I've never owned a nice office chair. In the many, many years that I've spent hunched over my desk, grinding MMO dungeons and carrying teams in MOBA matches, I've only ever used sub-par chairs that offer the bare minimum in terms of comfort. And in the last few weeks, my current desk chair has finally started showing signs of its mortality -- mostly by swiveling as far left as possible any time I don't plant my feet firmly on the floor.
Needless to say, getting my hands on an actual gaming chair meant for long-term comfort was long overdue. Enter the Champion Series gaming chair from EWin -- an ergonomic office-style chair that's made with marathon gamers in mind.
EWin's designs echo the familiar aesthetic of brands like DXRacer, which you'll see behind nearly every streamer on Twitch. But does it offer the same level of quality? From what I can tell, absolutely. I can't speak for the other chairs in the EWin line, but the Champion series is a solid chair that's not too costly, and offers lots of functionality to help you maximize your comfort.
Unboxing and Assembly
The EWin Champion does require some assembly out of the box to get the base, seat, arm rests, and cushions into a single unit. You can pay about $83 to have it done for you, but putting this thing together was so easy that it renders "professional assembly" totally unnecessary. It took me and another person about 10 minutes to get it in working order.
Some of the instructions along the way were a little confusing, though. It seems like they were tailored for a model that was slightly different than the one I had, and some parts didn't quite go together the way those instructions said they should. Once we got that figured out, though, the rest of the assembly was quick and painless.
Because of how easy it was to put together, I was a little concerned that the chair might not be structurally sound without a ton of intricate mechanisms to hold it together. But so far, it's held up just fine.
Look and Feel
Overall, this is a pretty sleek chair. The faux leather covering feels nice to the touch and is super easy to keep clean -- so you can snack between matches or eat lunch at your desk without worrying about stains or sticky fabric.
Its patterns are a good fit for the racing aesthetic, and the colors are about as vibrant as you'd want them to be. The GameSkinny green accents on my model pop nicely against the solid black body. And though they're not the main attraction, the armrests are sturdy and nicely textured as well.
Although it's not the household name of gaming chairs, EWin obviously paid close attention to the quality of its product. Even the stitching is clean, tight, and discreet. You'd have to do some serious damage to this thing before it started showing any signs of wear.
Use and Customization
So it's easy to assemble and it looks nice. That's great and all, but does the EWin Champion have the functionality to back up its sleek design? Definitely.
You can adjust this chair in a number of ways to suit your needs, whatever they are. You can adjust the height like a standard office chair, but you can also tweak a number of other structural aspects to maximize the comfort and support you get from this seat.
Its back cushion slides up and down so you can position it wherever you most need lumbar support. This is a huge boon for people who struggle with chronic back pains -- especially in situations where the lower back needs far more support than usual. I would have liked to see the same range of motion with the head pillow, but that part still fit my posture nicely, so I can't complain about it too much.
You can also adjust the reclining angle of the chair so that you're sitting slightly back, slightly forward, or in whatever position is most comfortable for you. Or you can do what I did, and lean it all the way back to stare at the ceiling between your SMITE games and wonder why the hell the matchmaking gods have condemned you to playing with filthy casuals forever. Either way, making the adjustment is a quick (and very quiet) lever pull away. Your insides might be hardening into pure salt, but at least you're comfortable.
Of all the customization options, though, I found myself more impressed with the arm rests than anything else. You can move them in just about any direction you desire. Slide them forward or back so they sit where your elbows naturally rest. Move them up or down to suit the height of your desk and keyboard. Push them inward or outward to make a wider or narrower base that your arms can rest on. You can even angle the armrests in or leave them parallel to each other. No matter what configuration will be most comfortable for you, you've got the option to do it with EWin's Champion gaming chair.
Comfort Level: Maximum
With so many options packed into one chair, the real question is this: Is it comfortable? Can it keep your body feeling supported even during long gaming marathons?
After spending a week of 8-hour work days in this chair, I'd have to say that it can.
I've got lower back issues so bad that I've had multiple surgeries trying to fix the problem. So proper support is paramount -- and I'd be the first to notice if something wasn't up to snuff. But where most office chairs hurt my spine in one way or another, I could spend loads of time in the EWin Champion without feeling any sort of pain.
I knew this chair was doing something right when the uncomfortable popping that usually happens in my lower back after being seated for long periods of time started to dissipate the more I sat in it. It wasn't curing my back problems, of course, but it offered enough support to significantly help the posture issues that cause the popping in the first place.
If you're a sloucher, you might experience a fair amount of discomfort at first, as this chair is definitely not one that you can hunch over in. And it took me some time to stop doing so myself -- especially during really intense dungeon runs. But the extra support and the lumbar cushion made it much easier to pull myself upright and find comfort in a position that didn't make me look like Gollum.
The TL;DR here is that EWin's Champion chair offers long-lasting comfort -- once you find the position that's right for you. And as a bonus, it's got excellent rolling capabilities to boot! With a wireless headset and relatively smooth floors, I could wheel across the room fast enough to make it back before my death timer was up.
The One and Only Caveat
Personally, I've had a great experience with this gaming chair. But I want to note that if you don't take the time to really play around with it and try every configuration for the armests, lumbar cushions, recline angle, and so on, it's very easy to have a terrible time with it.
The first few configurations I tried felt great at first, but ended up putting terrible pressure on my hips and somehow making my knees ache. I had to tweak lots of things time and time again until I finally found that sweet spot that let me sit for hours at a time without feeling arthritic.
It's also worth mentioning that while this is a fairly roomy chair -- one that I had enough room to pull my knees up into and cry over lost qualifying games in ranked -- it may not be very well suited to heavier-set people. Even for someone hobbit-sized like me, the chair is quite narrow when you take the raised sides of the seats into consideration. So that's something to be aware of.
Verdict
EWin may not be the name you think of when you think of gaming chairs, but it should definitely be one of them. The Champion model is a fantastically built seat that will offer you hours of comfort in a durable package. It looks nice, feels even better, and is fully customizable to give you the best seating experience possible. If you need something to help you sit tight through hours of gaming -- or all the time you spend on that 9-5 work grind -- this is definitely one you'll want to consider.
The EWin Champion is retails for $279 on Amazon. But if you check out the official EWin store page for it, you can use the code "GS" to get 15% off your order. This chair is well worth diving into your pockets for.
[Note: EWin provided the Champion chair used for this review.]
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