The term eSports is used to describe ‘organized video
game competitions,’ that are mostly held online (Jenny,
Manning, Keiper, & Olrich, 2017). eSports are generally
games played in fantasy worlds and often not based
on a specific type of sport. A subcategory of eSports,
however, are sedentary sport video games (SSVG),
which are video games that emulate real-life sport without
being physically active (e.g., EA Sports’ FIFA17
based on football or NBA 2K17 based on basketball).
Another subcategory is motion-based video games
(MBVGs), in which players control the movements of
the onscreen game-character (also called an avatar)
with their own physical movements.
There are arguments both for and against the inclusion
of eSports as an officially recognized sport. As
eSports include elements of play and competition, are
organized by rules, require skill, and have a broad following,
there is a strong case for it to be widely
accepted as sport. The two main arguments against it
are the lack of both physicality and a governing body
(Holden, Kaburakis, & Rodenberg, 2017). The question
whether eSports should be recognized as a sport does
not, however, limit research opportunities in this topic
area for academics. Furthermore, the application of traditional
approaches and methodologies of sport science
(especially from sport psychology) offers many possibilities
for practitioners.
Researchers have primarily focused on the negative
effects of eSports, such as depression, addiction, or violence
(Granic, Lobel, & Engels, 2014). Moreover, there
is an obvious argument that eSports encourages a more
sedentary lifestyle, as most video games are played sitting
down without any physical activity.
More recently, however, researchers are investigating
the positive outcomes of eSports, including cognitive
(e.g., faster and more accurate attention allocation,
improved spatial skills, and neural processing and
efficiency), motivational (appropriate balance between
success and failure, and helps children develop an
incremental theory of intelligence), emotional
(improved mood, high occurrence of flow states, and
pleasant emotions), and social (effective cooperation,
team coordination, support, and helping behaviors) benefits
(Granic et al., 2014).
eSports mirror today’s society. People deal with
much higher information processing, as the digital
world is growing exponentially. Most eSports require
the player to react to a vast amount of information
dynamically appearing and disappearing onscreen.
Moreover, eSports tournaments have been streamed to
an audience of up to 8.5 million viewers or 40.000 fans
on-site. With 97% of adolescences in the United States
playing at least 1 hour of video games per day, eSports
is a trend in society that sport psychology experts
should not ignore.
