The Esports Research Network has been at the forefront of supporting and representing esports researchers across various disciplines. To promote the idea of this network, Oliver Leis (Leipzig University) has initiated an online Esports Research Colloquium. This colloquium aims to provide a forum for knowledge exchange, networking, and discussing research. Research presented within this session is related to both research projects and published research addressing psychological aspects in esports. So far, the colloquium is being hosted once a month via zoom.
The first colloquium was held on 14 April 2021 with a presentation by Oliver Henriks and Heini Hermann Hansen (University of Southern Denmark), entitled “Tilting through the ages. A glimpse of previous tilt research and where it’s headed today”. This session was joined by 20 participants and the speakers highlighted the need for a more concrete definition of tilt in esports. In addition, their presentation focused on implications for future research to improve our understanding of tilt and thinking aloud as a tool to help esports players coping with tilt.
The second colloquium on 19 May 2021 focused on cognition in esports. Mark Campbell (University of Limberick) presented his research on the effect of expertise, training, and neurostimulation on sensory-motor-skills in esports. In doing so, he provided information on flick performance and its development over time in non gamers, low skill CS:GO gamers, and high skill CS:GO gamers. In addition, the effects of neuro-stimulation on training were discussed. Whereas expertise differences were shown across all target types, performance variance decreased with expertise, and neuro-stimulation accelerated training improvements in non gamers only.
The next colloquium will take place on 16 June. At 1 pm (CET), Guillermo Mendoza Torrico (Universidad de Málaga) will talk about the definition of esports and implications for psychophysiological research. You will be able to join this colloquium on zoom: https://bit.ly/2RZGngB. This presentation will also be recorded and uploaded on the Esports Research Networks YouTube account.
The fourth Esports Research Colloquium is scheduled on 11 July 2021, 9.30 am CET. Currently, there is no speaker and no specific topic for this session. In case, you are interested in joining the colloquium as a speaker, feel free to reach out to the host of the Esports Research Colloquium: oliver.leis@uni-leipzig.de. Depending on the speakers choice, presentations could last between 30 and 60 min, followed by open discussions with the audience and host of the colloquium. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, communication, team dynamics, health related aspects, cognition, and stress in esports. Further information on upcoming sessions will be provided on the following twitter accounts: @EsportsResNet and @Oli_Leis
With this in mind, we hope to include a wide group of speakers and attendees and wish to warmly welcome you to following sessions of the Esports Research Colloquium.