The role of Psychology in eSports
Concentration, motivation, leadership, resilience, communication or constancy are some of the aspects that influence the eSports universe.
Young people struggling day by day to reach a goal, be the best in their position and reach the top. 12-hour a day in front of a screen may be surprising for many people, but no to those who are engaged in this.
To get up, to play, to see matches from other teams and other regions, to comment technical and tactical aspects and after finishing the workday, to continue playing, perhaps more relaxed, perhaps with friends or in streaming, but continuing ‘playing’ after all. On the shoulders, in this case the hands, of these players bear a weighty pressure. The organization, the fans who jump fiercely on them through social networks in every mistake or defeat, or the family who often does not understand how their child wants to make a living by playing a videogame. All this pressure can end up hurting the performance of a young person who, if he wants to reach the top, must abandon the habits of the boys of his age.
Each player is a world and has a different way of coping with this pressure. Some help them talk to their family, others spend time outdoors and there are those who prefer sports. The correct management of this pressure is part of the work of the technical staff, professionalization within electronic sports has enabled more professional teams to count on a greater infrastructure from coaches, analysts or sports psychologists. Teams like TSM, Fnatic or SK count or have had the service of psychologists and their figure is growing within the field.
The sport psychologist should focus on both individual and group performance. With the player he must work on aspects such as concentration, relaxation or resilience. This last issue is maybe one of the most important, in a play in which many times the rival team focuses all his efforts in ‘kicking a player off the game’, either by continuous attacks or restricting the access to resources. It is important that the player will be able to keep calm and do not fall into frustration and tilt, trying to turn this situation into a factor in favor of his team. The same can be applied to a player who, after dying several times, he leaves his team at a disadvantage. Another important aspect is the awareness work so that it adequately fulfil its role in the team and the tasks assigned to it.
At group level, the sports psychologist work is focused on improving team communication, transmission of information within a game, giving feedback on another player’s performance, or encouraging mistakes.
The work of motivation is also important, being the job of both the coach and the psychologist to find that the players are in the optimal emotional state, both in the time to train and to compete.
The psychologist within most traditional sport environment has been making progress in the last years, however in eSports, although it is gaining more and more weight, there is still a long way to go.
