Southern Cross University to develop world-first esports guidelines

Published: 11 November 2024

Esports has quickly emerged as one of the world’s most popular pastimes, and now Movember and Southern Cross University are joining forces to develop comprehensive guidelines for psychologically safe gaming experiences and improved mental health outcomes for the esports community.

Movember, the global men’s health charity, has added esports psychology expert Dr Dylan Poulus to their ‘league of legends’ – a panel of experts in the field – tasked with developing the first international mental health guidelines for esports, in collaboration with esports players from around the world.

For the uninitiated, esports are competitive video games based on skills rather than luck. Dr Poulus explains: “What determines success is how well we use the keyboard and mouse, the controller, the steering wheel, whatever input device we're using, as well as teamwork, leadership and communication. So, every esport is a video game, but not every video game is an esport”.

“A lot of people don’t realise how big esports is, because it wasn’t around in our parents’ generation. For example, a single esport called League of Legends in 2023 reported having nearly 200 million monthly users. All you need to participate in many popular esports is an internet connection and, in some cases, even a basic computer — opening the door to millions of players worldwide and connecting you to a vibrant online community,” said Dr Poulus, Southern Cross University’s psychology Course Coordinator and Deputy Chair of Discipline.

“Then at the elite level we are seeing young people winning millions of dollars. The world’s biggest esports competition, DOTA TI, had a prize pool of USD $40 million and there are kids as young as 17 competing and winning these prize pools.

“Esports is truly global. It’s up there with baseball and NFL and starting to catch up with football (soccer), the biggest traditional sport in the world.

“These traditional sports have well-established safety structures, and it’s time for esports to follow suit, to protect the wellbeing of elite and non-elite players alike, promoting mental and physical health, and create a research-backed guidebook for esports organisers, psychologists, coaches and other professionals to be able to use and implement ‘best practice’ advice.”

There is potentially no better way to reach isolated, endangered young men than through esports. I think a lot of people when they think of esports, they actually think of video gaming. And there's one important difference between esports and video games. And that is, esports is when we play video games competitively and fairly.

So, when there is kind of no luck and what determines success is is how well we use the keyboard and mouse, the controller, the steering wheel, whatever input device we're using. So every esport is a video game, but not every video game is an esport. So esports is like silently massive. One esport in 2023 reported that each month they had 230 million users.

And then we're seeing some young people at the very elite level win millions and millions of dollars. So, esports is huge, it's growing really quickly, and I think the most recent recognition that we had of that was just before Paris Olympics, the IOC came out and said, in future Olympics, we will have esports.

I had my start in esports in community esports. So, I set up Australia's first university supported esports program. I was doing this at the same time as I was studying psychology as an undergrad student. And I got a tap on the shoulder, and they said, well, you're so involved in esports, but we don't know anything about the psychology of esports.

Why don't you be one of the first people to research it? And so then that seed just grew roots and, and I, I jumped into a PhD instead of going and becoming a psychologist. And, um, that's when I started in research. And so I started exploring stress and we wanted to understand do the best players in esports cope with stress differently?

And it was through studying stress that I actually opened the door towards mental health. Now I'm leading the writing of mental health guidelines in esports alongside Movember, the men's mental health charity. So this for me is like a dream come true. Movember is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, men's health charity.

And so what Movember have decided is that there is potentially no better way to reach isolated, endangered young men than through esports. We're consulting with experts in the industry, in the mental health space, in the esports space going, who should be providing mental health care, who should be providing mental health prevention or promotion?

For those who are at risk, how do I keep them safe? And we're hoping that the guidelines will start to form the structure that sits around how we participate in esports in Australia and the rest of the world. And this is only just the beginning. Southern Cross University has just started in esports.

Esports Itself as an industry is just starting. And although we're already leading the way, we plan to keep moving forward at a million miles an hour and protect and influence everyone in Australia that plays esports.

In 2023 the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) awarded Southern Cross University its first ever grant to explore esports. Dr Poulus was tasked with researching how to adapt their high-performance system to develop Australia’s first gold-medal-ready esports player.

“This is a forward-thinking initiative from AIS. With esports now included in the Olympics, it’s no longer just about winning medals – it’s also about connecting with a geographically dispersed population across Australia. This builds on my work with the Manna Institute, focusing on mental health in regional and remote areas. We’ve done the research and we’re confident we know what it takes to win gold,” said Dr Poulus.

This golden opportunity has taken Dr Poulus across the globe, most recently to Copenhagen, presenting a workshop on stress and coping to the world’s best players in Counter-Strike 2, a tactical first-person shooter game.

“To stand there with these guys and come up with strategies to protect their mental health and improve performance as they compete on this elite circuit was just an absolutely surreal moment. It is something I never would have dreamed of when I was sitting on the family farm with my Xbox playing Halo with my little brothers,” he said.

Dr Krista Fisher, a research fellow at Movember, said ”young men are increasingly turning to gaming and esports – not only as a source of entertainment, but for social connection, learning, and relaxation. It could also be instrumental in helping young men build healthy coping mechanisms”.

“Given this shift, it’s crucial that we prioritise psychological safety within these communities and collaborate with the esports industry to promote positive mental health outcomes. Movember is proud to partner with Dr Poulus and Southern Cross University to develop world-class mental health guidelines for the esports industry."

Associate Professor Christian Swann, who leads the Physical Activity, Sport and Exercise Research (PASER) Theme at Southern Cross University, said the $104,000 research contract with Movember brings PASER’s total funding to more than $1 million since it was formed in October 2022. It builds on Associate Professor Swann’s longstanding relationship with Movember through the charity's Ahead of the Game program which promotes mental health literacy and resilience in community sport settings.

“This funding is well-deserved recognition of Dylan’s leadership and research contributions. It’s exciting to see Movember is moving into the esports space. These guidelines are likely to have a significant impact globally, and Dylan’s leadership role within this initiative highlights Southern Cross University’s growing profile in esports,” Associate Professor Swann said.