Choking Under Pressure: What Breaks Amateur And Professional Players?

Did you know that amateur and professional esports players 'choke' (moments of critical underperformance in high-pressure situations) for different reasons?

📉 Choking under Pressure

In an earlier episode, we learned that choking decreases performance by about 2% and varies depending on whether pro players are competing online or offline. Choking is commonly known in sports and esports and describes an important, high-pressure situation in which performance is crucial but the player or team fails to deliver—they critically underperform.

The scientific literature on sources of stress under high-pressure in esports is relatively rich. Such sources can cause players to choke. However, it is unclear whether amateur and professional players choke for the same reasons. Similarly, does competing in a team cause additional stress and increase the likelihood of choking?

To investigate the issue, the researchers conduced on online survey with 147 participants across several gaming genres (FPS, MMORPG, and MOBA). In addition, they interviewed 10 participants—on the professional and semi-professional level.

📜 Amateur Players—Why They Choke

The researchers found three main reasons why amateur players tend to choke:

1. Non-specific choke: 42.18% choked because they underperformed or generally performed poorly.

“Nothing I did was working. I was pretty annoyed, I kept losing.” [1]

2. About a third (36.73%) of the amateur players "failed to perform mechanically, wherein players fumbled a discrete—but critical—action or input." [1] One player stated: “Once I failed to press one button, my ultimate, that does the most damage. My entire team died and we lost.” [1]
3. The third type of choking occurred in scenarios in which players failed to recall or execute a strategy or tactic, faced a better strategy from the enemy team, or committed to a bad strategy. 27.89% of amateur players experienced this type of choking before.

“I forgot certain moves and strategies that our team has worked on over the few weeks getting our team together.” [1]

🤔 What Makes Progamer Choke?

1. Non-specific choke: 60% had experienced poor performance or underperforming. Interestingly, some players emphasized that misfortune can strike at any time. For instance, "... I don't know, it was strange, but yeah, there was no specific error that I could like point it down to." [1] This shows that professional players are aware of the fact that luck always plays a role and that it's not the players' fault. For those interested, look up internal and external locus of control.

“I did not perform very well. Uh, it just happens. Sometimes you know stars don't align. You do what you can, but you can't do everything.” [1]

2. “...you feel like “oh I can't aim anymore,” it's like “oh it's gone,” like “my mojo's gone." At first you had it and then you don't have it.” [1] This describes mechanical choke—mentioned by 40% of progamers.
3. The most commonly mentioned reason to choke among the esports athletes interviewed was the category of strategic choke (80%). For instance, when losing multiple rounds in a row, players stop caring, meaning they coordinate less, don't use utilities properly, and play worse overall. Interestingly, one player mentioned that ego plays a big role too.

“...You were really smart with your plays at the start and you're getting all these kills and you're feeling great and you're feeling so confident, but then eventually you're like ego peeking, and then it doesn't work out for you.” [1]

Notably—perhaps due to their broader competitive experience—more professional players reported having encountered all three types of choking.

😰 Pressure and Feelings

In addition, the researchers found that "both professional and amateur players acknowledged feelings of Nervous Activation and Overconfidence immediately prior to or during a choke event; however, we identified three additional themes experienced by amateurs alone: Frustration, Underconfidence, and Lack of Focus." [1]

Similarly, professional and amateur players highlighted that stakes (e.g., tournament prize money), and an audience watching caused them pressure. Social and team-related pressures were also common—especially among esports athletes concerned about letting their teammates down. In addition, progamers felt specific pressures, related to playing on stage, their reputation, and rivals.

If you want to learn more about stressors and how you can deal with them, specifically in gaming, here's the episode from Dr. Oliver Leis—an expert in the field—offering practical tips for handling in-game pressure.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all have a great week. Cheers,

Christian 🙂

References

[1] Beres, & Klarkowski, 2024