Perceptual-Motor Abilities of Professional Esports Gamers and Amateurs

Abstract

Esports demands exceptionally fine motor skills. Perceptual-motor abilities such as anticipation, eye–hand coordination, and peripheral perception are essential for esports gamers to achieve high-level performance and win the game. However, the understanding of perceptual-motor ability in professional esports gamers is still limited. The aim of this study was to compare the perceptual-motor skills between professional esports gamers and amateurs. Eight male professional gamers and eight amateurs participated in this study voluntarily and completed three tasks: anticipation timing, eye–hand coordination, and peripheral perception. Results showed that the professional gamers had an earlier and more consistent anticipation timing in the anticipation-timing task than amateurs across four stimulus speeds. The professional gamers displayed a wider visual perception angle than the amateurs in the peripheral perception task. Our results demonstrate that long-time esports training advanced the development of anticipation timing and peripheral perception but might not affect the ability of eye–hand coordination.