ESports, also known as competitive video gaming, has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. Several studies have been conducted that examined the potential cognitive benefits of playing... Show More

ESports, also known as competitive video gaming, has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. Several studies have been conducted that examined the potential cognitive benefits of playing video games, but few have examined the psychosocial factors needed to perform at the highest level of competitive video gaming. In this study, the researchers aimed to identify specific mental obstacles players face and any mental techniques gamers already utilize by conducting a qualitative content analysis. Interviews with five high-level competitive League of Legend players were conducted to shed light on their experiences. The interviews resulted in two high order themes. Those high order themes were the following: techniques used to achieve optimal performance and obstacles encountered by competitive gamers. The data collected can be used by a wide population in both the performance psychology field and the eSports realm, more specifically, future mental skills consultants working with League of Legends players, gamers themselves, and academics who wish to serve, improve, or study those involved in an emerging performance domain.

eSports has boomed, the number of eSport athletes has grown rapidly, and many teenagers aspire to a have career in eSports. However, eSports athletes' careers involve many problems, such as... Show More

eSports has boomed, the number of eSport athletes has grown rapidly, and many teenagers aspire to a have career in eSports. However, eSports athletes' careers involve many problems, such as career-entry difficulties, straining life habits, burnout, premature retirement, and post-career dilemmas. Despite a growing research interest in eSports, a void of knowledge exists regarding eSports athletes' career aspects. To address the gap in research, this paper aims to take an initial step by proposing a framework for eSports athletes' career transitions. The framework combines two approaches from sport psychology and sport literature. The framework can help eSports athletes, coaches, and other stakeholders have and maintain long-lasting and healthy careers.

While e-Sport today becomes a big business and a highly publicized industry, a big business and a highly-publicized industry, it is still studied from a descriptive perspective rather than from an... Show More

While e-Sport today becomes a big business and a highly publicized industry, a big business and a highly-publicized industry, it is still studied from a descriptive perspective rather than from an analytical one. In this paper, the author proposes to analyze the relationship between e-Sport and the growth strategy of the game League of Legends (LoL) developed by Riot Games. How competitive community and casual community evolve together? What are the conditions for a virtuous growth? The author deepens the link between the traditional free-to-play dynamics based on acquisition-retention-monetization of players and the dynamics of e-Sport based on managing audience, pro-gamers, competitive events and broadcasting. The author finds that casual players and pro-gamers have specific roles that, combined with an active policy centered on player's experience developed by Riot Games and with a growing media ecosystem, create externalities on each other.

As media companies continue to struggle on the ever-changing global and digital market, they often fail to be simultaneously innovative and entrepreneurial. As though intuitively knowing that they... Show More

As media companies continue to struggle on the ever-changing global and digital market, they often fail to be simultaneously innovative and entrepreneurial. As though intuitively knowing that they are still not on the right track, a growing number of media companies has been observed to approach eSports companies, intending to invest in innovative capabilities they lack themselves. The trend has reached its peak in 2015. Expanding the current research on ambidexterity with its either/or duality of exploration and exploitation, the authors propose a model of ultradexterity that goes beyond either/or and follows the logic of both/and. This conceptual paper is intended to characterize ultradexterity as a specific property of being both innovative and entrepreneurial at the same time. Based on ethnographical information and data on the eSports industry, the authors will carve out the ultradextrous working style of eSports companies that nourishes the expectation of media companies that incorporating such organizations will give them the opportunity to turn their lack of ambidexterity into ultradexterity.