ID Lab ONLINE Workshop

Iuliia Naidenova presented the results of a new study "Choking under pressure in CS:GO in online and live competitions", conducted together with Petr Parshakov

Choking under pressure is a broadly known phenomenon first introduced in Baumeister (1984) and then analyzed in numerous studies. It is defined as “performance decrements under circumstances that increase the importance of good or improved performance” (Baumeister, 1984). In eSports, there are various situations when professional players are under pressure. In CS:GO, one of the largest global eSports, the so-called “clutch” represents strong pressure situation – when the last member of one team fight against one or more members of opposing teams. Thus, winning the game depends entirely on the performance of one player. This study aims at the investigation of choking in eSports assuming that the pressure increases in clutches and the effect can be different in the case of live tournaments compared to online ones.