ABSTRACT
Researchers often use traditional sports' theoretical frameworks to evaluate esports' 'genuineness'. Therefore, this article shows how esports is assessed by traditional sports and esports journalists and how this is important for esports research. We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews (n = 15) with the journalists representing top-tier Polish media and used inductive conventional content analysis. Three main analytical categories and ten subcategories indicate how the two types of journalists differ in their assessments of esports being or not being 'real' sport. The results highlight how problematic it is to use traditional sports as a frame into which esports needs to fit. We indicate the misconceptions of this approach and propose more inductive ones (e.g. searching for esports' distinct frameworks or revealing those used by different groups or communities). Also, our research has some practical implications and is a kind of 'map' showing the esports' new quality and its complex nature.
ABSTRACT
Communities of practice are groups of people united by a passion for something, who deepen their knowledge and experience in their field through ongoing interactions. This article focuses on the importance of institutionalized relationship networks and mutual recognition in preparation for esports competitions. The study represents inductive, qualitative analyses. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with players (n = 12) that have significant achievements in Magic: The Gathering (MTG) competitions. In the social world of MTG enthusiasts, numerous groups reflect the functionality of a community of practice. These groups constitute a fundamental aspect of preparation for top-level MTG tournaments. Examples of the functioning of so-called testing groups among MTG enthusiasts allow the formulation of a new analytical category – the gaming community of practice. Contrary to stereotypes, the presented study supports the thesis about the significant role of video games in the formation of social competencies and the creation of specific communities, which is particularly important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.Alternate :Koncepcja wspólnoty praktyków zakłada, że jest to grupa osób, które łączy zamiłowanie do czegoś i które pogłębiają swoją wiedzę oraz doświadczenie w tym obszarze poprzez bieżące interakcje. Prezentowany artykuł skupia się na znaczeniu zinstytucjonalizowanych sieci relacji i wzajemnego uznania w przygotowaniach do rywalizacji w e-sporcie. Badanie stanowi przykład indukcyjnej jakościowej analizy. W jego ramach przeprowadzono indywidualne wywiady pogłębione z osobami (n = 12) mającymi znaczące osiągnięcia we współzawodnictwie w grze Magic: The Gathering (MTG). W społecznym świecie miłośników MTG liczne grupy odzwierciedlają funkcjonalność wspólnoty praktyków. Grupy te konstytuują podstawowy aspekt przygotowań do najważniejszych turniejów MTG. Przykłady funkcjonowania tak zwanych grup testingowych wśród miłośników MTG prowadzą do sformułowania nowej kategorii analitycznej – growych wspólnot praktyków. Wbrew stereotypom, prezentowane badania wspierają tezę o znaczącej roli gier wideo w kształtowaniu kompetencji społecznych i tworzeniu specyficznych wspólnot, co jest szczególnie istotne w kontekście pandemii COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
At a global scale COVID-19 has impacted virtually every single one of us. For many people one of the most significant impacts has been the changes to the way we use our leisure time;both for our own personal exercise and how we interact with professional sport. This chapter will explore these changes by drawing on three case studies. First, at a local scale it will consider the changing everyday geographies of sport and leisure as a consequence of the restrictions imposed on parks, gyms and recreational sports facilities. Second, nationally, golf provides an insightful case study as it was one of the first sports to be deemed viable again post-lockdown, both recreationally and professionally. Third, at the global scale, Formula 1 has been required to adapt, turning initially to e-sport racing as an alternative to conventional motor racing. Through these case studies this chapter will discuss how the spaces that are used for sport have evolved in response to COVID-19, how new spaces have emerged and how previously minor sports cultures have come to the fore. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
ABSTRACT
Although the COVID-19 pandemic impacted individuals who bet on sports, sports betting tipsters (SBTs;i.e., individuals who provide professional tips on the outcome of sporting events) were arguably among the most affected groups. Consequently, the aim of the present study was to explore how SBTs in Turkey were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including alternate forms of gambling engagement (e.g., e-sports betting). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 85 SBTs aged between 20 and 48 years. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify common themes. Based on the qualitative analysis, four themes emerged: (i) the meaning and role of sports betting, (ii) the effects of the pandemic on life and sports betting, (iii) comparing e-sports betting vs. traditional sports betting, and (iv) possible sports betting behavior if the pandemic continues. SBTs reported experiencing psychological distress as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic's cancellation of sporting events. More specifically, SBTs reported a sense of emptiness because of the lack of sports betting. Furthermore, SBT reported suffering a loss of income and turning to e-sports betting during the pandemic. However, the majority of SBTs did not find betting on e-sports as exciting as traditional betting but reported they would continue to engage in e-sports betting if traditional sports betting was not available. The findings of this study can contribute to a better understanding of the impact of SBTs on individuals and further provide practical implications for policymakers to promote a safe, sustainable, and long-term growth of the sports betting industry in Turkey.
ABSTRACT
Object detection is the task of classifying and finding certain objects including people, cars, handwritten text, and more. This is a growing field with application in several fields, identifying and locating cars, pedestrians and other objects for self-driving cars, monitoring objects such as crops, or the ball during sports, facial detection for protection and many more. Handwritten text recognition comprises character recognition and digit recognition. An effective CNN based model with high accuracy can help an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) system for accurate conversion of written text into digital text. In this work, we have explained a CNN based approach for recognizing hand written digits and predict the written numbers.
ABSTRACT
Games in any form have always been a part of human life. These play a very important part in socializing and competitive enhancement of human nature. With the invention of computer and various other portal electronic devices, video games came into picture. Advancement in computer technology in last few decades and accessibility of the same has exponentially increased the number of people playing video games. These video games in competitive form are called esports which stands for electronic sports. Nevertheless with the recent outburst because of COVID, the engagement on the same has peaked like never before. Further, these have some positive and some negative outcomes on the life of people.
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the initial findings of a longitudinal study examining the role and experiences of LAN organizers in managing player communities pre, during and post the Covid 19 pandemic. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyze interviews with organizers of the Birdie LAN, Sweden's longest running LAN event. Five key themes were identified reflecting the roles of organizers and their experiences pre pandemic. (1) building and maintaining the culture, (2) encouraging inclusivity and community building, (3) negotiating professionalism, (4) learning, adapting and evolving, (5) creating sustainability through a future orientation. This paper presents the results of the first data collection to examine the impacts of the pandemic on grassroots gaming communities. The findings here represent a foundation in understanding the role of community leaders in maintaining a culture around gaming. These initial findings add value to our understanding of grassroots esports and player communities and the social practices of gaming in the modern era. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 outbreak leads to the sudden lockdown of sports businesses across the world. Due to the difficulty of generating sports content as usual amid the global pandemic, some sports organizations around the world, resort to esports. Concretely, sports organizations let their professional athletes compete virtually in video games to produce competitive entertainment for the audience. Such "mixed” competitive entertainment attracts a high spectatorship and significant social media attention. This commentary seeks to provide a research-based explanation of the phenomenon and predict future developments.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many sectors of society, including sports. Measuring the effects of an ongoing pandemic poses a complex task, given the incipiency of government actions and studies addressing the impacts on sports. In view of this, the purpose of this commentary is to explore how COVID-19 impacted school sports policies. To this end, we analyze how the government of the State of Paraná, Brazil, has responded to the effects of the pandemic in school sports policies, as well as identifying which solutions have been outlined. Although professional sports managed to implement complex and rigorous safety protocols, these are economically unviable in school and non-profit multi-sport competitions. We found that school sports competitions have been widely affected and unable to resume due to inconsistencies and difficulties in the implementation of safety protocols appropriate to this new scenario. Another finding was the development of immediate remote alternatives (E-sports competitions), which may impact school sports and affect the reconfiguration of the sports system. In conclusion, this commentary highlighted the impacts of the pandemic on school sports as well as the actions outlined to tackle them, in particular E-sports initiatives by the government of Paraná.
ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 pandemic, universities were among the first institutions to shift to an online model. As they did so, nascent collegiate esports program lost access to campus spaces and in-person connections, potentially destabilizing this rising industry. Conversely, universities also worked to provide students remote access to resources, and many components of esports already occur online. Therefore, collegiate esports may have adjusted to distancing measures, potentially strengthening their footholds on US campuses. This paper draws on in-depth interviews with collegiate esports players, student employees, program directors, and administrators to address different programs' reactions to the pandemic, specifically the challenges and opportunities they faced. Overall, interviews reveal how COVID-19 shifted the understandings of and practices around gaming and esports, highlighted the intermittent relationship of online and offline spheres, and presented various possibilities and challenges for different stakeholders during the global pandemic. © The Author(s) 2022.
ABSTRACT
E-sports and online games represent an entertainment industry that before the 2020 year was characterized by an incredible development. The COVID19 emergency has further accelerated the global process of diffusion of e-sports and online games, consecrating it as the leading economic industry in the entertainment and technology sector. This paper presents a study that is part of the URBAN GAMERS LAB project (in progress), that describes the role of conscientiousness and toxic behaviors. The study involves 227 professional e-gamers aged between 15 and 34 y.o. This project it is part of an interdisciplinary project that involves a municipality in the Emilia-Romagna region, schools' teachers, and researchers from University of Bologna: departments of psychology, architecture, and engineering. The main objective of the study is to investigate the relationship between the conscientiousness (measured by variables such as responsibility, traditionalism, orderliness, industriousness, virtue, self-control) and disturbing toxic behaviors (Mediocritizing, Sabotaging, Hostage Holding, Flaming), played by e-gamers during different phases of the online game League of Legends (LoL). Preliminary results show that for conscientiousness, there are no significant correlations with age but there is a significant correlation with gender and be part of an e-sports team. The latter is negative correlated with gender, positive correlated with been playing League of Legends and play ranked games. This aspect is positive correlated with age and been playing League of Legends. Regarding toxic behaviors, age does not seem to play an important role, that is, no correlations have been found between age and toxic behaviors. While there is a negative correlation with sabotaging and Hostage Holding and a positive correlation with flaming. Considering instead, how long they have been playing LoL, being more experienced negatively correlates with sabotaging, played with teammates who showed little mastery and positive correlated with being a victim of flaming in chat during a game Turning on been part of an eSports team, results show that this aspect positive correlates with being a victim of flaming in chat during a game and decided to mute the chat because of it. Finally, playing ranked games negatively correlates with sabotaging, and positively correlates with being a victim of flaming in chat during a game and decided to mute your chat because of it. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Over the last 15 years, we have witnessed a digitalization of the sports experience, i.e., many sports have been enhanced by digital and wearable devices. The centrality of the human body and the different contexts where sports can be practiced have led HCI research to explore how mobile and wearable devices could support the physical, social, and environmental aspects of sports disciplines. Yet, the field of HCI & sports continues to evolve under the push of new technological developments and events affecting people worldwide, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. Technological advancements like the metaverse, inbodied technologies, and AI have paved the way for augmented humans, esports, new forms of sociality, and new ways to engage the audience. Likewise, contextual factors push sports trends in two opposite directions simultaneously: on the one hand, they foster the indoorisation and individualization of sports;on the other hand, they encourage practicing sports outdoors and taking advantage of the "restorative environment"of nature. With this workshop, we would like to invite the MobileHCI community to discuss the current trends in portable technologies for sports and trace future directions for HCI research in this field. © 2022 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
The rapidly growing market of eSports has become a lucrative industry. Sim racing is one of the traditional sports that gain increasing popularity in eSports. With raising profits, lucrative sponsoring contracts, and competitive price money, incentives for fraud are also on the upraise. This is further facilitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the substitution of live eSport events by virtual formats. Particularly, in sim racing it becomes increasingly challenging to verify the contestants identity in virtual events. Here, we propose and evaluate a generic workflow to identify personal driving style by transforming raw racing data (including measurements extracted from the simulation software and connected simulator hardware) into a comparable representation (fingerprint). As data base we used an extensive collection of telemetry data recorded from the racing simulation Assetto Corsa on 3 immersive motion simulators. The set contains over 2,000 laps of seven player recorded in weekly sessions. The experiments demonstrate the feasibility to distinguish players using the proposed method on different tracks, car models, and motion simulators. Due to the extensive experiments, we could achieve a driver separation score of up to 89%. The raw data and the raw results are made publicly available on Github. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Labeling video games (e-sport) as sports is a controversial topic. Proponents argue that e-sports are a fast-growing "non-traditional sport" which requires "careful planning, precise timing, and skillful execution". Others claim that sports involve physical fitness and physical training, and prefer to classify esports as a mind sport (e.g. like chess). E-sports is a discipline that is gaining increasing popularity in the contemporary world. The effect of the increasing popularity of this area is the rapid development of the e-sports market, as well as the development of numerous organizations involved in e-sports. The growing importance of e-sports means that it could become an important element in the development of smart cities in the near future. The study will also discuss the definition of e-sports in law, the possibilities of financing e-sports by local governments and the threats related to e-sports. Material and methods: The article will include the analysis of legal definiotion of -esport and legal regulations which enable financing e-sport by towns and municipalities from different countries (dogmatic-legal method and comparative law method). Moreover, the article will also describe what benefits local governments could obtain from financing e-sport (e.g. promotion). Basic results, conclusions: Electronic sports will soon become an important element in the structure of Smart City 4.0. Financing e-sports by local government units brings measurable marketing and social benefits although it also carries risks (e.g. doping, corruption, video-game addiction). The bounds between e-sports and local government not only include digitization or development of new technologies, but also promotion of the city and many law problems which local goverment should solve.
ABSTRACT
Purpose>Esports has been emerging as a multi-billion dollar industry by attracting players, viewers, advertisers and investors across the globe. Even though there are plenty of professional titles present, only a few have been considered mainstream due to lack of formal governance mechanisms, presence of corruption and cheating mechanisms. “Doping” is one such practice where the players try to gain unfair advantage over their competitors, causing major hindrance in esports development. This qualitative study would draw insights from their perceptions about different doping mechanisms and possible recommendations to curb them.Design/methodology/approach>This study has analyzed the semi-structured interviews of selected esports professionals to draw insights from their perceptions about different doping mechanisms and possible recommendations to curb them. This qualitative study would explore the content of their interviews for extracting relevant themes and subthemes.Findings>The findings of this study have made significant contributions to deeply lacking literature about the esports industry and barriers it faces in order to be considered as a legitimate sport. The study has extracted contemporary and new emerging themes about the rising trends in the industry and their impact on society and the way we see sports as a whole. Moreover, this study dwells upon the rampant drug abuse persisting in this industry and how it offers itself as a barrier to the legitimization of esports as a viable global industry.Originality/value>This study provides an on-ground reality reports on esports and various malpractices rampant in the industry by conducting interviews with various industry professionals and analyzing them through a thematic analysis method using an inductive approach.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 brought the whole world to a halt suddenly and forced it to go on social distancing & lockdown. COVID-19 has impacted every industry worldwide differently and mostly negatively, so we wanted to look at its impact on the 'esports industry,' especially in the Indian context. To understand the impact, we did a detailed literature review of academic papers, articles, industry reports to determine the current trend and predict possibility in the future. Our findings indicate that although the industry is facing issues, COVID-19 actually might have helped the esports industry in the long term and expedite its progress among the young generation. Once everything was done, we analyzed the complete literature review, and based on that;we listed out our findings, and based on our findings, we did a final evaluation. We reviewed the existing work of academicians, business reports, industry reports, trends captured by news/media organizations, and the current state of video games to find the trends & reasons which could help us solve our question.
ABSTRACT
Background: During the pandemic COVID19 in 2020, Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented worldwide, including in Malaysia. This MCO restricts the movement and activities of the public to limit the community involvement in physical activity such as sports, exercise, and recreational activities. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the trend of involvement of Malaysian people in sports, exercise, and recreational activities while MCO. Methods: This pilot survey was conducted among 150 randomly selected respondents from the enumerators around Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, and Putrajaya. Malaysia Sports Culture Index questionnaire (2018), with high validity and reliability used to collect the data. The data were analyzed descriptively using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 26. Results: The findings showed that exercise was carried out by 60.5%, followed by e-sports by 19.5%, physical sports by 11.7%, and active recreation by 8.3%. Aerobics, walking, yoga, Zumba, and jogging are the five most frequent exercise activities in the exercise category. For the sports category, people prefer badminton and table tennis. The choice of time to be active during MCO shows the most common time is in the evening, 43.7%. This is followed by the morning option 28.8%, night time, 25.0%, and afternoon time, only 2.5%. Social media 78.7% is the most dominant medium used by Malaysians in performing sports activities, exercise, active recreation, or e-sports. On the other hand, some respondents used video conferencing 13.5% and conventional media 32.4% as a medium for being active. Conclusion: In particular, involvement in active sports and recreational activities declined significantly during the MCO. However, the dominant percentage of exercise activity plays a vital role in reducing the health risks associated with physical inactivity.
ABSTRACT
Esports are video games played competitively for fun and profit at both amateur and professional levels. Esports have matured into an independent sports sector similar to traditional sports, including support for international events and governing bodies. The esports industry has become a growing mainstream phenomenon, with young audiences representing the sports audiences of the future. With the increased awareness of esports among gaming communities and its potential to engage and entertain sports fans, esports has entered the zeitgeist. The Covid-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions to people's leisure activities and to the sporting industry, which had to cancel or postpone many events. This article highlights the key findings from the recent esports-focused workshops on spectatorship and high-performance gaming, and a special interest group (SIG) held at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), paving the way for future studies and use cases in HCI.
ABSTRACT
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, a dramatic increase in mHealth application (app) downloads has been documented. However, overall dwell retention for fitness apps is low, so gamification techniques are used within apps with the goal of positively influencing the user experience and ultimately the user's motivation. The so-called flow, which is related to intrinsic motivation, has been little explored in the context of cycling apps. Therefore, we conducted a quasi-experimental cycling study with 34 cyclists (20 female, 14 male;19 to 57 years old) who tested the adidas Running by Runtastic (Adidas Runtastic), Komoot, and Strava cycling apps during a 20-minute bike ride. After testing each cycling app, they completed the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) and the Flow State Scale-2 Short (FSS-2S). Our results showed no significant differences across the six factors of the UEQ, nor across the total score of the FSS-2S. Thus, we conclude that the three cycling apps Adidas Runtastic, Komoot, and Strava are perceived and rated almost equally by female and male cyclists.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 pandemic is a worldwide health crisis. Measures taken to prevent the spread of this disease, such as lockdown implementation, have severely impacted different aspects of life. There was widespread economic disruption across the globe. Offices, colleges, businesses, and organizations were closed completely, switching to online working and studying. People could not socialize, travel, participate in sports, or any outdoor recreational activity due to lockdown. Many people found e-sports (electronic sports) as a new form of entertainment to overcome the boredom, stress, and anguish of lockdown. The pandemic turned out to be a big opportunity for the e-sports industry with tremendous financial growth and popularity. E-sports, such as Sim racing and development of smartphone games attracted a lot of attention and investment. The technological advancement of e-sports engaged more players and viewers in the pandemic. Many new platforms offered online games and live broadcasting which enhanced awareness of e-sports among people. © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.