Working at the University of Kentucky’s (UK) Esports Lounge, Graden Knapp watches players become fully immersed in their favorite games, their eyes fixed on their screens in concentration. A recent UK graduate, Knapp now manages and coordinates events in the lounge — the same space he used to game in as a student. Almost every day, he’ll watch someone play for hours, trying to climb the ranks, but struggle as their opponents seem to be getting luckier.
The player will try to keep their cool, but sometimes emotions get the best of them. As they get more frustrated, their movements grow erratic, and their performance gets worse even as they try to calm down. There’s a science behind this: Tilt — a psychological phenomenon in which a gamer’s focus is thrown off from a mistake or setback, causing a downward spiral of sorts where performance continues to slip and they are more likely to lose the game. Throwing or breaking controllers is so common that Knapp says they keep extra ones on hand.
“Everyone knows tilt is real,” he says. “We just don’t know how to manage it.”
Esports have become one of the fastest-growing competitive activities in recent years, with a global viewership estimated at 532 million people and revenues of $1.39 billion in 2022, according to Cognitive Market Research. By 2030, revenues are expected to reach $4.47 billion. As more gamers enter the world of competitive play, the physiological and psychological impact of prolonged gameplay have emerged as critical challenges for both performance and gamers’ well-being. Players spend hours at a time in digital experiences that require sustained, quick decision-making, close attention, and rapid responses — all of which can be disrupted by fatigue, frustration, and tilt.
For help, some teams employ coaches like Jordan “Len” Ross, who has coached Gen.G Tigers, a competitive esports team that plays the basketball video game NBA 2K, since 2019. Just like coaches in physical sports, Ross offers players perspective on the game that they often can’t see themselves, with advice on how to make the most of their strengths, overcome challenges, and continue improving. A former NBA 2K player himself, Ross says most of his work centers on making sure his team is prepped mentally so they can work well together and avoid tilt. New research could arm Ross and other coaches with insights that could not only help prevent tilt for gamers, but extend into tools and applications to help remote and hybrid workers stay productive and on top of their game.
