Benefits and drawbacks of esports in an educational setting

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Tomi Linkinen

BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF ESPORTS IN AN EDUCATIONAL SETTING

Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences Bachelor’s thesis December 2021

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ABSTRACT

Tomi Linkinen: Benefits and drawbacks of esports in an educational setting Bachelor's thesis

Tampere University

Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences 12 / 2021

In this literature review, I study the benefits and drawbacks of esports for educational institutions and students in an educational setting. First, I elaborate what esports is and introduce its condensed history. Research questions are then set. Literature for the research is obtained using various search engines and esports-related preset keywords. The searches are expanded when necessary. I display my findings in the results section, then answer the research questions and finally introduce my own insights.

The first research question is: What benefits and drawbacks education related esports activities can have for students? The major benefit for students is the development of soft skills. Additionally, school related esports activities raise the grades and attendance of students. Other minor benefits are found, and some benefits require more research before conclusive deduction can be made.

Drawbacks include possible effects on psychological wellbeing, delayed sleep patterns and exposure to toxicity and mature content.

The second research question is: What are the benefits and drawbacks of esports as education related activity for educational institutes? Esports as an activity in educational settings is a flexible endeavor for institutes financially. Esports programs can be setup according to an institutions specific needs. The major benefit is that institutes can use esports to promote themselves as contemporary and forward-looking. Quality of graduates can be increased with a well-thought- out esports program, thus growing the prestige of the institution. Drawbacks are that, as a new phenomenon, there are a lot of unknown factors in esports. Finding knowledgeable staff and directing resources in the right places can pose a challenge.

I conclude that esports can serve as a beneficial program for any educational institute and its students. Most drawbacks can be avoided with proper management and awareness.

Keywords: Esports, education, students, benefits, drawbacks, soft skills, extracurricular, co- curricular, institutes.

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1 INTRODUCTION

Esports as a phenomenon has gained popularity and traction in the past decade and it is estimated that its popularity will continue to rise (VentureBeat, 2021). Esports is especially popular among adolescents and young people (Kinnunen et al., 2020, p.63). It is then only natural to examine esports in educational settings and what effects it has for both students and for educational institutes. Especially interesting is how educational institutes should deal with the emergence of this new form of pastime. How can educational institutes use esports to benefit themselves and their students? Should they?

Are there benefits for the student to have esports as a hobby? Are there negative aspects?

What are the negative aspects, and can they be dealt with? These kinds of questions and my own esports hobby acted as motivation for me to research the subject and led to the research questions that are as follows:

R1: What benefits and drawbacks education related esports activities can have for students?

R2: What are the benefits and drawbacks of esports as an education related activity for educational institutes?

Using literature review as the research method, I examine the effects that esports activity in an educational setting can have for participants and educational institutes. In this paper esports activity includes all activity that somehow ties into education, be it extracurricular, co-curricular, student organized activity or activity arranged by the school for its students in some other way.

This paper is divided into five chapters, introduction, theory, methods, results, and discussion. Introduction is self-explanatory. The background theory is provided in chapter two, where I introduce esports, its definition and briefly present the history of esports.

This will help the reader to understand the phenomenon as a whole. In the methods, that is chapter three, I present the details of the research process and how the literature review was carried out. The results in chapter four are the findings of the literature review and in the final chapter five I discuss those results and answer the research questions.

There are some limitations to keep in mind while reading this paper. Many researched articles did not necessarily clarify or make differentiation between participants and players; thus, this research does not attempt to do so either. Other thing to note is that,

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4 while extremely important topics, toxicity and gender related issues have been limited to the minimum because they are too broad subjects and probably would have diverted attention away from the main findings and points of this paper. It would have been impossible to explore these topics with the attention they deserve in the scope of this paper. Many articles originate from North America, while some articles are from Europe and few from South-Korea; thus, cultural differences can distort the results if cultural differences are not considered in relation to the findings. That said, I believe that all the findings are applicable in different cultures, but severity of the benefit or drawback can differ slightly.

2 WHAT IS ESPORTS?

In the section 2.2 I introduce what esports is and briefly examine the history of esports.

Section 2.3 focuses mainly on statistics and numbers, thus bringing attention to the scope, size, and role of esports in today’s society.

2.1 Esports and its history

In this chapter I introduce the background and definition of esports, examine esports as a phenomenon and inspect its popularity. The purpose of introducing the history and growth of esports in this paper is to demonstrate the size, popularity, and growth of esports, thus providing basis for the necessity of this type of research.

Hamari and Sjöblom (2017, p. 213) define esports as follows: “A form of sports where the primary aspects of the sport are facilitated by electronic systems; the input of players and teams as well as the output of the esports system are mediated by human-computer interfaces.” Other definitions exist, but I consider this to be the most-up-to date, since esports has rapidly evolved and grown in the last decade. As Reitman et al. (2020, p.

40) states: “Competitive gaming is a widely accepted description of esports”. Different esports can vary heavily from each other; from mobile to console gaming, and to different simulations that utilize virtual worlds. However, in this paper the focus is mainly on FPS (first-person shooter) and MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) type of games played on PC or console because those are the most popular and widespread genres.

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5 The History of esports starts from the 1970s and the first esports tournament is widely considered to have been held at Stanford University. Using PDP-1 computer students competed against each other playing a game called Spacewar. In the 1980s Atari held the Space Invaders Championship that involved over 10,000 gamers playing on the Atari 2600 console. 1990s saw the release of Doom (1993) and Quake (1996) and the internet made competing remotely possible. Around the same time, gaming and competing in LAN (local area network) became possible for consumers and esports took advantage of the new technology. After the release of Counter Strike (1999)

esports continued to grow as a phenomenon and the first televised competition, the Halo 2 Pro Series, was held. In the 2010s the growth of esports exploded. The streaming platform Twitch launched in 2011, League of Legends (2009) and Dota2 (2013), two popular esports games, were also released and gaming venues specifically built for esports started to appear worldwide. (A History of Esports, 2021)

2.2 Esports in present day

Esports research, like game studies, is a multidisciplinary field as Reitman et al. (2020) observed in their literature review concerning the different disciplinaries of esports study. They found 150 different studies from 2002 to March 2018 from seven different disciplines, there is a noticeable upward trend on the number of research published year by year.

This esports study draws mainly on educational sciences, game studies, psychology, and sports sciences. It is important to understand that as a relatively new area of research, the theories are still forming and evolving. Following Thomas Kuhn’s theory about phases of science (Kuhn, 1996), it could be argued that esports research is still in a pre- paradigmatic state.

The popularity of esports can be observed through the numbers and statistics. The comparison between esports and more traditional spectator sports can be made, but we should avoid concrete conclusions, because esports research is a relatively new field of study and there might still be unknown differences, for example in consumer behavior or spectating habits.

In 2021 the esports audience grew to 474 million viewers and it is estimated that in 2024 it’s viewership will grow to 577 million (VentureBeat, 2021). Considering a single

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6 event, the most watched esports event was the Free Fire world series 2021 Singapore, with 5.41 million peak viewers while the 2019 League of Legends World Championship attracted 3.99 million peak viewers (ESC, 2021).

In comparison to ice-hockey, the 2020 National Hockey League Stanley Cup Finals achieved 2.15 million average viewers, a significant drop from the 5.33 million in 2019 (Sports Media Watch, 2020). The National Basketball League finals achieved an average of 15.14 and 7.5 million in 2019 and 2020 (Bloomberg, 2020).

I argue that the major esports events are starting to catch up to the minor sports biggest events in viewership, not necessarily reaching them in 2022, but the trend seems to be that esports viewership is rising steadily. The ages of viewers also support this

argument, for example in Finland the clear majority of esports audience is under 29 years of age when the single biggest age group is under 19 years of age, and people over 40 barely watched at all (Kinnunen et al., 2020, p. 63). In comparison, the 2018 Winter Olympics were watched by all age groups (Morning Consult, 2021). However, it is unknown whether people stop following esports at a certain age and at this moment it is hard to infer because esports is new phenomenon. The trend seems to be that esports is indeed growing rapidly and is followed especially by younger generations, including students.

The market size of esports is growing rapidly. In 2021 the esports market size grew to 1.28 billion U.S. dollars from 0.97 billion in 2020. Some estimations go as high as expecting the esports market share to be 2.89 billion in 2025. (Business Wire, 2021).

Some other estimations are more careful, estimating growth of 1.6 billion by the year 2024 (Dot Esports, 2021). The majority of the revenue is coming from sponsorships and, as a new and growing area of business, there are still challenges on how to stay profitable and operating steadily (Amenabar, 2021).

Esports is a diverse and versatile industry, and the career opportunities are not limited to being a player, from producers and analysts to referees and social media managers, a wide variety of career opportunities exist (Suji, 2021).

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3 INFORMATION GATHERING METHODS

This literature review gathered peer-reviewed articles, news articles, press releases and statistics that are associated with esports or enabled logical comparisons to esports.

Because the number of peer-reviewed esports research articles is still quite low

compared to more established research fields, there was no need to limit the number of articles selected. Thus, all articles that provided insights into the research question or helped to establish a baseline were selected. Total of 19 scientific articles and 18 other sources are referred in this paper.

The main search method used was Tampere University’s Andor discovery service (https://andor.tuni.fi/), a search engine capable of accessing multiple scientific

databases. A keyword list was constructed manually and divided into two parts, main and complementary keywords (as shown in table 1). Other keywords were also used, where applicable, to modify and follow up on some searches that failed to provide meaningful results.

Table 1. Keywords used to search for the scientific articles.

Main Complementary Esports

E-sports

Electronic sports Education

Co-curricular activity Extracurricular activity

Transferable skills Games

Effects Grades Soft skills Development Benefits Downsides League Series Tournament Academic School

Gaming as hobby Digital

Statistics and news articles were searched from the internet with varying methods, including Andor searches. The main purpose of these inquiries was to provide supporting data to existing findings, and further explain and explore esports as a

phenomenon, but not act as the core of this research. Every selected research paper was then read, and relevant observations were noted and written up. The results section of

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8 this paper was then written and while writing, logical conclusions were made, and more data was searched and possibly added based on the findings.

4 BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS

In this chapter the findings are presented, and some preliminary thoughts are offered in chapters that deal with benefits and drawbacks. In 4.2 I will explain what esports can be in educational settings and who it can serve. From there I will move on to the benefits of esports in 4.3. Finally, the drawbacks are observed in 4.4. The benefits and drawbacks are roughly ordered from the biggest concept to the smallest.

4.1 For whom is esports

To understand the nuances of how esports can function as an academic and educational activity a good example is the Orange County High School Esports League launched in 2018. As part of the curriculum at the University of California Irvine, esports education was not limited to playing the game as shown in in table 2.

Constance Steinkuehler, professor of informatics at UC Irvine explains: “The League has been carefully constructed with an academic framework incorporating STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math], ELA [English language arts], and social emotional learning, as well as Career Technical Education. It's relevant, forward leaning, and tied to future careers both inside and outside the tech industry.” (Markets Insider, 2018)

Table 2. Educational elements included in UC Irvines esports education.

As can be seen in table 2, esports in an educational setting can include more than competitive gaming or practices. St. Cloud State University President Robbyn Wacker stated that “Esports is not only about gamers and competition, esports is a business, it needs managers, advertising and marketing, programmers, artist, coaches; it has the

Code of conduct Casting and streaming a game

Healthy gaming and nutrition Strategic aspects of the game Biomechanics of gaming Managing people and resources Participating in an online society Professional communication Hardware / building a PC Collaboration

Analyzing game data Event planning

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9 potential to involve many co-curricular, athletic/recreation and academic units,”

(MacFarlane, 2020). Thus, it can be argued that esports in a school setting does not serve only players, but other interested parties can also be included and welcomed to participate in different roles.

4.2 Benefits of esports in educational settings

4.2.1 Soft skills

Soft skills are generally understood as social, people and personal skills that deal with leadership qualities, teamwork abilities, communication effectiveness and conflict resolving skills etc.

Matteson et al. (2016 p. 75) note that “…definitions of the term vary. No formally agreed upon, universal set of soft skills exists” and also that “Soft skills are a collection of people management skills, important to many professions and job positions”. Oxford dictionary of English defines soft skills as “Personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people” (Kielikone Oy, n.d.).

Developing the soft skills of students might be the strongest argument that can be made on behalf of including esports as part of education. In their study Rothwell and Shaffer (2019 p. 105) argue that “eSports develop the soft skills universities and employers like to see in a student graduating from high school.” Noting that there is a strong case to be made in developing said skills from the educational institutes perspective as well as the students perspective: soft skills may translate into career success for students, while educational institutes can benefit from a heightened desirability among applicants and promote themselves as a modern and technologically up-to-date institute.

“eSports athletes possess many of the desired attributes employers want to see in a problem-solving team player. These soft skills develop when STEM initiatives are zeroing on to produce workers who can think on their feet, work well with others, and possess deductive reasoning skills to be independent problem solvers.” (Rothwell & Shaffer, 2019 p. 105)

Zoltan Andrejkovics in his book The Invisible Game: Mindset of a Winning Team (2016) researched what skills esports players develop and found three major aspects that are directly related to soft skills. Communication, teamwork, and high-pressure problem solving.

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10 Fletcher et al. (2020) studied High School esports tournament participants and found that the majority of the participants feel that their soft skills significantly improved. Soft skills are included in the study’s questionnaire. One part of the questionnaire included six points where participants answered yes if they feel that they had improved on the skill, or no if they feel they had not improved. The points were communication, team working, perseverance, resilience, problem solving and social skills. All results were above fifty percent on “yes” side. Perseverance and social skills had the lowest amount of yes answers with 58% in both. 79% of the players felt that their team working improved and 73% felt that they learned better communication.

To summarize, esports activities can teach students soft skills. For the institutions, esports can offer a meaningful platform that serves as a way to educate students in an area that might otherwise be hard to teach.

4.2.2 School success

Extracurricular and co-curricular activities have effects on both school success and dropout rates. Boatwright (2009) studied students from 25 high schools located in Southwest Missouri, USA. He found that students who participate in extracurricular activities obtain higher mean grade point averages (GPA) and have lower dropout rates than those who do not participate, noting also that students’ chances of graduating are significantly better if they participate in said activities. Boatwright recommends that a variety of extracurricular activities should be offered to students so they can choose an activity that they enjoy, and that school administration and faculty should promote participation in said activities.

Extracurricular and other school related activities have been studied by many researchers.

Marsh et al. (2002) examines previous research in their paper Extracurricular school activities: The good, the bad, and the nonlinear. They highlight that especially recent research supports the hypothesis that extracurricular and other school related activities result in higher-than-expected GPA, lower dropout rates and other positive effects.

Marsh et al. (2002) conclude their own research noting that for socioeconomically or otherwise disadvantaged students the benefits from extracurricular school activities tend to be higher and that said activities appear to reduce the inequality gap.

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“Importantly, the development of an exciting program of extracurricular activities is likely to benefit all students, but particularly marginal, at-risk, and disadvantaged students who are least well served by traditional educational programs.” (Marsh et al., 2002 p. 508)

When it comes to specifically esports as an extracurricular or co-curricular activity not much research exists yet, but there is little indication that esports would not be a suitable extracurricular or other type of school activity. Rothwell and Shaffer (2019 p. 105) argue that “The educational, career, and economic opportunities associated with eSports far outweigh any objection to their diffusion in educational programs”.

4.2.3 Technological skills

Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District in Alaska started their esports program in 2019, Steve Jaworski, head of strategic partnerships for the High School Esports League, explains that esports courses help students form a healthier relationship with technology (Zalaznick, 2019). Rothwell et al. (2019 p. 105) note that “When teachers incorporate eSports or gaming into a curriculum, they allow the students to learn and appropriately use technology”.

Indeed, many technological skills are needed or wanted in relation to esports activities;

from building and maintaining a PC to different software skills, from video editing to webpage development and streaming content. Esports as an activity can offer a lot of meaningful areas for the participant to explore, learn or practice when it comes to technological skills. Also notable is that, as a team activity, peer-support might readily be available in learning different tech skills.

It must be mentioned that none of these tech skills are required, and that learning, teaching, or utilizing these skills is up to participants and instructors.

4.2.4 Relatively low cost for students and institutes

Institutes including esports as part of their program can expect that once the initial investment is made, running day to day operations can be more economical than in some other sports. There are no large training space requirements like in many traditional collegiate sports. Esports games tend not to require the newest high-tech computers and the institute might already own suitable PCs, or PCs that can be modified for the purpose.

Institutes might even opt not to provide any training space for the players and arrange gaming practice remotely from players homes and arrange other training on suitable sites.

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12 Travel costs can get quite high, but in esports the travel costs are diminished by the fact that matches can be held online. Of course, there might be larger competitions that require travel, but not every match or practice match requires travelling.

The likely largest investment, then, is finding and keeping competent people to organize and coordinate the activity. Joe McAllister wrote about the cost of esports for institutes and claims that while the cost can wary widely, esports programs can be adapted to any budget, depending on the programs goal (McAllister, 2019).

For the players and participants, the cost depends on the individuals existing hardware, but once proper equipment is obtained the upgrade cycle is quite long, spanning years rather than months. The computer is the biggest investment and people might already own a computer or own a computer that just needs some upgrades. Suitable pre-owned hardware and computers are also available for purchase.

4.2.5 Other benefits

Esports is a great way for institutes to raise awareness on healthier lifestyle, including eating and sleeping habits and physical and mental health. In esports training programs physical and mental training effects have already been noticed and utilized at the highest levels where teams try to obtain a competitive edge. Ketelhut et al. (2021) argue that esports can act as a gateway for health promotion because physical exercise and healthier living habits are proven to enhance performance.

The nature of esports is such that everyone can participate. This means that people with different physique and skill level can play with each other at least recreationally, and that participants other than players can also engage in esports gaming. This can have a positive contribution on team atmosphere and means that friendships can be more easily formed between anyone participating. This also helps to ease the work institutes need to do when setting up any type of esports program, as everyone can be welcomed to participate.

With esports courses and programs it might be possible to prevent some cases of social exclusion, as well as other similar problems. This is true for many co- and extracurricular activities (see Benefits of extracurricular activities for children, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion; European Commission, 2021). As games can serve as an escape from problems in real life, trough esports it can be possible to engage with students who are part of the risk group or would otherwise be hard to reach.

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4.3 Drawbacks of esports in educational settings

4.3.1 Psychological wellbeing

There exists some research that observes esports gaming or gaming as a hobby to have an existing correlation with negative psychological wellbeing (Goh et al., 2019), (Bányai et al., 2019). These studies demonstrate existing correlation convincingly but are unable to prove causality. Both articles observe that the correlation is strongest with those gamers whose motivation of play is escapism.

My observation from the literature is that it cannot be determined with certainty if mental health problems are caused by gaming or if excessive gaming serves as an escape from real life troubles. What can be determined however, is that if a person suffers from mental health problems his gaming might become, or already is, problematic and that the motivation of play is most likely escapism. Kwon et al. (2011) researched 1136 junior high school students regarding internet game addiction and found that escapism serves as a method to eliminate negative feelings gamers felt.

“An increase in self discrepancy tends to aggravate not only a negative evaluation of oneself but also a NegMood [current negative mood], from which an attempt to Escape arises as a strong means for eliminating a NegMood. This finding suggests that IGA [internet game addiction] is adopted as a way to escape from oneself.” (Kwon et al., 2011, p. 119)

Unlike in single player gaming, in esports setting playing to escape reality can be noticed by other people working with the player and appropriate measures can then be executed.

More research is needed on how video games might cause negative psychological wellbeing.

4.3.2 Exposure to gaming disorder

In 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) included gaming disorder to their list of diseases. The WHO International Classification of Diseases states that gaming disorder can manifest in the following ways:

1. Impaired control over gaming (e.g., onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context).

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14 2. Increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence

over other life interests and daily activities.

3. Continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences. (World Health Organization, 2021)

It is also explained that gaming disorder needs to be evident for a year, after which a diagnosis can be made, and that the effects of the disease are impairment of function in many areas of life. (World Health Organization, 2021)

Controversy over the WHO decision to include gaming disorder in the list of diseases has risen because some professionals argue that excessive gaming is a symptom, not a disease.

Debate paper released in 2018 saw over 30 professionals urge WHO not to include gaming disorder to their list of diseases because they felt that not enough proof and clinical testing exist to warrant the decision.

“Given the gravity of diagnostic classification and its wider societal impact, we urge our colleagues at the WHO to err on the side of caution for now and postpone the formalization” (van Rooij et al., 2018, p.2)

Further research is needed, to determine how gamers might develop a gaming disorder and how to combat it if the disease manifests itself.

4.3.3 Delayed sleep pattern

Esports and gaming as an activity is not limited by the time of day or venues, as it can be practiced from home regardless of the time of day. Because of the nature of the internet, there are rarely times when it is difficult to find opponents and teammates.

Lee et al. (2021) studied professional esports players sleep patterns and found that the athletes sleep patterns were delayed and that their total sleep time was insufficient, noting also that other athletes also tend to have shorter total sleep time. Shorter sleep time affects reaction times and can result in performance impairment in esports. There is motivation for esports players to maintain adequate sleep, but it might be difficult to achieve because of peer pressure or bad time management.

A delayed sleep pattern can cause difficulties for a student because some lectures or other school activities might start early in the morning. Staying awake late and practicing with

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15 the team or alone can cause shorter total sleep time that can have adverse effects in other areas of life as well.

Delayed sleep patterns can be combatted with proper time management and being aware of the effects that it can have. Esports hobbyists should be encouraged to take care of their sleeping pattern and note how screen time in the evenings or nights affect them personally.

4.3.4 Overuse injuries

“Overuse injuries are traditionally defined as injuries that occur with gradual onset over time and result from a mechanism of repetitive stress and cumulative trauma.” (Roos &

Marshall, 2014, p. 406)

In esports overuse injuries can include, but are not limited to, eye fatigue, neck, back, hand, and wrist pains. Difrancisco-Donoghue et al. (2019) conducted a questionnaire for 65 collegiate esports players in different universities in North America and found that the eye fatigue was the most common health complaint players had. Their study highlights the need for more medical attention for esports players and they argue that a health management model should be implemented to protect the players health. They also indicate that responsibility should not lay solely on players shoulders.

Symptoms of back and neck pain can get worse when individual gets older, so proper ergonomics is at least as important for esports athletes as it is for people working with computers (for more about ergonomics see: Dainoff, 2007). Taking care that the posture and hand positions are not damaging is an important factor in preventing overuse and other long-term injuries. These types of injuries can be prevented through awareness and using properly selected gaming gear.

4.3.5 Large time investment

Esports as a hobby can take a lot of time. Esports games are usually complex and have a high learning curve. Depending on the game and its developer, most games change and evolve with new patches. Esports games do not have a skill ceiling. The unlimited possibility for personal skill development and a constantly evolving game means that there are always new things to learn and that the players should keep themselves up to date continuously or they risk decay in game knowledge or skills. Like any other hobby,

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16 esports can consume all the time an individual allocates to it and getting good at the chosen game takes a lot of time and effort.

Professional esports players training times vary from region to region and from team to team. In Korea, some professional teams train over 13 hours per day while in Australia and USA the training hours are 7 to 8 hours (Lee et al., 2021). These are professional training times however and should not be considered the training times of a student or hobbyist.

The gaming times of the general populace are considerably lower. In Finland, the average gaming time was 8.75 hours per week (1.25 hours per day) in 2020. A fixed average that cut 5% from both extremes was 7.06 hours per week. The median was 4 hours per week, 2 hours higher than in 2018. The authors noted that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely the reason for the increase in gaming time (Kinnunen et al., 2020, p. 64-67).

Goh et al. (2019) in their research conducted an online questionnaire for regular Dota2 players. 165 respondents had a mean gaming time of 3.99 hours per day (median was 2.57 hours per day). Hobbyist esports players will likely spend similar amounts of time gaming as the regular Dota2 players. There might be differences from game to game and the goals of the player can heavily affect the time spent.

We can logically deduce that the gaming time of esports hobbyist gamers is higher than the average playing time in Finland, but also lower than what professional players spent training. The exact gaming time can vary depending on the game, region, and person, but arguably the hours spent can get quite high. Thus, time management is an important skill for the esports player and if the goal is set high (semi-pro or professional level) that means a significant time investment is required. This holds true in many other sports and hobbies as well.

4.3.6 Other drawbacks

Other drawbacks can include exposure to internet toxicity and mature content through esports games. On the other hand, it should be contemplated that students might, in any case, be exposed to mature content and internet toxicity just by virtue of using the internet.

Peer support from team members can play a positive role in handling this problem.

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17 Esports has similar problems as any other competitive sports when teamwork is not on an optimal level. Grudges and quarrels may form, and negative feelings might evoke towards other people. While these problems can serve as a learning opportunity, at worst a problematic team environment can lead to real problems and to the disbanding of teams as motivation to participate disappears. To institutes these types of problems can pose a challenge as there might be extra work involved to reorganize the activity and fix internal issues.

Internet gaming culture and esports culture can sometimes be toxic and hostile environment. ”Toxic behavior is an umbrella term used to describe various types of negative behaviors including harassment, griefing, and cheating.” (Adinolf & Türkay, 2018, p. 365). Toxicity can be the source of negative feelings and can drive players away or make students avoid esports altogether. In this paper I do not elaborate on toxicity and its effects more than this. This is an intentional decision as toxicity, harassment, and discrimination in esports are such broad subjects that they cannot be dealt with in the scope of this paper. However, toxicity is a concern that should be taken into account even when not examining it and its effects further than this. Therefore, in this paper I will note that teaching and following a defined code of conduct is very important especially because of prevailing toxicity in gaming and esports cultures.

5 DISCUSSION

In this chapter I contemplate the success of the process in 5.2. In 5.3 I provide an overview of the findings. In 5.4. and 5.5 I answer the research questions and finally in 5.6 I offer my final thoughts.

5.1 Was the process successful?

Even though esports research is still in the early stages, and as noted previously, material to draw from for the literature review is limited, I was able to find answers to the research questions posed. Not all findings could be explored as thoroughly as I would have liked, and some questions would benefit from further research.

Because of my own position as an esports hobbyist and as a student, I did not set hypotheses for the research questions; I wanted to keep an open mind and strive to stay

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18 as objective as possible. I felt that strong hypotheses might have skewed my efforts into unwanted directions.

Considering the scope of this paper I feel confident in the results I present here. I feel that I was able to stay objective and logical throughout the process.

5.3 Overview of the findings

This paper successfully managed to find answers to the research questions posed. The goal was to pinpoint the exact benefits and drawbacks without going too much into details and to stay inside the intended depth of this paper.

• Found benefits:

o Development of soft skills.

o Better school success (higher GPA, higher participation).

o Development of technical skills.

o Relatively low cost for students and institutes.

o A gateway to a healthier lifestyle and promotion of such lifestyle.

o Everyone can participate.

o Platform for social interaction; friendships can be formed.

o Can possibly be used as a tool to prevent social exclusion and other similar problems.

• Found drawbacks:

o Possibly affects psychological wellbeing negatively.

o Exposure to gaming disorder.

o Can cause delayed sleep patterns.

o Exposure to overuse injuries.

o Requires large time investments.

o Exposure to internet toxicity and mature content.

o Dysfunctional teams can cause problems that are unsolvable.

o Toxicity, harassment, and discrimination are real problems in esports culture.

Not every finding is as meaningful as the other and comparing a single found benefit to a single found drawback is not beneficial. Observing the findings or a finding as a whole is a much more beneficial way of looking at the results. More benefits and

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19 drawbacks surely exist and are found when esports research continues to grow and gain more traction. The existing controversies could benefit from more research to find more definite answers.

5.4 Answering the first research question

R1: What benefits and drawbacks education related esports activities can have for students?

Benefits: The single biggest benefit for students is the possibility to develop soft skills.

Soft skills can be hard to obtain, and a congenial setting offered by esports can be exactly what students need to acquire these hard-to-come-by skills. As soft skills is a wide umbrella term it cannot be stressed enough how tremendous this benefit can be. Working life from theoretical to practical fields appreciates employees who are able to demonstrate strong teamwork, problem solving and people management skills.

School success in the form of a higher GPA and higher participation is also observed.

There are arguments for the possibility to develop better technical skills, but this is largely dependent on the program the student is enrolled in. Esports can act as a platform for forming friendships and, as everyone is welcome to participate, a healthy broadening of social circles can happen.

As esports pro athletes become more and more aware of how important a healthy lifestyle (including healthy eating, physical exercise and taking care of mental health) is for their performance, so do the hobbyists. This in turn can motivate esports participants to strive for healthier living.

The cost of esports can be dependent on the country the students live in, but a mediocre computer and acceptable internet connection is enough. Many western schools require a computer, so it is possible that students have suitable equipment already. In cultures where personal computers are more rarely owned, internet cafes provide a suitable place to practice esports. Thus, the cost of esports as a hobby and activity is relatively low compared to many other hobbies.

Drawbacks: The negative effects of gaming to psychological wellbeing need more research. Even so, esports hobbyists should be aware of the possible effects and watch out for signs that indicate that esports or gaming has a negative impact on their mental

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20 health. In 2018 WHO declared gaming disorder as a disease, and even though controversy over their decision exists, students should take care that they regulate their practice times and avoid excessive gaming when possible. Especially the inability to stop is a sign of problems.

A delayed sleep pattern is common for esports pro athletes and can apply for students as well. Social pressure among other factors can cause late night gaming that can lead to said sleep pattern. Late night training times should be avoided. Being aware that proper sleep is an important factor in successful esports performance can prevent gaming and practicing too late in the evenings, thus reducing the risk of a delayed sleep pattern.

Esports gaming can cause overuse injuries, the nature of overuse injuries is that they develop over time. Thus, students should take care of their physical wellbeing and, if problems arise, seek for medical help sooner rather than later to prevent the injury from worsening.

Esports requires large time investments, as it is not realistically possible to achieve the skill and knowledge in a short amount of time. Esports games are usually complex and evolving games. Most esports games have a playerbase that spends a lot of time training and playing their chosen game. This means that the competition, even in mediocre level of play, can be highly skilled. Large time investments requirements can come as a surprise and hinder the ability to perform other activities a student might want or need to perform.

Because esports games are played on the internet, it is possible that exposure to internet toxicity and mature content happens through related sites or in-game. It is possible that students encounter toxicity, harassment or discrimination towards themselves or their teammates. The exact effects facing this type of behavior or content can cause is left outside of this paper as noted in the introduction, but I would argue that they are negative effects.

As with any team sport, esports teams can become dysfunctional and this in turn can cause discontentment in participants. Because esports is highly competitive and the esports culture can be toxic, the risk of a dysfunctional team or problems inside the team is heightened.

Conclusion: Developing and learning soft skills alone overshadows almost all drawbacks for students. If that is not enough, improving school success and possibility to meet new

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21 friends and connect with like-minded people should not be disregarded as a benefit. Most drawbacks can be combatted with awareness and forming a proper code of conduct that respects all participants, including opponents, and taking care of enforcing it. Problems can arise when a student does not have the information required to avoid the negative effects of the drawbacks.

5.5 Answering the second research question

R2: What are the benefits and drawbacks of esports as an education related activity for educational institutes?

Benefits: Educational institutes can implement esports programs in a multitude of ways depending on the goals they set for the program. Esports is very flexible and can serve specific wishes of the educational institute; from a high school social inclusion program to a nationally competitive university team, esports can serve many needs.

Educational institutes that need to compete for student enrolments can benefit from esports programs, as esports becomes increasingly popular amongst adolescents, esports can help schools to attract students. Students who participate in esports activities are desirable students for the schools, as their GPA is comparably high and their participation to all classes is higher than average. This results in more students graduating and the dropout rate diminishing.

The cost of the esports activities and programs can vary widely depending on the goal of the program. However, esports is relatively low-cost, and sometimes existing infrastructure can be utilized further reducing costs. The benefit is, that the budget can be adjusted for specific goals and needs, though institutes should be prepared to invest adequately at launch.

Esports programs as a platform can serve institutes in a multitude of ways, including promoting healthier lifestyles for their students and possibly even preventing social exclusion and other similar problems.

With esports programs institutes can possess an ability to produce students who have strong soft skills and are able to work well in teams as well as alone. Skillful graduates are a testament to any educational institutes’ prowess, and benefits from the heightened reputation can then be acquired.

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22 Drawbacks: Educational institutes face some problems when considering implementing esports as an activity for their students. Even though I do not mention it in the results directly, it is only logical that esports as a new phenomenon is not necessarily the easiest activity for institutions staff to approach. Esports is favored by adolescents and young people and can be unfamiliar territory for many employees. Knowledgeable staff can be rare.

Institutes have risks when starting any kind of esports program also because no tried-and- tested method exists. What works in the United States might not be transferrable without modifications to other countries and cultures. Care should be taken to consult professionals who understand the gestalt of the matter in successfully implementing esports as an activity for students.

As with anything new, institutions should be ready to face some prejudice because, like movies or rock and roll music before them, games have drawn controversy. Thus, it might be necessary to invest in informing what esports is about and what the goals of the institutions esports program are to ease, for example, parents’ concerns.

Even though there is controversy, it cannot be disregarded that concerns for the health of esports gamers exist. Gaming affecting psychological wellbeing negatively, exposure to gaming disorder and delayed sleep pattern are concerns that institutes cannot dismiss, and awareness should be promoted.

Overuse injuries are a problem that is not controversial. Proper management of ergonomics and gaming time can diminish the probability and fast response to emerging problems will help students avoid serious problems. For institutes this again means that student awareness is in key position. It falls into the responsibilities of the institute to educate their students on these matters.

Conclusion: For the institutions esports can offer contemporary methods to engage with the students and promote themselves as a forward-looking and modern institute, thus attracting the attention of future students, media and working life alike. Quality of graduates can increase with the implementation of esports programs and teaching soft skills can get easier. Some institutes are dependent on the number of graduates, and it is proven that dropout rates are lower when students are participating in school organized activities they enjoy. It is possible that the results of the esports program can get

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23 unpredictable if participants are not educated on health matters and a defined code of conduct properly.

5.6 Overall

Esports can be a very beneficial program for institutes and students in a multitude of ways. The risks are low when compared to the benefits. The greatest benefits for the students and institutes alike are students' soft skill development and improved school success. Institutes have an opportunity to use esports to promote themselves and esports can serve as a modern instrument to engage with the students.

While more research is needed in various areas, especially educational sciences can offer a lot of insights when it comes to how esports should be implemented in

educational institutes. Some health issues are still a concern, more clinical testing and research is needed to clear the controversy surrounding the gaming disorder and the negative effects of gaming.

I recommend that institutes take advantage and implement esports in their operating plan, but I would also like to warn that the program is not likely to be an unquestionable success without proper supervision or suitable instructor.

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Benefits and drawbacks of esports in an educational setting

Tomi Linkinen