Thumb grips for controllers?

Tech Talk
1

So I went and bought a tournament legal controller. I bought an Afterglow, I’m loving it, but it has a few glaring problems:
-The controller is a tad smaller than the standard controller, all I have to do is relax my hands and I’m fine though.

  • Stick placement is not my personal prefance.
  • Umvc3 is mad awkward on this thing, how Fanatiq got used to it is beyond me. (SG feels great on it though.)
    -The triggers can be uncomfortable.

My biggest problem is that the control sticks are inwards, like 360, and not outwards like any other controller. So It’s really uncomfortable, and I don’t like the directional buttons, so I was thinking of getting an outwards thumb grip for my controller. I’m not an fps guy, so I’m not sure how useful these things are. What are your experiences with thumb grips? Would they impede my execution? Are they legal for fighting game tournaments? I would’ve asked on an fps forum, but I’m not sure how that would turn out.

2

I’m assuming thumb grips are like FPS Freeks? If so I’ve used them before for FPS games like COD on my 360 and they helped a lot with that because it gives you more control to either lower or raise your sensitivity comfortably. Of course that’s useless for fighting games and I never used them with them but I can say that at first with long thumbs or not, it’ll be straining your thumb for the first few hours but then you’ll get used to it. Hope that helps somewhat

3

Were talking about these things right?

They are Banned in MLG events but they are not banned in Evo.
Other Tournaments may or may not ban them as they see fit.

As Airportugal said they are worthless in tournaments, most pros tell you that you shouldn’t even be using analog sticks in fighters.

4

Yeah that’s it, I’m not looking for a competitive edge, just comfort. Inward 360 analog are low tier, and I don’t like using the directional pad.:l

Better invest in a arcade stick then.

5

Yeah the Xbox 360 d-pad is the worst d-pad design I ever seen.

6

if you’re talking about 360 controller you can swap the top of the default concave analog with a convex playstation analog, I have a 360 controller modded that way

and it did OK and quite comfortable while it lasted, too bad it didn’t last long, as the left analog spring broke not long after that.

7

Nothing wrong with the 360 pad. It’s great for switching weapons or scrolling through menus.