Performance
The board has an overall oval-shape and is a little thinner than most keyboards, which translates to quite a height difference from my SteelSeries Shift I use regularly. The wrist rest is attached to the board as a whole piece, which combined with a thinner design makes the board very easy to transport to LAN parties or tournaments. The modular USB cable and hidden slack routes under the board only add to the convenience.
The 30mm fan is a unique feature, it's not something I would have to have but I'm sure there are gamers who sweat more than I do. With inputs on either corner of the board, the fan has the potential to keep the WASD fingers cool as well as those on the directional arrows, or perhaps even the mouse. The little guy gets an un-adjustable 6,000RPM which is enough to feel for the left hand, but sometimes hard to notice when positioned otherwise, especially aiming for the mouse hand. We've seen 30mm fans reach 8,000RPM rated at the same decibel level, so giving the fan a little more juice probably wouldn't hurt. That being said, even at 6k RPM the fan has a noticeable hum.
The keys lay close to the board in almost a laptop fashion, removing any key (made simple with the included tool) reveals a cylindrical plastic housing a membrane switch. Opening the Challenger Pro up allows us to see the entire dome-switch interface, which has a ten million click lifetime.
The wrist rest does its job well, and the board has feet to elevate the ergonomics of your style even more. While I have been known to be a sucker for the vanity of backlighting, which the Challenger Pro pulls off very well, the giant glowing Tt emblem sticks out almost as much as the multi-colored profile indicator.