How Psychological Momentum Influences Esports Outcomes
Intro
You’re on a spree. You’ve got the momentum. You’ve got 3 kills in the fight and 2 more enemies to go. You’re about to engage in the next battle and potentially win the game for your team. The game pauses... There's been a problem with the game. You have energy and adrenaline built up, but can’t use it. When the game unpauses, you do exactly what you planned, but you end up losing the fight. Did you lose because you lost psychological momentum, or was it simply going to happen either way?
If you watched the League European Championship (LEC) Match of the Week (G2 vs FNC) on the 24th of July, you would have seen the two pauses during the game; some of which may have been controversial, yet not against the rules. During a teamfight in this League of Legends match, FNATIC opted for a fight, to which they swiftly lost two members. Just as the fight seems to progress, the game is paused by members of FNATIC who felt a bug had occurred. After the pause ended, FNATIC were able to pull back some momentum and grab 1, and arguably even 2 kills in the same fight. There was lots of controversy over whether the pause halted G2 Esports’ momentum, allowing FNATIC to take advantage of this in the fight
This blog post will look at the significance of psychological momentum in esports.
What and How?
Psychological momentum is defined by the Oxford Dictionary of Sport Science as “the positive or negative change in cognition and behaviour due to event(s) that may affect perception of or quality of performance.” This can happen in smaller scale scenarios like the example above, or on a larger scale, like a reverse sweep (when one team gets a comeback from a match point) in a Best of 5 Finals. Research by Gernigon, Briki and Eykens has shown that psychological momentum has a relationship with cognitive anxiety and confidence. Their research suggested there may be an association that when a person progresses closer to winning, cognitive anxiety decreases. Please note the researchers deemed this as some evidence of psychological momentum as the performer becomes more comfortable.
Other research conducted by Briki and colleagues found 3 main factors which influence psychological momentum. The 3 factors are as follows:
Dissonance. Dissonance is when there is a disruption in a steady momentum. This can occur either favourably, where a situation becomes unexpectedly good, or unfavourably, where a situation becomes unexpectedly sour. Psychological momentum increases in favourable scenarios, and in the opposite direction in unfavourable scenarios. An example of this is a reverse sweep in any esport, like League of Legends. A team can be 2-0 in a best of five, and whilst the team ahead may expect to win, they may suddenly drop a game, resulting in dissonance. Briki and colleagues’ research also suggests that there’s a relationship between this and theories of acceleration, where moving toward a target gives a feeling of exhilaration, and moving away from a target gives a feeling of “sinking”.
Consonance. Consonance is when a player expects a negative or positive outcome, and therefore has less or more psychological momentum. So this means that when a team or player is expecting to lose, they typically have a worse mindset and less psychological momentum. This is less common of a factor seen in unexpected comebacks or pauses like previously mentioned.
Fear of Losing was the final factor found in the study. Fear of losing was found to occur most when someone was close to winning, like on a match point. The idea of being close to winning for players or athletes may cause a lot of anxiety about not letting the opponent take the win. Briki suggested that other studies found the effects of Fear of Losing are more significant when wins are almost seen as assured.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the effects of psychological momentum can explain why reverse sweeps occur and how a team can unexpectedly win. Having a sudden pause may also cause dissonance, where the situation is now favourable for a player resulting in cognitive anxiety lowering and improving the players performance. Factors like Fear of Losing and Dissonance can be addressed through mental practice and experience - experience allows players to be more adaptable when there is dissonance, or more comfortable when there may be a fear of losing. Consonance can be combated through a positive mindset, having a positive mindset deters a player from expecting a negative outcome.
Article written by Orion Chan