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Electronic sports, or more commonly called “eSports,” refers to competitive video gaming (e.g. leagues and tournaments) facilitated by electronic systems (Hamari & Sjöblom, 2017). With over 335 million playing and actively spectating year round (Hamari & Sjöblom, 2017), eSports has developed into one of the fastest growing forms of entertainment in the media. This has shifted the perception of video gaming from a leisurely activity to an organized professional sport (Hallmann & Giel, 2018). Correspondingly, research on video gaming has evolved; early research depicted video gaming as potentially addictive (Bediou et al., 2018) and psychologically harmful (Pallavicini, Ferrari, & Mantovani, 2018), but now studies have recognized that it has the potential to positively impact various physiological (Kari, Siutila, & Karhulahti, 2019; Polman, Trotter, Poulus, & Borkoles, 2018), sociological (Seo & Jung, 2016) and psychological factors (Bediou et al., 2018; Bányai, Griffiths, Király, & Demetrovics, 2019; Pallavicini et al., 2018). As a result, researchers in many fields have a considerable interest in determining if there are any connections between competitive video gaming and variables such as cognitive function and physical fitness (Pallavicini et al., 2018; Perrin et al., 2019; Polman et al., 2018).
Competitive video gaming puts a large emphasis on cognitive demand (Dye, Green, & Bavelier, 2009; Wang et al., 2016). Competitive video (eSports) gamers are required to rapidly process information, and react quickly and accurately in response to complex visual stimuli for optimal gaming performance (Campbell, Toth, Moran, Kowal, & Exton, 2018; Dye et al., 2009). Thus, eSports gamers have reason to be motivated to improve cognitive function. Reaction time (RT), or the time interval between a stimulus and the response to it (Radák, 2018), plays a vital role for eSports gamers (Bediou et al., 2018; Pallavicini et al., 2018); delays in RT and processing speed often generate negative consequences during gaming (e.g. less competitive advantage, lower percentage of game wins, etc.) (Dye et al., 2009). Moreover, eSports players have determined that training reaction time is rather important, as fast RT is a constituent for success in most competitive games (Nagorsky & Wiemeyer, 2020). Previous research has revealed that deficits in RT are associated with impaired cognitive ability and serve as valuable measures for establishing cognitive efficiency, the brain’s ability to perform optimally with minimal effort (Collins & Long, 1996).