Stress Management Strategies in Esports: An Exploratory Online Survey on Applied Practice

Abstract

Given the competitive nature of esports (e.g., maintaining focus and adaptive coping) and the increasing interest from practitioners in addressing stress management issues, empirical evidence on stress management strategies is needed that is tailored to the unique demands of esports. To ensure that ethical and professional standards are being met, it is important to first explore the factors that practitioners perceive to negatively impact the performance of esports players and the stress management strategies that are currently being used to support these players. Therefore, an online survey of 25 practitioners was conducted with results highlighting a variety of factors that were perceived to negatively impact players’ performance such as players’ ability to cope and lack of self-confidence. In addition, stress management strategies used before and after competition most frequently included strategies such as imagery, breathing techniques, and social support. Future research directions, limitations, and practical implications are discussed.

Performance breakdown under pressure among esports competitors.

“…In the high-pressure condition, participants received instructions emphasizing the importance of the task, that their score would be compared against others via a published leaderboard, that their performance was going to be observed by the public (e.g., Twitch), and that low-performing participants may be interviewed. The manipulation was also informed by prior literature that has identified game-specific worry and uncertainty (Smith et al, 2022), performance expectations (Leis et al, 2022;Leis & Lautenbach, 2020;Poulus et al, 2022a), and audiences (Leis et al, 2022;Smith et al, 2019) to be key stressors experienced by esports competitors. To ensure the leaderboard was achievable yet challenging, five professional CS:GO competitors completed a pilot and their best time was recorded and added (times ranged from 30.34 to 51.37 s).…”

“…Moreover, in line with our hypotheses, we observed a significant increase in time to complete the task and decreased shooting accuracy in the high-pressure condition than the low-pressure condition. Given that our pressure manipulation was informed by prior qualitative research examining the stressors experienced by esports competitors (Leis et al, 2022;Poulus et al, 2022b;Smith et al, 2019Smith et al, , 2022, the experimental design adopted in the present study advances our understanding of the pressure-related breakdown in performance in esports. Indeed, our findings support the various sources of experimental literature that have demonstrated the influence of pressure on individual performance in traditional sports (e.g., Causer et al, 2011;Nieuwenhuys et al, 2008).…”

“…In line with the need to resemble more closely that of high-level competitors, value may be seen in ensuring the competitors and the audience members are aware of the leaderboard. Such adjustment may elicit further performance expectations (e.g., Leis et al, 2022), beyond that of internally motivating factors. Such inclusion may also provide insight for future authors wishing to explore similar lines of enquiry among high-level esports competitors.…”

“…It is this relatively unexplored component that may help scholars understand the associated stressors reported in interviews (Poulus et al, 2022b), including perceived judgments and reactions from audience members that cause players to experience pressure. In line with the social facilitation theory (i.e., increase in arousal associated with an audience), the online nature of broadcasting gameplay (e.g., Tammy Lin et al, 2019) may further add to the negative consequences associated with players setting unrealistic performance expectations (Leis et al, 2022) and/or the additional cognitive load placed on performers associated with the additional environmental context (see Runswick et al, 2018, for discussion). While it may be argued that highly skilled players may find an increase in arousal as facilitative (Kimble & Rezabek, 1992), little is known regarding the impact of streamed gameplay on esport players' action performance.…”

“…Much like traditional sports, the esport environment holds many forms of pressure (e.g., performance-contingent rewards and punishments) that may inhibit optimal (e.g., interpersonal issues within teams, performance pressures) and external (e.g., performing in front of an audience, media interviews) stressors that may influence performance (Poulus et al, 2022a). Stress and coping research in esports continue to be explored qualitatively (Leis et al, 2022;Poulus et al, 2022a) and quantitatively (Poulus et al, 2020(Poulus et al, , 2022b(Poulus et al, , 2022c. With esport funding, playership, prize money, and spectatorship increasing dramatically in recent years (Hallmann & Giel, 2018;Jenny et al, 2018), it is not surprising that esport teams are enlisting the help of practitioners (e.g., sport and performance psychologists) to mitigate the negative effects of pressure on high-and low-level competitors (Watson et al, 2022).…”