Loadshedding shouldn’t mean game over

Imagine. You’ve been playing for days, working your way up through the levels, solving the puzzles, and collecting the weapons and equipment you need to defeat your enemies and complete your quests. Now you’ve reached the final boss. Defeat them, and you’ll have beaten the game. Or perhaps you’re competing in an esports tournament. You’ve reached the final. Years of practice have gone into this moment. Take out that last competitor, and the prize is yours.

Suddenly, the lights go out. The screen goes blank. And you’ve lost all your progress. All that hard work has been for nothing.

This is the effect loadshedding could have on your gaming. Esports, in particular, is a lucrative and profitable venture that has grown in South Africa, with the country raking in $290 million in gaming revenue annually. This fast-growing industry, like most in South Africa, is under threat from the ongoing energy crisis. Loadshedding can cause interruptions to your power supply, lasting from a few minutes to several hours, and even days.  During power outages of this nature, not only will your gaming system and monitor be forced to shut down, but your Wi-Fi network may also be disconnected.

So it’s important to think about how to protect your equipment and systems against loadshedding – especially during the winter months, when the risk of higher stages of loadshedding is particularly high.

UPS – the best blackout solution

To ensure your gaming experience is never interrupted unnecessarily, it’s worth considering an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) as backup. In the event of an outage, UPS backup will switch from mains supply to batteries, meaning your devices will stay connected at least long enough for you to save your progress until regular power supplies are restored.

Eaton is a leading provider of UPS, delivering high quality, reliable back-up whatever your gaming set-up and the amount of energy it uses. These include the Eaton 3S Gen2,  which offers affordable and reliable protection for TV and audio, storage systems, and household equipment. This offline UPS provides surge and power protection for internet gateways, desktop computers, and other critical electronics.

The Eaton 3S Mini provides advanced protection for switches, routers, modems, IP-cameras, and IoT applications. Its super compact, silent and stylish design ensures the 3S Mini blends well into your home or business environment. And the Eaton Ellipse PRO is a line-interactive UPS specifically developed to protect workstations running demanding applications, offering advanced protection for desktop PCs, gaming computers, and pro audio.

Game on!

A power outage can spoil your gaming experience. But a combination of factors – from a growing demand for power, extreme weather as a result of climate change, and the ongoing energy crisis – means that we’re at a greater risk of loadshedding than we have been for many years.

An outage needn’t mean game over, though. With an Eaton UPS in your inventory, you’ll be able to keep up your progress, even when the lights go out.