eSports Tournaments Research Articles

Online Versus Offline eSports Tournaments: Prize Structure and Individual Performance

This article examines whether the online context affects tournament theory incentive mechanisms. It investigates the impact of prize structure on player performance in eSports under online and offline conditions. Using a quasi-experimental approach with data from the Counter-Strike Global Offensive eSports scene, the study finds that high prize distributions increase individual output in both settings, but the incentive effect is weaker in online events.

Knowledge trajectory of eSports as an emerging field of research

PurposeResearch on electric sports (eSports) has experienced significant growth in recent years as a consequence of increasing connectivity, institutionalization, and technological advances. However, the interdisciplinary nature of the eSports as a field and the burgeoning growth in eSports articles have rendered it necessary to conduct a systematic review of extant literature to take stock of the knowledge accumulated. To this end, we aim to undertake a comprehensive review of extant literature that takes stock of published research to derive opportunities for future research in the realm of eSports. In so doing, we contribute to the advancement of the field by mapping out the knowledge trajectory of eSports research and elucidating areas that have remained underexplored thus far.Design/methodology/approachTo conduct systematic review of the eSports literature, we employed a framework that included six essential steps: protocol, search, appraisal, synthesis, analysis, and report. This comprehensive approach enables us to meticulously investigate the existing body of literature on eSports and identify key trends and topics addressed within the field. By conducting the multidisciplinary systematic literature review, we thoroughly assess the current state of eSports literature and subsequently outline potential research avenues that can contribute to eSports fields.FindingsThis study draws on a six-phase framework – member preparation, team formation, character selection, team coordination, team performance, and team reflection – to illustrate the roles played by different levels of analysis unit (i.e. characters, players, and teams) and three distinct yet interconnected stages (i.e. inputs, process, and outputs) within eSports games as well as the research opportunities it brings.Originality/valueWe conducted a rigorous systematic review of the eSports literature by using quantitative citation analysis and qualitative content analysis. Furthermore, we adopted team dynamic view of eSports to identify potential research avenues for future research that contribute to advancing our understanding of the eSports tournaments.

THE INFLUENCE OF YOUTUBE CONTENT ON MOBILE LEGENDS ON THE INTEREST IN E-SPORTS TOURNAMENTS AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN JAGAKARSA, SOUTH JAKARTA

Today's technology is getting more advanced and sophisticated with smartphones that can be applied easily anytime and anywhere. Having a smartphone makes it easier to get trending information. There are several examples of social media applications that are in great demand, such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Line, Twitter, YouTube, and others. Most people in the world use YouTube to share their videos or just enjoy various video clips. This study aims to describe interest in participating in E-sports tournaments after watching YouTube mobile legends content. Knowing the influence of YouTube mobile legends content on interest in E-sports tournaments in Jagakarsa youth, South Jakarta. The method used in this research is quantitative by involving teenagers in Jagakarsa, South Jakarta who play mobile legends games and are active in the mobile legends community. The data collection process uses a questionnaire that is distributed via the Google Form link and then processed using a simple linear analysis technique. The results of the study show that Youtube Mobile Legends content has a significant influence on adolescents in Jagakarsa, South Jakarta. It can be concluded that Mobile Legends content has a positive and significant influence on interest in tournaments among young people in Jagakarsa, South Jakarta. Obtaining these results is dominantly influenced by the Cognitive effect dimension as the highest measure of variable X (Influence of Mobile Legends Content) with the indicator: Motivated to Play the Mobile Legends Game.

A Mediation Model Explaining the Intention to Attend Game Events: Identity Centrality, Harmonious Passion, and Gaming Social Capital

Game events, such as game conventions and esports tournaments, have gained tremendous appeal as thriving tourist attractions. Despite this, there has been limited investigation of this emerging phenomenon in the existing literature on event tourism and event management. This study proposes a structural model to explore the relationships between the identity and passion of video game players and their behavioral intention to participate in on-site game events. The model specifies identity centrality and harmonious passion as antecedents, with gaming social capital serving as a mediator. Our findings reveal that whereas the centrality of identity as a gamer did not directly and significantly influence players’ event attendance intention, its indirect effect through gaming social capital was significantly positive. Harmonious passion, on the other hand, both directly and indirectly affected players’ behavioral at the significance level. In the analysis, gaming social capital functioned as a reliable mediator for bridging these relationships.

Accessibility Technologies in Esports and Their Impact on Quality of Life in People with Physical Disabilities

This study addresses the multifaceted challenges faced by individuals with physical disabilities, encompassing health, economic, and social aspects. The sustainable development of societies hinges on the collective contributions of both disabled and healthy individuals. Esports has recently emerged as a promising avenue for the integration of individuals with physical disabilities into societal life, primarily due to its capacity to transcend physical and demographic constraints. This research therefore aimed to explore the impact of accessibility technologies employed in esports on the quality of life for individuals living with physical disabilities. For this purpose, a literature review was conducted to examine the effect of accessibility technologies currently used in esports on the quality of life of physically disabled individuals. A comprehensive review of the literature suggests that esports, coupled with diverse software and hardware technologies designed to enhance the accessibility of individuals with physical disabilities to esports, yields positive outcomes, which encompass improved socialization, enhanced career opportunities within esports, heightened cognitive and intellectual skills, ultimately leading to an elevated quality of life. As a result, it can be said that these technologies, in addition to widening accessibility to esports, hold the potential to facilitate the organization of tailored esports tournaments and events for disabled individuals, thereby encouraging greater participation in the esports realm.

Air pollution kills competition: Evidence from eSports

This article investigates how environmental adversity affects competitive performance in cognitive-intensive settings. Using a comprehensive dataset of professional eSports tournaments and match-hour variation of fine particulate matters, we find robust evidence that pollution kills competition. Specifically, higher air pollution levels diminish the performance and winning odds of the weaker team in a matchup while boosting that of the stronger team, widening the gap between them. We document two operating channels: (i) pollution leads to heterogeneous performance-reducing effects contingent on a team’s relative strength against their opponent, rather than its absolute competitiveness; and (ii) a weaker team adjusts their strategic decision-making differently in a polluted environment compared to their stronger counterparts. Our findings elucidate the distributional impact of environmental adversity and underscore its influence on strategic decision-making.

SC2EGSet: StarCraft II Esport Replay and Game-state Dataset

As a relatively new form of sport, esports offers unparalleled data availability. Our work aims to open esports to a broader scientific community by supplying raw and pre-processed files from StarCraft II esports tournaments. These files can be used in statistical and machine learning modeling tasks and compared to laboratory-based measurements. Additionally, we open-sourced and published all the custom tools that were developed in the process of creating our dataset. These tools include PyTorch and PyTorch Lightning API abstractions to load and model the data. Our dataset contains replays from major and premiere StarCraft II tournaments since 2016. We processed 55 “replaypacks” that contained 17930 files with game-state information. Our dataset is one of the few large publicly available sources of StarCraft II data upon its publication. Analysis of the extracted data holds promise for further Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), psychological, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and sports-related studies in a variety of supervised and self-supervised tasks.

Viability of ESports Service Provider in the Local Market in the Second District of Albay: Opportunity of Investment

Online gaming is now a spectator sport, thanks to ESports. The experience is similar to watching a professional athletic event, but viewers see video gamers compete against one another instead of a physical contest. This qualitative research determined ESport’s viability status in the 2nd District of Albay. It sought to determine the status of the business requirements needed to establish an ESports business along with Network Infrastructure, Legal requirements, and Stability of power. It also evaluates the viability of ESports in the local market regarding technical and economic requirements. It focuses on the challenges of the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) in providing opportunities for investment in e-services. Lastly, this research proposed a business process mapping model canvas that potential investors can adopt. The study revealed limited information regarding the stability of power in the context of ESports. No specific information was provided regarding how power stability is ensured or what measures are taken to ensure uninterrupted power supply during ESports tournaments. Likewise, power outages and fluctuations can cause disruptions and affect the gameplay, leading to frustration for players and viewers. Regularly maintaining electrical equipment and wiring is also necessary to prevent power outages and hazards. Technically ESports is viable, despite challenges that may be encountered, and does create a business model canvas.

Viability of ESports Service Provider in the Local Market in the Second District of Albay: Opportunity of Investment

Online gaming is now a spectator sport, thanks to ESports. The experience is similar to watching a professional athletic event, but viewers see video gamers compete against one another instead of a physical contest. This qualitative research determined ESport’s viability status in the 2nd District of Albay. It sought to determine the status of the business requirements needed to establish an ESports business along with Network Infrastructure, Legal requirements, and Stability of power. It also evaluates the viability of ESports in the local market regarding technical and economic requirements. It focuses on the challenges of the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) in providing opportunities for investment in e-services. Lastly, this research proposed a business process mapping model canvas that potential investors can adopt. The study revealed limited information regarding the stability of power in the context of ESports. No specific information was provided regarding how power stability is ensured or what measures are taken to ensure uninterrupted power supply during ESports tournaments. Likewise, power outages and fluctuations can cause disruptions and affect the gameplay, leading to frustration for players and viewers. Regularly maintaining electrical equipment and wiring is also necessary to prevent power outages and hazards. Technically ESports is viable, despite challenges that may be encountered, and does create a business model canvas.

Toward cultural and creative industry: Chinese eSports through a business ecosystem lens

ABSTRACT The field of electronic sports (eSports) is thriving worldwide but has received limited attention as a cultural and creative industry (CCI). This study is the first to employ three layers (productivity, robustness, and niche creation) of the business ecosystem (BE) to systematically examine the flourishing eSports sector and its development as a CCI-BE. It also maps out the dynamic and emerging stakeholders that have contributed to the eSports ecosystem. We conducted content analysis combined with observations, fifty interviews with elite stakeholders, and analysis of financial and investment data. We found that the development of eSports as a CCI-BE reflects great potential and precarity. First, the business agenda of the media conglomerate Tencent aligns with the ‘cultural confidence’ slogan proposed by the government, thus ensuring the robustness and stability of the eSports ecosystem. Second, municipal governments, local real estate developers, and eSports tournaments are increasingly interconnected and their contemporary business models and innovation activities in the eSports industry have co-evolved. Third, the role of real estate developers remains nascent without the ability to coordinate and co-evolve with the eSports value chain. eSports may provide a novel converging territory for contemporary cultural and creative industries/traits in the Chinese digital society.

Novice Women Players Have Better Outcomes in Women-Only Versus Mixed-Gender Esports Tournaments

Competitive video gaming or esports is a field with the potential for gender-equal competition. However, esports is dominated by cisgender men at both the casual and professional levels. When a field is highly gender-imbalanced, gender minority groups tend to perceive the field as unwelcoming, which reduces interest in the field and further perpetuates unequal participation. One potential pathway to encourage interest and participation is the creation of gender-specific spaces, such as women-only tournaments in esports. To study the group effects of gender on tournament experience, we recruited cisgender women who were novice gamers for in-laboratory, one-on-one esports tournaments under two conditions: in women-only tournaments or mixed-gender tournaments with equally novice cisgender men. Our results show that in matches between men and women, women underperformed against men regardless of whether her opponent had played more often, less often, or equal to her in the past year. In addition, women who played in women-only tournaments gave more accurate estimates of their skill and reported greater task importance than women who played in mixed-gender tournaments. In practice, women-only tournaments may aid recruitment and retention of women in esports as a supplement to gameplay in mixed-gender competitive spaces.

Dynamic scheduling of e-sports tournaments

Electronic sports tournaments are well adapted to dynamic scheduling. A dynamic approach for scheduling e-sports tournaments based on a modification of the Swiss system design is proposed. We use Colley’s method to update all competitors’ ratings at every round. The ratings are used for maximizing game fairness and viewers’ utility in the integer programming formulation of the team pairing and game scheduling problem solved at each round. The approach was validated using real-life data from the 2020 Honor of Kings World Champion Cup group stage and further evaluated using randomly generated test problems with up to 80 competitors, illustrating the approach’s applicability.

Influence mechanism of tourists' impulsive behavior in E-sports tourism: Mediating role of arousal

While e-sports tourism has gradually become popular among young adults—especially with China’s e-sports industry in full swing—certain problems have emerged with this new type of tourism. This study uses arousal theory as a basis for exploring the influence mechanism of e-sports tourists' impulsive behavior in Chinese collective culture. A sample of 562 participants in China were surveyed online to test the research model, which included 10 hypotheses. The empirical results indicate that: Firstly, the system quality of the Information System (IS) success model and the human stimuli influence arousal; secondly, tourists' motivation for e-sports tourism, group honor concerns, and identity in the Chinese context also positively affect arousal, and then influence impulsive behavior; and thirdly, arousal has a mediating effect between the environmental stimuli (except information quality) and impulsive behavior. This paper innovatively proposes that the physical and psychological elements of environmental stimuli could significantly affect arousal levels, thus in turn influencing impulsive behavior in e-sports tourism. Furthermore, the conclusion section discuses practical suggestions for the organizers of e-sports tournaments, such as adjusting environmental stimuli to achieve optimal arousal levels.

Issues and Strategies of Localising Sensitive Audiovisual Elements in Game Streaming: A Case Study on Overwatch League (OWL) Chinese Streaming

This paper is a participant-observer case study of the Overwatch League (OWL) 2021 Chinese streaming. Within the contemporary dynamic and diversified mediascape of China, esports streaming has become increasingly popular (Taylor, 2018; Wohn & Freeman, 2020). Esports streaming allows spectators to watch esports players’ intense competitions in real time and interact through danmu (bullet comments), gift sending systems, or via streaming lotteries (Lee et al., 2019; Abarbanel & Johnson, 2020; Zhang & Cassany, 2020). The Chinese streaming of Overwatch League (OWL), a series of Overwatch (OW) esports tournaments owned by Activision Blizzard, on Bilibili can be considered a game streaming localisation practice which localises audiovisual content from the original English-language streaming source into Chinese and then innovates upon it in the form of a number of local streaming programmes. The OWL Chinese streaming has disclosed many issues and strategies taken toward sensitive elements like game slang, cultural differences, the presence of erotic or violent content, gambling, media accessibility and censorship laws. The analysis of the selected cases in this article extends the current theories dealing with game localisation (e.g. Zhang Xiaochun, 2012; O’Hagan & Mangiron, 2013; Mangiron et al., 2014) into a new layer, dealing with game streaming localisation. The findings suggest the complications of game streaming content, including the controversial impacts of localisation strategies on sensitive elements, cross-media marketing of streaming practices and the participation of various stakeholders (e.g. officials, sponsors, fans) in game streaming localisation.

Analysis of Video Game Players’ Emotions and Team Performance: An Esports Tournament Case Study

Video gaming and eSports is a quickly developing industry already involving billions of players worldwide. Gaming and eSports tournaments require strong mental abilities to avoid severe stress and other negative consequences upon completing the game. In this article, we report on the impact of emotions on a team performance. For this reason, we collect audio recordings and game logs from the players in real conditions at an eSports tournament. This data is further used in trained machine learning models for analysis of players' emotional conditions from the voice during the game. We considered recognition of several types of emotions as well as the background sounds. To do this, we trained 92.7% accuracy classifier of six most common classes of emotions and sounds in eSports audio and applied it to eSports data. As a result, we demonstrate that there is an opportunity to measure the eSports team's performance from the players' emotional conditions obtained from the voice communication. We found that there is a strong correlation among the performance of the team, communication between the players, and emotional sentiment of communication. The teams achieve much better results when they had much more internal conversations during the game.

Psychomotor performance in video games

Introduction: Interactive electronic games allow to access virtual environments and interact using a computer or TV screen. Anyone who has played a video game, or seen others playing, is aware of the importance of reaction speed and eye-hand coordination skills.
 Objective: To determine the differences in psychomotor performance between professional gamers and amateurs.
 Material and Methods: A total of 62 gamers took part in the study, including 31 people - professional video game users who had participated in e-tournaments in the last month (age: M = 20.6, SD = 6.3) and 31 people who did not play video games or played very rarely (they declared that they did not participate in e-sports tournaments), who constituted the control group (age: M = 17.9, SD = 5.4). Integrated computer SDP-System with an executive module for stimulus generation and reception was used to assess psychomotor performance.
 Results: Professional gamers have higher psychomotor skills than amateurs. They reveal better results for fast thinking, motor reactions, perception, attention, and working memory.
 Conclusion: 
 Playing video games has a positive impact on players' psychomotor performance and can promote improvements in elementary cognitive functions.
 Key words: video-games; e-sport; psychomotor performance; cognitive functions
 
 
 
 

The Incentive Effects of Tournaments and Peer Effects in Team Production: Evidence from Esports

This paper examines the incentive effects of increased prize differentials and productivity spillovers from substitute coworkers within the context of esports. A direct behavioral measure called “actions per minute (APM)” is utilized to gauge Dota 2 players’ on-field exertion of effort dedicated to winning the game. The results based on empirical analysis support the incentive effects of the convex prize structure of esports tournaments on eliciting effort. Further investigation indicates that the incentive effects of high-stakes esports tournaments are more a result of the size of total prize than the relative prize distribution. It is also found that players who serve subordinate roles are more likely to engage in shirking behavior in the presence of teammates with similar roles.

The effectiveness of event marketing in an attention economy: Findings from Twitch live-stream esports tournament events

ABSTRACT Previous research on the effectiveness of event marketing was predominantly focused on single events and individual participants. This paper aims to expand the scope of inquiry into this topic by investigating how the frequency and magnitude of esports tournament events affect the numbers of Twitch live-stream viewers and channels. Data containing the monthly averages of Twitch viewers and channels in addition to the event dates and prize sizes of esports tournaments were collected from publicly available online sources. 829 monthly observations involving 17 popular esports games were analyzed and the results were further validated by robustness check. It was found that the frequency of esports tournament events significantly increased both the live-stream viewers and channels. However, event magnitude only positively affected viewership but had a negative impact on the number of active Twitch channels. This work applies underused metrics to appraise the effectiveness of event marketing in an attention economy. Empirical evidence based on event frequency and magnitude confirms the marketing efficacy of esports tournament events in captivating viewer attention. On the other hand, however, there might exist a substantial inequality in the distribution of attention (i.e., monetization opportunities) between big and small Twitch streamers.

Marketing solutions to promote branding in eSports

This study aims to identify marketing solutions that contribute to the improvement of brand image as a result of sponsorship participation in eSports. Since eSports is an activity that attracts millions of viewers worldwide, its development involves attracting sponsors and donors for its development. That is why marketing is a special tool that can promote this sport's endemic and non-endemic goods and services. The research aims to determine the special importance of eSports for promoting and selling goods and services advertised on virtual sports grounds. The object of the study is the influence of the brand's sponsorship participation in eSports tournaments on its image. A conceptual framework for the study was created and then refined with empirical data. This quantitative study analyzed 110 eSports fans who were selected using a non-probability heterogeneous method. Empirical data were collected through an online and closed-ended survey. Thus, more accurate and updated empirical data were collected to increase the conceptual framework's quality, reliability, and detail. In particular, special attention was paid to determining the subtleties that contribute to the improvement of the sponsors' brand image by the above-mentioned elements. The data showed that eSports sponsorship provides several main elements that enhance the sponsor's brand image. These elements include brand recognition, brand trust, building loyalty, referrals, willingness to try a new product, association with famous athletes. The field of eSports sponsorship is largely ignored by academia. As such, this study is first step in better understanding the benefits of eSports sponsorship and lays the groundwork for future research. Knowing the main brand image benefits of eSports sponsorship will help build confidence for brands that are still reluctant to enter this new market. Research has shown that the use of marketing strategy in eSports for brands of any scale corresponds to the stages of marketing strategy in traditional sports, in particular defining the target audience, and searching for channels of communication with the target audience, collaborating with celebrities, team sponsorship, holding an event with a white label.

COMPARING MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS OF ATHLETES ENGAGING IN TRADITIONAL SPORT VERSUS ESPORTS

First and foremost, technology makes up a significant proportion of our daily life. Thus, it can be accompanied by how people are engaged in technological devices because of different purposes. While using technological devices, people are frequently induced to play some video games, and according to some factors, they want to compete. For instance, achievement, socialization, and immersion are the factors that create an immense eagerness for competetion in these types of video games. Also, prize pools for the players are highly increasing. Meanwhile, this field is not profitable only for players. Nowadays, so many eSports tournaments are arranged. Because of the globalization over the internet, a continually increasing number of online competitions, tournaments can be observed not only at the regional and national level but also at the international level. Besides, eSports championships have been developed in parallel with the professionalization of this activity towards professional teams, players/gamers, and coaches. Professionalization of eSports generates push and pull factors. These essential factors indicate the rising fame of eSports compared to traditional sport.