EDITORIAL: Nothing was found in my athlete’s eyesight exam. Why does that actually benefit me?
Not everyone booking Silmäasema’s new athlete’s eyesight exam finds something wrong with their eyes for esports.
Finkka from ROUNDS here. I was in the market for new glasses anyways, so I went through our partner Silmäasema’s new athlete’s eyesight examination, the same one our whole CS2 squad took. Here’s what was found in my case specifically, and why I am quite pleased with the end product. It’s important to note that this article is fully based on my actual real experience and opinions, and I am not being paid any extra for writing this piece whatsoever. All of my own accord.
Picture this. It’s a bleak Monday morning in May. I’ve just woken up right before the clock strikes 7am. This is because I have to get going and drive to Lahti, where I’ve booked a time with optician Timo Koljonen, who we filmed our Silmäasema material with a couple of months ago. I arrive in the windy “Chicago of Finland” just in time at 9:30am and get myself checked in with the staff. This included a few questions about my current glasses and a short imagining of my eyes.
Not long after, I get the callup from Timo to go into the same room we filmed in earlier this year. Only difference being no cameras, no one else from ROUNDS, and it’s me we are examining. I decided to book the athlete’s eyesight examination not only because of our partnership, but also because I was genuinely curious. I dabble in competitive gaming here and there. I’m nowhere near going pro at anything, but if I were to pick a sport, my sport would be esports. I’d assume the same goes for many of you reading this as well.
I told Timo what kind of things I do the most at my job, like what sort of scenarios are important to me and my eyesight. The athlete part of the examination was then customized to fit my specific needs. We even went back in the end to double-check my long range vision, because I told Timo I often find myself at conventions and events, where I, as the social media manager, have to be looking at the big screen far away, instead of the typical sized monitor right in front of me like the players he examined before me do. This actually changed everything.
First, when we did the typical, normal side of the eyesight exam, we found out that my myopia, or nearsightedness, had deteriorated slightly. So slightly in fact, that originally Timo was not going to push me to purchase new glasses at all. I liked this about him and quite frankly the whole staff experience. They didn’t steer me into directions that benefited them. The optician was a ‘no nonsense, say it how it is’ kinda guy. He told me there was nothing wrong with my esports sight, the errors that were found were miniscule enough to be neglected. And he told me that new glasses could have a small impact, but for most people, not enough. Here’s the catch, and where I appreciated his professionalism the most. I am not most people.
Like I said earlier, we went back for a second time. This is because I told Timo that actually bits of text that are far away are a big part of my life, especially when working at events. We found that, while new glasses wouldn’t necessarily maybe make my eyesight any better, they would make it far less bothersome. I felt like reading far away text was much easier with the test lenses he showed me. I had no strain, I didn’t need to squint my eyes, nothing felt blurry or duplicated. This was the difference maker in the end why I ultimately decided to go forward with ordering new ones. It’s completely down to the individual.
Another thing we found almost immediately during the regular examination was that I most likely suffer from something called “dry eye syndrome”, which can affect the strain in my eyes as well. He suggested I should try eye drops for it, and here once again, he didn’t have to be the nice guy at the office, but he was. He gave me a couple different brands to try, such as the ones he uses himself, that, get this, Silmäasema don’t even sell themselves. You know how easy it would have been for him to just go, “oh yeah, you need these ones off our shelf, get these”, right? But he didn’t. These types of little things were the reasons why I loved the whole experience through and through.
ROUNDS as an organization was funnily enough a bit of a statistical anomaly up until my visit. In almost all cases, something to be corrected was found in our athlete’s eyesight examinations. When it came time to do mine (which is a lot of fun by the way, you get to play some eye testing games), Timo was jokingly relieved that his statistics weren’t thrown out the window. My results came back with basically near perfect eyesight as far as esports goes. So now, to address the title of this editorial; does that mean it was a waste coming all this way for it? No, of course not! This is actually a huge win in my books. I got the absolute confirmation from real professionals that I already have all the tools for success with my eyesight, and that also reflects on the total price of my new glasses, as nothing “extra” needs to be added to them. Additionally however, I unfortunately now have to ditch the excuse of not hitting my shots or landing my combos due to my eyes… maybe I’ll have to start saying I forgot to use my eye drops instead.
I can wholeheartedly recommend Silmäasema’s athlete’s eyesight examination to anyone who plays competitive video games. And remember, if you’re already gonna buy glasses anyways, you’ll get it for the price of a regular exam. Read more in Finnish here and book one for yourself!
See you in 3-4 weeks when my new glasses arrive, I’ll make sure to show ’em off!
Lari – finkka
ROUNDS