The “New” Student-Athlete: An Exploratory Examination of Scholarship eSports Players

Abstract

The growth and popularity of eSports cannot be understated. The domain has become so mainstream that colleges and universities are rapidly beginning to launch eSports programs within their athletics departments. In this study, the authors interviewed 33 student-athletes receiving scholarships for participating in eSports at one institution. In all, the identity and social capital of athletes in this "new" athletic arena were explored and compared with previous studies examining "traditional" athletes. The implications of the similarities and differences are discussed and ideas for future research into this emerging field are presented.

Social motivations of live-streaming viewer engagement on Twitch

“…This is particularly evident in events featuring national teams, focusing on the nationalist aspects prevalent in such sporting events, but also including more general sports practices such as similarities in the broadcast structure, the commentary itself, how teams and players are presented, the showing of highlights and replays, as well as the capture of audience sentiment (Turtiainen et al, 2018). Other concepts that stem from traditional sports have also been investigated within esports, for example sportsmanship, fair play and doping (Carter and Gibbs, 2013;Irwin and Naweed, 2018;Karhulahti and Kimppa, 2018), collegiate level esports (Keiper et al, 2017;Schaeperkoetter et al, 2017), sport venues (Jenny et al, 2018), ergonomics (Paravizo and de Souza, 2018), and the legal rights and career aspects of players/athletes (Bayliss, 2016;Salo, 2017).…”

eSport: Construct specifications and implications for sport management

“…Finally, we see a number of opportunities for research in the governance, marketing, and management of eSport. From a governance perspective, Funk et al (2018) offered several points to consider, including the emergence of colleges and universities offering scholarships to eSport participants (see also Schaeperkoetter et al, 2017), legal issues with eSport as sport, labor issues, and ownership issues. Hallmann and Giel (2018) offered additional considerations, questioning not if, but when, governmental bodies will consider eSport a sport.…”

Musculoskeletal pain is common in competitive gaming: a cross-sectional study among Danish esports athletes

“… 2 Esports is considered sedentary in nature due to the lack of bodily movement but may impose significant demands on the body due to rapid and continuous movements of the fingers and concentration demands. 3 4 Esports athletes practise for 5.5–10 hours daily prior to competition. 5 It is unclear how such high work demands may affect musculoskeletal (MSK) pain in esports athletes and subsequently the athlete’s performance.…”