Equipment choice for esports can very easily become overwhelming. There are a vast number of different manufacturers, suppliers, designs and price points, all with different pro's and cons. Here we will try and outline the differences and the pro's and cons of each.

If you are just starting out you may just use a mobile device or a controller on a console, however these lack the immersion and feedback of using a wheel and pedals. It is also likely that if you are playing online against other competitors with more advanced setups you will struggle to match their pace. With controllers you do not have as much freedom to change the driving aids in the game as you lack the adjustment using buttons or joysticks with your thumbs.

Therefore, Motorsport UK will always recommend that if you'd like to take your driving to the next level that you invest in a steering wheel and pedal set.

The Basics

• Entry level wheel bundles from companies such as Logitech or Thrustmaster start from approximately £169*
• These bundles give you a steering wheel with gear paddles and a set of pedals
• The wheel has a lot of buttons on them to use for functions such as pitlane speed limiter or wipers
• They are a belt driven force feedback system with a peak amount of force at approximately 2-3nm
• Recommend to keep the wheel strength at 8nm or below for children
• The pedals are usually plastic and work by sensing how far you press the pedals
• They plug into your computer or console via USB
• Each product has software that you can download from the manufactureres website to adjust settings
• The wheel can be attached to a desk and the pedals can sit on the floor as you do not need to apply a lot of force through them
• If you use a console on a TV you can use an existing table or buy fold away wheel/pedal stands

Pro's & Con's

These wheel & pedal bundles are a great way to get a taste of and get started in esports beyond using a controller or mobile device. Using them will immediately give you more immersion and feel for the cars you are driving.

Even though these wheels and pedals are at the lowest price point in the market they are perfectly suitable and will allow you to build up speed and compete online at a competent level.

The downside to these peripherals are, they lack the ultimate feel through both wheel and pedals to give you a true sense of racing a real-car. For example, these wheels provide roughly 2nm of force whilst driving, the very best systems can push out 25-30nm so they are over 10x stronger, this results in being able to feel more. When the tyres start to slide through under or over steer, locking of the brakes and knowing when you are on the edge of grip through a corner, you do not get as much feel through these wheels to help correct the car.

The same can be said for the pedals. There is very little feel through the pedals at this price point, meaning it becomes muscle memory as to how far to press the pedal under braking for each corner rather than having that feel. Comparing these to high end pedals, these entry level assemblies are constructed just using a spring and measuring the length of travel, with a high end set there is a load cell that measures how hard you are pressing the pedal and can go up to 150kg's of force in same cases.

Conclusion

Stepping up from controller or mobile devices is a great way to get the true feeling of esports racing and take part in real racing at any time. Once you feel you have reached your maximum performance and you are still enjoying your esports development you can then consider some enhanced peripherals or equipment upgrades.

Below are some images of example ‘entry level’ peripherals.

As you upgrade your wheel and pedals you may get to the stage where the forces required to push the brake pedal or coming through the wheel are too high, meaning that you can no longer attach them to a desk or gaming seat. The next step with purchasing a direct drive wheel or high end load cell pedals is to invest in a racing chassis or seat. 

There are a number of advantages to owning a specific chassis to use for esports. Firstly it means you can bolt your pedals and wheel to the frame. The chassis' are either tubular or an aluminium profile style (see pictures below) which you connect together. Once connected the wheel and pedals are very secure and do not move around when driving. If you use your pedals on the floor for example and they constantly move this will impact on your consistency when driving. 

The sense of immersion and realism certainly goes up when using a chassis. It feels much more like you are stepping in to a racing car as opposed to just 'gaming' on a sofa for example. It also opens up different monitor options. You can use standard desktop flat screen monitors and these will be completely sufficient, but again, like most areas in esports you can upgrade this. Chassis usually come with the option to have a monitor mount to hold one screen or triple monitors. You can use the single monitor mount to have up to a 49inch super ultra wide curved monitor that will add to the immersion but also has high refresh rates meaning the screen refreshes the image quicker so it seems smoother. 

Usually, the most aspired to format is triple monitors. This is where you have one monitor directly in front of you and then one monitor angle towards you on either side of the middle monitor. The theory behind this is to add peripheral vision. Using any single monitor you lack peripheral vision as you cannot see through your side windows to see if there is a car next to you. With triple monitors not only does it add peripheral vision but it adds to the realism of being in a race car. 

There are a number of different companies who supply chassis' such as SimLab, TrakRacer, Next Level Racing, GT Omega, Playseat and many more.

It is important to note here that there is no requirement to upgrade any of your equipment it is all about what you can afford and what your aspirations are for your own esports experience. There are drivers at a very high level that do not use top spec equipment. We recommend that you try out equipment before buying if you can and there are centers such as Apex Racing where you can use high end equipment without being committed to buy it.

We are also aware that physical space can be a factor and as mentioned in the previous section you can get fold away seats to use in your living room on a TV. The full build chassis are usually based on racing on PC as opposed to console.