Cultivating teamwork in esports: a framework for assessment and training

Purpose Key challenges in esports include reliance on individual skill, lack of team-based measurement tools, and high turnover, all reflecting a gap in teamwork development. The purpose of this study is to address these challenges in order to help teams assess, improve, and develop coordinated teamwork effectively. Design/methodology/approach Using behavioral trace data from 80 professional gamers across 16 esports teams, three objective coordination metrics were validated to propose a novel teamwork assessment tool, providing real-time metrics for team performance. Specifically, this approach enables the measurement and assessment of teamwork skills in esports teams. Findings The coordination metrics (convergence, view coverage and co-location) were significantly related to nearly all defensive and offensive outcomes. A one standard deviation increase in convergence increases the odds of killing an enemy by 17% and hurting an enemy by 10%. A similar increase in view coverage reduces the odds of killing an enemy by 16% and the odds of hurting an enemy by 21%. These validated metrics of coordination provide a strong foundation for the proposed assessment tool. Originality/value The proposed tool provides support for both esports training and management strategies, providing not only guidance on the selection of individual players for teams but also the optimization of pre-existing teams. Such findings equip teams with the knowledge and tools needed to foster a cohesive team environment, enabling them to cultivate a team-centric focus and transcend individual limitations to achieve greater success as a unified team on the competitive stage.