Perceived Stressors Experienced by Competitive Esports Athletes

Aim: The present study explored the sources of stress experienced by competitive esports athletes.

Methods and results: Cross-sectional survey. Participants were 270 esports athletes, ranked in the top 40% (determined by in-game rank) of one of five major esports: Rainbow Six: Siege, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and Defence of the Ancients 2. Participants reported a stressor they had recently encountered as part of a stress appraisal measure (1). 11 sources of stress reported by traditional sports athletes were reported by esports athletes (2). Furthermore, four novel esports specific stressors were identified: Technical issues, balancing life commitments, anti-social behaviour, and critical moment performance. Similar to traditional sports, teammate stressors (53.7%) and performance stressors (26.9%) were reported by 79.2% of participants. Finally, esports athletes in the 99 – 100th percentile reported more performance-related stressors than teammate stressors, whereas esports athletes in the 90 – 99th, 80 – 90th, 70 – 80th, and 60 – 70th reported more teammate-related stressors than performance stressors.

Conclusions: Results from this study could inform the development of psychological interventions for competitive esports athletes.