Esports Players Play Better Online
In competitions, esports players, like other athletes, face stress and show worse results due to pressure. A substantial decrease takes place in the performance of esports players during overtime. This effect, however, is significantly mitigated in online competitions compared to live events—the difference can reach 30%. A study by a team of authors from HSE University’s Moscow and Perm campuses and European University Viadrina (Germany) explores the phenomenon of choking under pressure within the context of esports. The study was published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
Esports is a multibillion-dollar industry with major tournaments and million-dollar prizes. In addition, in Russia, esports has become a priority area of development. As in traditional sports, both technical skills and psychological stability are key to success. Understanding how stress affects the performance of players will help to improve the training process and achieve better results.
Gleb Vasiliev
Gleb Vasiliev, Junior Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Sports Studies of the Faculty of Economic Sciences, Petr Parshakov and Iuliia Naidenova, staff members of the International Laboratory of Intangible-driven Economy at HSE University in Perm, and Igor Tylkin, researcher at European University Viadrina, studied the behaviour of esports players in the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO).
Petr Parshakov
CS:GO is a competitive online shooter in which two teams of five players compete. Matches are usually played on 1–5 maps, which in turn consist of short rounds. To win the round, teams must either complete a specific task or eliminate their opponents. Usually, 30 rounds are played on one map in competitions. When a team wins at least 16 of them, it wins the map. In the event of a draw, additional rounds are played: at 15:15, overtime starts. The team of scientists analysed players’ behaviour in overtime.
Iuliia Naidenova
The authors studied statistics from almost a million games for the period from 2012 to 2022 among players with both high and low ratings. The sample included more than 1,700 esports players. The researchers used two key indicators.
The first was individual performance, which included the player’s rating (calculated by comparing a player's average performance statistics to the same averages for CS:GO in general calculated over a period of time) and the percentage of accurate shots. These metrics reflect the level of skill in difficult conditions. The second is team coordination, ie cases of ‘friendly fire’ (causing damage to teammates). An increase in the number of hits on teammates may indicate tension and problems with communication in the team. Pressure and stress were measured by analysing overtimes—additional rounds that are played to determine the winner in the event of an equal outcome in matches. As in traditional sports, in extra time, the result of the game most often depends on numerous small factors. In addition, the authors studied the impact of the game format: whether it was an on-site performance or an online tournament. Approximately 70% of the matches were played online, and overtimes were played in 9% of them.
It turned out that overtimes do cause players significant stress. On average, they lead to a decrease in player ratings by almost 2%, and the percentage of accurate shots decreased by 7%. This decline was evident in both professional and novice players. ‘The results of our study show that although experienced players outperform their less experienced counterparts in all game formats, this advantage may fade away in overtime,’ noted the authors. The probability of errors leading to friendly fire also increased.
The tournament format plays an important role. When competitions are held online, with no audience or unnecessary excitement, players perform about 30% better than during on-site matches. Researchers attribute this to a psychological factor—the presence of fans increases stress.
The researchers note that the results of the study can be applied in various fields. For example, it is worth considering that the format of work (on-site or online) significantly influences stress levels and their impact on team coordination and individual results. ‘Esports is a good platform for testing such effects. Players’ high cognitive activity and team coordination are essential in the game, which makes it a convenient object for analysing behaviour under pressure. The study results can be useful for HR departments and crisis management, as well as in fields where teamwork and productivity under pressure are important, such as IT consulting or startups,’ the authors added.
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