Research scholarships to launch counter strike against unhealthy esports

Imagine a sport where fanatical teens scream for their hero in a sold-out stadium, without a football superstar in sight; where a tournament boasts a $US60million prize pool, but it’s not LIV Golf; and which boasts numbers of young viewers to turn the International Olympic Committee green with envy.

This game, now rivalling the popularity of football in global participation and viewership, is esports.

Esports involves organised, multi-player video games played competitively for spectators, typically by teams of professional athletes.

Parents may despair, but esports is not going anywhere according to Southern Cross University Psychology lecturer and researcher, Dr Dylan Poulus.

“The State of Origin is big,” Dylan said, “but the NRL is absolutely dwarfed by what is happening in esports.”

“More young Aussies would now rather watch their favourite person play Counter-Strike or League of Legends than watch their favourite league team.”

It’s estimated three billion people play esports or video games around the world, including around 17 million Australians according to the Digital Australia 2022 report.

“Yet we don't have formal clubs, we don't have psychologists and sports and exercise scientists who know how to work with young people who are playing these games,” said Dylan.

Southern Cross University positioned itself as a leader in esports research in 2023, after securing the Australian Institute of Sport’s first esports grant to study factors of success.

Now Southern Cross is searching for esports PhD candidates, with two new scholarships on offer.

“We are taking the stance that you can't just say to young people, ‘don't play video games’, it doesn’t work,” Dylan said.

“The heart of what we're doing at Southern Cross University is finding out how can we help people create healthy and long-lasting engagement with esports.”

According to Southern Cross researcher and Senior Human Sciences lecturer, Dr Kyle Bennett the stereotype of a lone gamer in a dark room doesn’t always mirror reality in the professional arena in 2024.

“Really high performing esports athletes purposefully engage in physical and social activity outside of the competitive environment, and they are very intentional about their sleep and nutrition,” Kyle said.

Elite esports teams have been known to engage strength and conditioning coaches, sports psychologists, wellbeing counsellors, even dieticians to prevent burnout and combat health issues arising from the sedentary, isolating, repetitive and high stress nature of gaming.

“We're moving rapidly towards this science-backed, high-performance, mental coaching space to achieve these millions and millions of dollars in front of millions and millions of fans,” Dylan said.

While esports heroes can act as role models, Dylan and Kyle predict it will take buy-in from parents and schools for healthy habits to filter down to children, and that mums, dads and teachers will need to be the backbone of any healthy esports program – just as they are for traditional grassroots sports.

 “Some kids who don't play traditional sports have never had that proud mum and dad moment, where they're sitting in the stands watching them play,” Kyle said.

“We want to recreate that for a group of young people who don't typically experience those magic moments, social connections or that sense of community.”

Dylan and Kyle are now searching for the perfect PhD candidates.

“First, we need to know what participation currently looks like, and that includes the practice of ‘grinding’,” Kyle said.

The term grinding describes the extended periods a player will spend on repetitive tasks to become more skilful or achieve an in-game goal.

“We are interested in challenging whether grinding is a prerequisite to becoming the best,” Kyle said. “It might be that we can reduce the number of hours individuals play the game in favour of high-quality practice, which allows more time to engage in a healthy lifestyle.”

Researchers will also focus on perceptions of esports.

“I think, initially, it’s going to be hard to change any negative perceptions,” Kyle said. “That’s why these PhDs are so important. They will help us to build a body of evidence, and ultimately create a ‘healthy esports toolkit’ for parents and schools, that is supported by research.”

Could you be the perfect PhD candidate? https://www.scu.edu.au/graduate-school/scholarships/