Over the weekend, thousands of fighting game fans descended on Las Vegas, NV for Evo 2023, the biggest fighting game event of the year. It was a reminder of how cool esports can be, especially when built on the passion and tenacity of grassroots communities.
For some competitors, there was only one problem: some of the PS5 games running games were melting the controller connectors.
The event is several halls full of working hardware almost non-stop as everyone makes their way through each respective tournament, moving their controllers or sticks from place to place. Apparently, at this year's event, that meant more than a few gamers dealing with PS5s that got so hot they ruined their USB adapters.
EVO is saying that the PS5 is NOT the answer. Usb ports are melting like craY. @Kyoku236HS had the usb in his controller melted. This is not isolated. We need to go to PC or Xbox at the very least.”
“This is my melted controller,” posted Eduardo Cuervo alongside a photo of his USB cable with similarly deformed plastic insert. “It only took one set.”
While apparently not a huge issue for the entire event, it also doesn't appear to have been completely isolated.
The local team got three PS5 setups for SF6. During the first weekend that all the consoles were turned on for several hours, the rear USB ports on two of them melted and were ripped off. The backports weren't designed for this or underestimated the heat the console generates.
User SyrupyCereal reported a similar incident on Reddit.
“After my SF6 set, my opponent kindly took my cable for me but came with the PS5 USB receiver,” they wrote. “Broke my Junkfood cable right then and there, but didn't find out until I had my first match for Granblue Rising and felt like an idiot for not being able to connect my cable to the PS5.”
Not clear whether the problem was specifically due to certain faulty PS5s overheating or the consoles simply being pushed beyond mainstream use under unusual circumstances.
The hardware only has a single USB port on the front of the console. The other two are at the back, next to the heat outlet. Some players have claimed that the connectors themselves were hot to the touch when first pulled out at the end of a match.
However, CyberKevin believes this could be an example of a faulty PlayStation 5. Noting that the PlayStation 5 units are supposed to automatically turn off when they reach dangerous levels of heat.
I'm sure one of the EVO units is defective... to have a system that runs at 80°C at its core, and melts ABS on the USB output at the same time. The PS5 would shut itself down before this could happen NORMALLY… :/
Considering Sony partially owns the Evo now. More investigation into the matter could happen ahead of next year's Evo and this could help to prevent scenarios like this from happening again in the future.