because many pros had to do this keyboard tilt trick for so long many of them just developed a habit and simply did it in any circumstances they were gaming creating a trend. This explains why many pros from different games still tilt their keyboards at home and at LAN tournaments even though they have huge amounts of desk space nowadays.
So why do gamers who never dealt with space constraints and LAN tournaments emulate this behavior currently?
Why Gamers Tilt Their Keyboards Now
Besides the obvious answer of simply following trends, there are actually two more reasons which explain why old players kept the tilted keyboard trend and new players are hopping on the bandwagon.
The first main reason why a tilted keyboard makes sense is simply because of access to more buttons on the keyboard, especially for your thumb which can now access the whole bottom row with a lot more ease. This is valuable in games where you need a lot of actions and inputs representing a real competitive advantage.
Besides more space for your aiming arm and more keys available for games that have a lot of actions, the most fundamental reason why people play with a tilted keyboard is ergonomics. If you place your arms on your table or on the armrests on your chair you will notice that they tend to go inwards a bit, forming more of a triangle than a standard U shape.
When typing on a horizontal keyboard you will notice that sometimes you will have to bend your wrist outwards on your left hand creating a bit of an unnatural position for your wrist. By tilting the keyboard at different angles you can neutralize this outward bending and have your wrist in a constant neutral position on the keyboard allowing your muscles to stay relaxed while gaming.
This is important for people that play games or work at the computer for a longer period of time because the constant strain on your wrist muscles and nerves will lead to injuries that can prevent you from playing/working at all. None of us wants to deal with that so that’s why some use the tilted keyboard trick.
There you have it, this is why old gamers and new gamers alike tilt their keyboards. This choice is mostly preference but there are valid reasons for trying to tilt your keyboard so don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!