Getting the BlackWidow Tournament Edition set up with Synapse and configured the way I liked it took an hour or so. Not terrible in the grand scheme of things, but also not exactly plug-and-play simple. Considering some of the advanced options available in the Synapse 2.0 software, gamers who like to customize and tinker with their hardware settings could spend far longer in the Synapse software.

Nothing in the Synapse configuration process is pointless or particularly poorly designed, but if you're in a rush to get playing (or if you prefer to configure your gaming via the keybinding and macro controls found in your favorite games) it's an extra set of hoops to jump through.

All of this effort comes with a big payoff for tournament players, of course: since Razer is saving all of your settings on their server all you have to do to keep your keybindings and macros consistent across any number of computers is download Synapse.

For players who tend to do most or all of their gaming in one location, however, the BlackWidow Tournament Edition is a bit more of a mixed bag, losing some features from the beefier Razer BlackWidow 2013 keyboard in exchange for portability. The Tournament Edition also comes with a price tag that's 20 dollars lower than the larger Blackwidow, however, so its worth asking yourself if you'll really miss what's gone.

In fact if there's any problem with the BlackWidow Tournament Edition, it's with what's been lopped off to make the keyboard more compact. To make the keyboard cheaper and more portable than its big brother a few things had to be lost, including the numeric keypad and dedicated macro keys.