What is it about?
The paper explores how expert esports players and coaches make complex decisions. It focuses on understanding what type of decisions are made, the influence of environmental constraints in the decision-making process, and the role of cognition and motor actions. We highlighted the role of intuition and experience and the need for specific decision-making training to improve players' performance.
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Why is it important?
Decision making under pressure is key in esports, just like in traditional sports. Understanding how elite esports players think and act can help us learn more about human decision making in general. These insights can also be used to improve training practices for esports players. Key Takeaways: - Esports players make two types of decisions: - Static decisions: Pre-game strategy choices (like selecting champions and planning). - Dynamic decisions: During the game quick in-game decisions responding to constantly changing situations. - Players and coaches face challenges like limited time, incomplete or inacurate information, and high-pressure from the environment and the opponents. - Expert players often rely on intuition, built through extensive practice and past experiences, allowing them to quickly recognize patterns and respond effectively. - High-level esports performance requires of the effective integration of strategic cognitive processes (planning and decision making) with precise fine motor skills (fast and precise movements with keyboard and mouse). - Professional players improve decision-making skills mainly through practice, game analysis, and observing other top players. However, we identified that esports training could benefit from more structured and specific decision-making training.
Perspectives
I hope this article helps to view esports as an interesting test bed for research in different fields, as this article offers insights for decision making research across fields. Also, as esports research continues to develop, I hope this article helps inspire research focus on enhancing specific decision making training and improve psychological support systems in esports.
Ismael Pedraza Ramirez
Deutsche Sporthochschule Koln
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Zooming in on decision making in esports: Exploring the perceptions of expert players and coaches., Sport Exercise and Performance Psychology, March 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/spy0000382.
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