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Is the e-sports player considered an “athlete”? According to my definition of e-sports as a sport, it must be counted, but many people may still think that e-sports is just “playing games”. Although it is also very exciting, it is essentially not the same as traditional sports. But they still have a lot of similarities, such as carrying the same pressure.

A recent study in sports psychology published in International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations shows that professional players in large e-sports competitions will have the same pressure as athletes. Foreign media arstechnica is doing this research Detailed report.

Sports psychology has always had long-term active research, but putting research objects into e-sports is a relatively new area of ​​research. For example, the University of Chichester in the UK has established a new e-sports (Honours) degree. According to Philip Birch, an expert in sports psychology, they will focus on scientific research on the physical and psychological impact of e-sports, including immersive gaming environments, nutrition, coaching and strategy.

To study the sports psychology related to e-sports, not only to study the pressures faced by e-sports players, but also to study their sources of stress and coping strategies. Birch and his colleagues chose to study CSGO as a research object because it is a bit like sports like football. It is a multiplayer first-person shooter game where terrorists and counter-terrorists compete against each other.

CSGO has a rich and huge number of tournaments, and the prize pool is usually between $75,000 and $1 million. E-sports competition has become a very popular sport. More than 380 million people watched the competition in 2018 alone, and the degree of specialization is increasing every year. For example, in 2015, the athletes’ union was established, along with the entire industry chain. The value is getting higher and higher, and people’s interest in e-sports begins to enter the psychological link of playing.

In fact, in 2016, Astralls, a professional team at CSGO, had hired a sports psychologist to help team members with psychological stress in a high-risk environment. Astralis won the ELEAGUE Major in January 2017, and members praised team psychologists for their ability to cope with stress, which may also mean that the career e-sports team may be more likely to hire sports psychologists. The more you come.

Because research in this area is relatively rare, Birch uses qualitative rather than quantitative research methods. According to Birch, the study of qualitative nature is more suitable for the initial exploration of various stress factors and coping mechanisms common to e-sports players. Future research may choose a more quantitative approach in the case of more participants.

The sample size of the preliminary study was small, and only seven professional male players participated in the ESL Premiership CSGO Spring Final. They probably have 2 to 6 years of experience. Lead researcher Matt Smith participated in an e-sports competition to better understand gameplay and the competitive environment. He then developed an interview guide used in the study. And interviewed within three weeks after the end of the game.

The results show that e-sports players face 51 different stress factors, the most obvious of which are team communication problems and the anxiety of playing in front of the audience. The highest level of professional sports athletes are also facing these pressures. Communication questions also include whether the player obeys the instructions, or makes extremely negative verbal criticisms in the game.