Compared to traditional sports, e-athletes are retiring at a younger age, often because they suffer overwhelming stress and burn-out.  But a new study by Gold Coast-based Southern Cross University psychology researcher Jack Sargeant suggests that e-sports are working to combat the attrition by beginning to coach athletes in “mental toughness.”

The mental training could be the edge that not only may help not only help e-athletes compete at a higher level for longer, but may support athletes across all sports.

“Mental toughness kept coming up as key to preventing sport devaluation, reduced accomplishment and exhaustion among athletes,” Sargeant said.  “What we’re going to be seeing now is how trainable mental toughness is.”

The move by major league gaming into improving match day performance by training athletes in mental toughness comes as new research out of the US shows that playing video games may actually be better for your brain than not playing video games at all.

That study, published this week by researchers from the University of Vermont, found around 71 per cent of people aged two to 17 in the US play video games.

In the largest study yet to look into how video games affect young brains, it found those who played at least 21 hours of video games a week exhibited better cognitive performance involving response inhibition and working memory than those who didn’t play at all.

The study found that compared with non-gamers, video gamers had better blood oxygen levels in parts of the brain helping visual, attention, and memory processing signals.

The researchers said most psychological and behavioural studies had previously suggested that video gaming was detrimental. “(But) the results of this case-control study of 2217 children showed enhanced cognitive performance in children who played video games vs those who did not,” the researchers wrote.

E-sports is one of the fastest-growing global industries, with millions of fans worldwide. Despite missing out on a shot at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, e-athletes may potentially make their Olympic debut at the 2032 south-east Queensland Olympic Games.

In a surprise decision, organisers said competitive gaming would not be a medal event in the 2026 Commonwealth Games, even after it was a pilot event at the 2022 Birmingham Games.

However, it is still on the table for the 2032 Olympics where events could be held across the state’s south-east. Plans are already being considered for Australia’s first purpose-built e-sports precinct at Carrara on the Gold Coast, with the city expected to host a swathe of 2032 Games events.

Sargeant said most elite e-athletes were aged 16 to 26, with players often retiring in their early 20s.

Reports based on league data out of America show the average competitor in Activision’s Call of Duty League is around 22. In Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch League, 20 is the average age of players. Both leagues have noted that players retire extremely young compared to traditional sports.

Sargeant said money, including prize pools of around $40 million, and the growth of e-sports meant the stresses of competition were similar, if not more, than for some more traditional sports.

“Dealing with the stress can help with performance and they need the support, especially with these multi-million-dollar prize pools,” Sargeant said.  “People as young as 16 are competing for these prizes and you can imagine the effects on them.”

He said team-based competitive e-sports, such as League of Legends, Overwatch, and Counter-Strike, were now being viewed as a viable career path for young people.

“There is a lot of research for coping with stress in traditional sports. I wanted to investigate it in an e-sports context to see if there are any differences,” he said.  “What we expect to see is improvements in e-sports that can then be taken back to traditional sports to help someone compete at a better level for longer.

“Teams are starting to realise there’s a lot more to it than just getting these players signed up and hoping they’ll perform. You’ve really got to look after e-sports players to get the best out of them. E-sports is moving in that direction, it’s early days,” he said.