Like so many other gamers out there, I fancy myself as a pretty good player. And just like so many of them out there, I’m actually… not. 

Dota 2? Yeah, I’d rather play against bots than be virtually wedgied by teenagers. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? Nay, I didn’t even stand a chance against other kids during my LAN shop days, much less take on the aggro Russian players. Fortnite? Don’t even get me started on the pre-teens who’ve been flossing gleefully over my dead avatars. 

Am I so out of touch? No, it’s gotta be my gear, I thought. Something had to be done to raise my laughably low kill/death ratio. 

And so ye olde rig went through a small overhaul. New cooling systems were bought so I could safely overclock both my GPU and CPU. The solid-state drive was upgraded to a faster stick. Keycaps on my dusty mechanical keyboard were switched to hardier ones. The trusty productivity mouse was replaced with a glowing gaming mouse because everyone knows RGB colours increase performance. 

All that was left to become the best gamer in the neighbourhood is a new gaming monitor — and not just any random cheap screen. It needed to be something built and engineered specifically for professional players so I, a scrub, can git gud.

BenQ Zowie XL2546K

Synonymous with esports and gaming monitors in general, BenQ has been quietly outfitting their displays with all the features a multi-million-dollar earning pro gamer will need to have an edge over the competition. So as far as screens go, the BenQ ZOWIE XL2546K 240Hz DyAc+ 24.5 inch Esports Gaming Monitor (catchy!) is considered the best in the market for high-speed competitive gaming. 

It shouldn’t be surprising, either. Historically, BenQ has worked closely with veteran Counter-Strike players and enthusiasts of yore (these were the days of CS: Source, mind you).

Years before everyone else started seriously talking about frame-rates and response times, BenQ was already on board and put out gamer-focused monitors with 120Hz refresh rates. In other words, you’d have a better chance of landing a clutch headshot on a bomb-carrying opponent running across the screen since fast-moving images are clearer to see on BenQ ZOWIE screens. 

With bitter memories of never landing any wins in Call of Duty: Warzone, I had BenQ’s latest and greatest esports monitor set up on my desk for a weekend of hardcore multiplayer gaming.  

Right from the get-go, you get the sense that the XL2546K is not flashy — there’s no curved screen, no ultra-futuristic design, and no flashy lighting. Heck, there aren’t even buttons at the front or bottom of the panel, so all you get is a pure, clean display. Everything screams utilitarian, with the black-and-red colour palette being its boldest ornamentation. 

This is intentional, as I found out from BenQ. The buttons and a (very useful) joystick to adjust the monitor settings have been switched to the back of the screen to make sure that nothing distracts users in the front. Even the LED power indicator light has been moved to the back — a requested feature by pro gamers who typically play on a dim tournament stage and don’t want any visual distractions. 

A pair of Monitor Shield “wings” can be fitted on both sides of the display to really hammer in the no-distractions mantra. It blocked out the fancy RGB lighting blasting out from the side of my PC, that’s for sure. 

While other brands boast features like 4K resolutions and wider colour gamut, BenQ keeps the focus on pure gaming performance, and this is done through their proprietary DyAc+ technology. A feature exclusive to BenQ ZOWIE gaming monitors, it simulates the dynamic display effect of old CRT monitors, which are phenomenal in handling motion without any display lag at all. 

Instead of spouting technical jargon (you can check it out here if you want), what DyAc+ basically does is drastically reduce motion blur in fast-paced scenes and moving objects, which is terribly useful when it comes to first-person shooter titles. In CS: GO, for example, bursting a spray of bullets won’t result in a super-shaky crosshair, so you can, like the pros say, “spray transfer” efficiently — keeping the finger on the trigger while transitioning from one target to another. No excuse in landing a series of headshots with an AK-47 on full auto, then.

Another function that makes this gaming monitor truly fit for competitive games is its 0.5-millisecond grey-to-grey (GtG) response time. It’s a huge deal when a lot of action is bursting on screen — the pixels transition from one shade of grey to another in as little as 0.5 milliseconds, resulting in a greatly reduced degree of ghosting (those trails from a moving object on screen). 

Combined with the super-high refresh rate of 240Hz, it’s an insanely fluid visual experience. Spotting, tracking and aiming targets come by a lot easier with buttery-smooth rapid movements and the perceptible edge in speed saved my skin more than a few times during close-quarters combat in Modern Warfare’s Shoot the Ship sessions. BenQ's visual demo in Valorant should be able to showcase how the XL2546K's DyAc+ will help in fast-paced games. 

In COD: MW’s larger maps like Azhir Cave and Atlas Superstore, the monitor’s Black eQualizer feature comes in handy to brighten up the darker spots of the shooting grounds. What it does is intelligently brighten dim areas without over-exposing the highlights, so prone enemy campers sniping in the shadows are picked off pretty easily. 

All in all, my kill/death ratio went up (marginally) but how do I really get as good as the Shrouds and Dr DisRespects of the world? I stumbled on some more tips and tricks, and apparently the way you position your gaming setup plays a crucial bit too. Apparently, tilting my keyboard sideways at a 45-degree angle will let me reach more keys with one hand.

Fortunately, the XL2546K’s redesigned monitor stand has a small enough base that makes it easier for the keyboard to be slanted that way. As it turned out, it wasn’t a position fit for me — stretching my pinkie finger to reach the Ctrl button proved to be more troublesome than it needed to be — but it’s good to know that the option is there if I want it. 

BenQ clarified that some gamers like to literally put their face right smack in front of the monitor, so the redesigned monitor base gives them more room to move around their mouse-handling arm if it's sticking straight out behind the monitor itself. 

But why would they sit that close to the monitor? So nothing would get in the way of their peripheral vision, though it comes at the cost of ruining their eyesight.

This was... actually a pretty good idea. The 240Hz monitor screen was able to accommodate for really weird angles and I adjusted it so that it was facing upwards at my face. Who needs 4K-res when my vision captures the entirety of the screen?

After a while though, blowing off people’s limbs with an Origin-12 shotty got a bit tiring. I took a break from all that violence and hopped into Spellbreak, where I could instead set people on fire with flaming tornadoes. 

The new Battle Royale-type game is actually pretty fun if you haven’t played it yet. Not to mention really colourful and vibrant while your battlemage tosses out electricity-infused acid clouds.

Clearly, Spellbreak requires a different display setup than the muted colours of FPS titles. Remember when I said that the buttons to adjust the settings are in the back of the monitor? Yeah, I didn’t actually have to touch them thanks to the XL2546K’s S-Switch, a dongle that allowed me to flit between visual presets according to what I’m playing. 

It’s such a simple yet convenient concept. One preset (with custom Black eQualizer levels and gamma) is saved for Modern Warfare. Clicking another button quickly switches to another preset for Spellbreak, where I upped the ante for colour vibrance. Neutral settings are saved for the third profile: web browsing, productivity and generally watching YouTube videos. What I’m saying is that it saves me the hassle of fine-tuning the screen every single time. 

So, did having an esports monitor make me an esports athlete?

Of course not. The key point of that BenQ wants to make for its ZOWIE monitors is this: the spotlight should always shine on the players, not the equipment.

The company invented and built all its gaming features based on the needs of professional gamers, so the ZOWIE is exclusively designed with their needs and habits in mind. Regardless of your skill level, the 240Hz gaming monitor (or its 24-inch 144 Hz sibling, XL2411K) is simply an efficient instrument for gamers to perform to the best of their abilities and definitely not an overnight solution to raise their skill ceiling. 

But as far as gamer-oriented displays go, the BenQ ZOWIE XL2546K is a no-frills monitor that makes sure the focus is on pushing you to perform. More RAM, clicky keyboards and the latest ray-tracing graphics cards are always great of course, but in the end, they’re not the ones scoring you wins. Our skills need sharpening and luckily for gamers who want to git gud, the XL2546K is a great honing tool. 

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