The rise of esports has led to a growing number of people looking to find their way into the industry – especially amongst the younger audience, the allure of getting a job that has you playing games for a living whilst receiving a good salary and achieving stardom at the same time has a huge appeal. It has become apparent in recent years however that a bigger focus needs to be placed on player fitness, so much so that even as new betting sites become available, fitness is often a consideration for some odds – players aren’t immune to many of the same issues in sporting such as burnout and physical injury, but also many of the same mental strains that come with being a competitive player.
Whilst the first thought may be to issues with eye strain and other vision related issues, this isn’t so much the case as wrist and hand injuries have been more present – often times players commit to long days often extending sixteen to eighteen hours, with a lot of repetitive movement and fast motion there’s a lot of risk for strain and RSI and have quickly proven to be an area in which players suffer from early.
Burnout is also extremely common – the path to becoming a pro player requires much of the same, committing to long hours over a number of years before even making it in to the pro scene, and then you’re playing a similar amount whilst also adding the stresses of travel too – a full seven day a week schedule with little opportunity to rest throughout the year lead to many players, especially the younger players, needing to take a break which could ultimately hurt their career too due to the huge pool of talent that can fill a spot.
(Image from thenextweb.com)
Fortunately things have been changing quite quickly – there has been a huge amount of investment into ensuring both physical and mental wellbeing in the bigger organisations to prevent many of the issues that have been seen – unlike more traditional sporting events, players aren’t as physically active and as such require guidance in this area in particular. The younger players also need guidance as the thrust into the public eye can be jarring, many have streaming contracts too requiring them to livestream for a certain number of hours per week, dealing with thousands of viewers on both a private and a live stage can be tough for even those accustomed to it.
Big changes will continue to be put into place as esports continues to grow, and it’s easy to forget that as a whole esports has only really been around in its current growing state for the past decade or so – there’s plenty of room to grow and plenty of room for new expertise to enter the market, and as big organisations from more established sporting events begin to edge their way into the market, the support for factors such as player fitness will surely come along with it and hold a more important role.
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