Choking Under Pressure: Why Esports Players Struggle

Ever wondered how much choking under pressure affects performance? A 2024 study found that "the decrease in performance is approximately 2 %." [1] But, there is more to it—playing offline or online makes a difference too. It can also affect team coordination and team dynamics. How? Let's find out.

😰 What Is Choking Under Pressure?

Choking under pressure is a well-known phenomenon, especially in professional sports, including esports. When stakes are high, the pressure is on—and sometimes things go terribly wrong. In the scientific literature, choking is defined as: “performance decrements under circumstances that increase the importance of good or improved performance” [2].

In esports, this happens all the time. Imagine yourself playing in the grand finals of a major Counter-Strike (CS) tournament with $1 million in prize money. The crowd is roaring, and your team is heading into overtime on the final maps—it's make or break. This is exactly the type of high-pressure situation the researchers analyzed.

By focusing on overtime round—an environment of pressure—they could see whether individual and team performance suffers (players and teams choking) or not. As an external factor, they also included the format (LAN or online). Their dataset consisted of 1.765 players from across all levels—major tournaments to local LAN events.

🗺️ Winning or Losing the Map

"... esports players choke under the pressure of overtime rounds. The decrease in performance is approximately 2 %." [1]

Interestingly, this effect of a decrease in performance is partly mitigated by the tournament format. The researcher found that E" [1] One possible explanation? It has to do with feeling more cozy playing from home instead of a big stadium filled with people staring at you and judging if you screw up.

However, while choking during overtime occurred in LAN and online matches, it didn't happen in major events. Apparently, choking is not a thing at the top level? Well, it obviously is but not enough to be statistically significant.

⏳ Overtime Rounds—How Players and Teams Choke

Ok, choking has an effect on the outcome of a match. But what about during high-pressure overtime rounds? By looking at the headshot percentage (individual performance) and teammate damage (team performance—the lower the better). Teammate damage is something to avoid as "high damage reflects problems in team communication and coordination." [1] For this analysis, only elite tier teams during top-tier competitive matches were analyzed—92.198 rounds in total.

"... during overtime, the headshot percentage significantly decreases, suggesting individual performance declines under pressure." [1]

In addition, the teammate damage increased in overtime rounds, indicating possible strain on team coordination in situations of high pressure. Similar to the match outcome, playing online instead of live, decreased the likelihood of inflicting damage to teammates.

"... the online format of event compensates the effect of pressure. This might imply different dynamics at play when teams compete online versus live in high-pressure overtime situations." [1]

What these "different dynamics at play" are is up for debate. I suspect, as mentioned earlier, from a familiar environment (like home or the team house) instead of a giant hall filled with people cheering or booing at you may be one factor. I guess conducting a study by asking pros about the difference of playing pre- and post-COVID (playing offline) compared to during COVID would be an option.

I hope you all have a great week. Read you next Sunday. Bye bye,

Christian 🙂

References

[1] Naidenova et al., 2024
[2] Baumeister, 1984