This writer will never forget his first (and last) LAN café experience playing Counter-Strike.

It wasn’t the wall-to-wall banks of monitors basking pasty faces in light that stick most in the memory, nor the overpowering pong of Cool Original Doritos and sweat. Nope, it tends to be the relentless, degrading slaughtering I endured for thirty minutes straight that haunts my memories of that evening, as carried out by pubescent creatures who would cheerily spend eight hours at a time glaring through their on-screen reticules.

It’s just one reason why none of the GamerSquad crew will ever be professional gamers, though the fact that LAN cafés generally don’t serve Stevie’s preferred brand of moonshine doesn’t help matters. Yet for those who do approach their gaming with unflappable seriousness, peripheral company SteelSeries wants you to dig deep for its latest creation, the Ikari Professional Gaming Mouse.

This sleek gaming rodent popped up at the ongoing Games Convention in Leipzig, and is the result of fifteen - yes, fifteen - months of research, testing, and consultation with players from pro-gaming clans such as Team 3D, compLexity, mousesports, SK Gaming, and Team NoA.

The Ikari’s anti-sweat coating covers an ergonomic design that apparently caters to each of the three mousing styles used by the pros (Swipe, Claw, and Palm), and features five main buttons for extra adaptability and a pleasingly large SteelSeries Glide surface. It’s due out in Q4 2007 in both optical and laser flavours, though a price has yet to be announced.