Cary Lambert leads Global Esports Marketing and the Designed with Pros program for PRO Series, and has been working closely together with pro esports athletes for the last 13 years, the last five at Logitech G and before that at Nike, Ubisoft, and Mattel. At Logitech G, she’s developed the Logitech G PRO Alliance, supporting  professional and up-and-coming competitive athletes, manages global esports partnerships with competitive gaming organizations like G2 Esports & m0NESY, and helps share the story about the Designed with Pros program with the world.

One of my favorite parts is the exact moment when a pro player gets their hands on an in-development product for the first time - something that I know they’ll love. Their shoulders relax, their eyes light up, and you can truly tell that we’ve given them something that will make a meaningful difference in their performance. To me… that’s really special.

Another part is seeing the response from the pros being recognized and treated as athletes. Oftentimes at events we’ll have players tell us that this is one of the most rewarding brand trips they’ve had; it’s my hope that this is because we truly do see them and treat them as athletes, whereas some of their other branded experiences may have been more transactional. It’s so rewarding for me to help them see themselves as athletes and be involved in their journey to reach their competitive potential.

Our goal on the PRO Series team is to serve their exacting needs; not only with product but with support and opportunities. When we make products that give them that feeling I described – the joy, the excitement, the drive – or show up where they are competing – cheering them on – we are sharing the experience of their athletic journey. I just really love the whole process.

These players perform in the top percentile of the world in their sport. There’s plenty of established research and testing with traditional athletes on things like reaction time, decision making, and other cognitive skills. But that level of research doesn’t yet exist for esports athletes.

We’ve found that esports athletes, just like traditional athletes, significantly outperform the rest of the world on certain types of tests, such as cognitive tests. One group excels in competitive gaming and the other in traditional sports – but it's the level of performance that defines them both as athletes, not their activity.

It's important to myself and to Logitech G that we have a voice in moving the industry forward. Through our initiatives, the research we're doing with our partners, the product solutions we’re developing at our HQ and in collaborations with pros – we’re helping the rest of the gaming and non-gaming communities see these individuals as athletes, and that they should be treated as such.

Authenticity. Our competitors can claim that they work with esports athletes, and it's one thing to potentially talk to 5, 6, even 10 pros for a product, but it’s another to put an entire program and funding behind that process.

We work with over 400 pro players. We have over 35 sponsored orgs and teams. We have the Pro Alliance, which is open for any player to join – all of these are avenues for pros to engage in our collaborative design process. 

When Logitech G says “we work with pro players,” that isn’t a tagline – it’s a fact. The ‘Designed with Pros’ process is such an underlying and major component of the PRO Series brand and our product development and design process. It’s the reason that the O.G. G PRO, the SUPERSTRIKE, DEX, 2c and such exist. They were created in collaboration with and trusted by hundreds of pros across titles.

We innovate, validate and improve our products with literal hands-on feedback from the best in the world to make the highest-performing gear for competitors of all levels. It’s been a winning strategy on the PRO Series side to build for the top, the pro player, and the more casual or every day player will reap the benefits as well.

We were doing an explorative design process for mouse shape and a pro player from FlyQuest Red was putting her hand on a bunch of different foam carvings of mice, kind of like the Goldilocks process. And she put her hand on what would become the PRO X SUPERLIGHT 2 DEX shape.

She just melts and says, “Oh, my god. Please release this right now. Holy crap. I want to take this home with me.” The same day other people on her team were testing 2c shapes and they were saying things like, “Wow, a mouse that finally fits my hand.”

To literally create a product for a group of people that felt like their needs were not being met before is so awesome to hear. And that they’re not just “users” but the best pro players in the world – individuals that trust their livelihoods on their mice. To get that amount of excitement from these athletes for something that isn't winning a tournament is really special.