Broke my joystick cap mid-match and had to improvise

I was playing a ranked match last Friday night and my right joystick cap just popped off. The rubber part split right down the middle, no idea how. Grabbed a spare thumb grip from my parts drawer but it wouldn't stay on because the post was too loose. Ended up wrapping a single layer of electrical tape around the stick post first, then pressing the grip on. Surprisingly it stayed solid for the rest of the night. Has anyone else had a joystick cap fail like that during actual gameplay?

3 comments

3 Comments

jake_dixon7d ago

Electrical tape is a good fix but honestly it's just a joystick cap, not a big deal. I've played with a bare plastic stick before and it's fine once you get used to it.

stone.simon7d ago

The three guys I know who tried the bare plastic stick got hand blisters within a week. Is that really worth skipping a five dollar replacement cap?

the_emery4d ago

Three years back I was in a local Smash tournament and watched a guy's entire joystick housing crack off mid-match on a GameCube controller. He finished the set using just the plastic post and a dab of superglue on his thumb. The weird part is he said the precision actually felt better after because there was no cap wobble anymore. I wonder how much of our controller grip is just muscle memory compensating for loose parts. Some people swear by those aluminum replacement caps too but they chew through your thumb skin if you play for more than an hour. Tape trick is smart though electrical tape has saved more gaming sessions than people give it credit for.