Beneath each keycap on a keyboard is a switch that registers keystrokes. Tap your space bar, Enter key, and some random keys, and try to notice the differences in sound and feel. Perhaps the space bar makes a lighter thump than the letter keys, or maybe the Esc key is a little scratchy on the way back up. Although lubricating switches isn’t entirely necessary for typing or gaming, doing so can smooth out every keystroke and provide a satisfyingly consistent sound for each key.

In a tournament that attracted attention from former StarCraft professionals and fans of RTS games alike, an Age of Empires legend—carrying a significant injury—was the ultimate winner of the first major Age of Empires 4 tournament. The $20,000 GENESIS event, run by the Elite Gaming Channel, has been billed as the first “major” for AoE 4, the latest release in the decades-long historical RTS franchise. The tournament attracted a host of current and former players from the AoE 2, AoE 3, Age of Mythology, WarCraft 3, and StarCraft scenes.

It’s been a long wait for World of Warcraft players, but Shadowlands Patch 9.2 is here and so is a new raid: Sepulcher of the First Ones. Sepulcher of the First Ones is the third and final raid of the expansion and has a whopping 11 bosses, ending with an encounter against The Jailer, the game’s current primary antagonist. As is typical for retail WoW raids, its Normal and Heroic difficulties will be released on the same day.

In 2022, it is almost impossible to escape Wordle and the several alternative versions inspired by it. In Josh Wardle’s word game, now owned by the New York Times, players need to guess a different five-letter word each day. The daily word is always the same for all players, but there are no clues except the letters themselves—after each guess, letters turn green if they are in the right place, yellow if they are in the wrong place, and gray if they are not in the word at all.

Apex Legends has mastered the looting system when it comes to battle royales, easily making it readily apparent which attachments your weapon might need and which are an upgrade over ones you currently have. Attachments differ on the wide variety of weapons in Apex, such as optics, stocks, magazines, and more. But some guns, depending on the current season, will have an extra slot for something called a Hop-Up.

One of the major stories that emerged from the Apex Legends Global Series Stockholm LAN earlier this year was the COVID-19 protocol put into place for players. At that event, no one who tested positive for COVID was allowed to play and several teams had to field substitutes, while at least one team was forced to play the entire tournament as a duo. With the ALGS Championship in Raleigh weeks away, details are emerging about that event’s COVID policy.

Today marks the debut of season 13, and with it comes a new start to the ranked grind in Apex Legends. While some players have dedicated teammates to help them climb the ranked ladder, others aren’t as fortunate. Random teammates are occasionally great, but most of the time, they’re unreliable. That leaves solo players pitted against squads that have better communication and coordination, making life as a solo queue player in Apex significantly more challenging.

The debate between whether a controller or mouse and keyboard is better for gaming continues with no end in sight. Every player has their preference, and many are biased toward their platform of choice.  Deciding which input method is best is challenging because of how many different games and platforms exist. Some games are simply easier to play with certain input methods compared to others. If a game is originally released on consoles and subsequently ported to PC, a mouse and keyboard might not actually be the optimal input method.

Because Super Smash Bros. competitions were in a state of flux during the COVID-19 pandemic, Panda Global and its PGstats team decided to halt work on its PGR rankings for both Melee and Ultimate until things could stabilize. And now that offline Majors are starting to pick back up heading into 2022, that two-year hiatus is also coming to an end—with a few caveats.  Yes, both the MPGR (Melee) and PGRU (Ulitmate) will begin compiling data again for the next set of rankings starting on Jan.

You need a good CPU cooler if you want your PC to run at its best. The CPU is your PC’s brain and gets hot when dealing with intensive tasks like running games for hours at a time. The best CPU coolers make sure it stays cool and delivers optimal performance. If your CPU is cool, it will also have a longer lifespan, and you can save money in the long-run.