eAthletes and eSports

eSports and Sports

The stigma attached to gaming is of a casual sedentary individual fitting within the ‘teenager’ age profile. Even with publicized attempts to professionalize gaming in the eyes of the public (World Cyber Games, League of Legends Championship Series) and help from gaming developers (Riot, Blizzard), there are limited support systems in place to follow a long term career path into gaming. This means that the upcoming players will more than likely follow the example of established pros.
While the debate of whether or not eSports can be considered a ‘real sport’ will rage on there is a plethora of crossovers between a pro-gamer and the mainstream athlete. The main crux of the matter mostly stems from the fact that the sheer physicality needed for gaming is juxtaposed with those needed for marathon running or soccer.

When the average person is asked to cite an example of a sport he/she will most often mention a sport where physicality and athletic prowess is at the forefront. Examples of these would most definitely include Soccer, American football, Basketball, Athletics and Swimming. It is no coincidence that the most commonly mentioned sports are also the most popular and widely participated in activities on the planet. They also benefit from the most aggressive marketing and advertising ventures as they are the most developed cornerstones in sport through which all others are measured. Without the large sums of capital however, eSports businesses must be able to advertise primarily online using social media as opposed to through the medium of television, magazines or other more costly promotions. Fledgling sports start with a “niche” tagline associated to them and must compete for a much smaller piece of the mainstream pie. As they grow they become increasingly developed, more and more people are drawn into the sport which will benefit teams, companies and players etc.

In every sport the main attractions are usually the players themselves. They will create the story lines and their actions will thrill and excite the fans. The manner in which they ply their trade sets a tone and mirrors the existing or established professional standards of the industry. Existing players work within guidelines or norms that are median expectations. It is for this reason that within mainstream sports, you have only a few players that truly rise to the top and can dominate a global sport. Regardless of player pool size or popularity of the sport the reasons for success are generally down to a list of player controlled actions such as hard work, personal and professional development, good mental skills, aptitude for change and adaptation.

In eSports the ‘success’ of a player is always not directly linked to his/her skill level as popular or entertaining players often are more than capable of supporting themselves financially by accruing a large following usually though excellent fan interaction and use of social media. There are players who are making a living through subscriber followings and very good fan interaction. With the progress made in social media over the past 10 years everything is much more accessible than previously.

With the advent of Korean players signing to non-Korean teams, in Starcraft for example, it is of paramount importance for the teams to humanize or personalize their players to really bring to the fore the personalities of each player. The players that are better at marketing themselves tend to have larger followings than even players with higher skill levels. Fans can now interact and feel part of the daily process and become personally invested with the players or teams. Most players will have to stream almost daily to supplement income or fulfil contractual obligations. This type of transparency is something that mainstream athletes have to deal with their every move being recorded with the possibility of any negative action being a ‘news’ feature in a matter of minutes. Streams compete indirectly with each other for traffic as the more entertaining or unique streams will garner more numbers. With the ability to be everywhere at once and have information after a few key strokes, the eSports community moves at an increasingly fast pace with players, team and companies folding and being created on a regular basis.

Without going into the ‘nature vs nurture’ debate with certain athletes being granted psychological or physiological traits during maturation, a person's ability does not necessarily parallel their potential. Not everyone can win gold in the 100m sprint at the Olympics even with perfect training and preparation. Approximately 50% of a person’s potential in a sport is due to genotype with the remaining 50% affected by nurture and circumstance. What can be done, however, is to train to the best of one’s ability and perform, in pressure situations, as close to their potential ability as possible. There was a time when Golf was seen as a pastime or hobby to the general population and this was reflected in the training standard and attitudes of the players. Since the rise of a young Tiger Woods back in April 1997, with his revolutionary take on fitness and mental preparation, Golf has never been the same. It must be stated however that he was not a pioneer with his training practices. Such is the nature of change in sport that had he not won title after title there would not have been as much interest in his training methods as there was. Some of the hardest working most holistic centric trainers are not necessarily the players winning tournament after tournament but this does not mean that their training and preparation is wrong.

Both the eSports athlete and the sporting athletes work on the action-reward basis. The basketball player will attempt to replicate the actions performed hundreds of thousands of times in practice, the exact sequence of muscle firing patterns to shoot the textbook shot. Gamers work within a simulated virtual world looking to execute combinations or actions to win a game. When you compare the physicality required for eSports to mainstream sports it is easy to dismiss the actual trainable skill required to become a professional. The dextral-skill such hand-eye coordination, reflexes and speed of thought needed to excel on the eSports stage is well above the general populous average. There have been studies that highlighted the similarity between the reflexes of a pro-gamer and fighter pilots according to unpublished research from Dr. Micklewright from the University of Essex. From a more practical standpoint, the carryover of virtual talent to a real world context took place when gamer Lucas Ordonez was selected to be a driver after winning GT Academy in 2008. This process can also be utilized in reverse with XOS Technologies redesigning the Madden game engine so that players can load specific scenarios into a simulation to watch or study opponents. The mental qualities and fine skills of pro gamers and mainstream athletes could be comparable with the differentiating factors mostly to do with gross skills.

Pro-gamers can train from anywhere between 4 hours and 10 hours daily. This type of activity daily is an exhausting and taxing routine that requires a great level of endurance to perform at the highest level, staying fit and healthy while most importantly competing in a consistent manner. Pro athletes in gaming will need to train almost daily to maintain or exceed their levels of strength/endurance while remaining healthy. This well rounded approach to training is common sense as a healthy strong player is less likely to get injured and therefore can maintain optimum productivity.

Gamers, when in a comfortable routine (Click Here for a good example of being proactive in this regard), will exercise as much as they can in the week as they understand the positive effects of exercise for their job and life. Incorporating a consistent level of physical training should be the standard norm for all pro gamers. This includes pre-hab (strengthening the body before injuries occur to reduce the chance of them happening) work to strengthen postural weaknesses, wrist injury prevention as well as ability to perform optimally throughout the entire match i.e the ability to sit for prolonged periods to mirror what can be expected at tournaments. All of these aspects should not be viewed as superfluous activities that cannot be incorporated into the ‘busy’ day. As the benefit of these activities transition to the forefront they will be assimilated into common practice.

Mental stressors associated with mainstream sports also affect pro-gamers. Stress or perceived stress can affect hormonal balance in the brain which in turn can affect sleep, concentration and outlook on training. Confidence issues, stress, concentration, motivation and focus to name but a few factors, indirectly affect the performance of these high level players. There are decades of research into the psychology of sports performance with concrete variance between top performers and their elite counterparts. They are all trainable qualities that can be improved upon through consistent applied effort. A professional gamer who works within the framework of a professional measurable routine sets up a great platform to achieve his/her goals. Gaming may be viewed as a generally questionable sport alongside chess, curling and archery but its perceived legitimacy within the public sphere should not dampen the efforts by both teams and players to act in a professional manner. A person can be a professional gamer without being professional. The drive to appear and act professional in an industry without perceived legitimacy can only positively affect people’s current views. Newcomers into the industry will also adjust their expectations and consequently their actions within the industry.

In the same way that growing sports have to establish an identity for themselves, they must also aim to establish high quality and professional standards similar to the industry leaders. As they become more ‘mainstream’ they lend themselves to creating codes of practice that are adopted by players and teams. With time this injection of professionalism and resultant change in conduct and thinking permeates from the industry, drawing in more and more resources. It is this road to recognition and acceptance that is a necessary rite of passage where development, innovation and learning occur. Someone must be able to walk before they can run. When this happens, those not able to chase the innovators will be left behind. The most stable of teams will still have to fight to be relevant while maintaining the balance between business and being player centric. More on the player-team relationship in the next article.

My name is Robert Yip, I am a Sports Psychologist with a keen interest in the eSports scene currently working with Liquid TLO and Liquid Ret. I will hopefully be updating this Blog as much as I can.

Feel free to ask any questions or PM me and Ill try answer

Follow me on Twitter @eS_Performance

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