How Caffeine Can Give You an Edge in e-Sports

As the most widely-used psychoactive medication in the world, caffeine lifts mood, energy, and alertness in many individuals. However, possibly more relevantly, coffee may help competitive gamers through improving shooting accuracy and reaction time.

As the most widely used psychoactive medication in the world, caffeine lifts mood, energy, and alertness in many people. What may be more relevantly important, though, is that coffee could help competitive gamers because it increases shooting accuracy and quicker reaction time.

A recent study, which was published in the journal Nutrients, tried to find how caffeine administration would influence professional e-sport players’ performances while doing video games that require high cognitive and motor skills. Twenty professional players of CS:GO were randomly selected by the researchers, who would further be administered a placebo or at a dose of 3 mg/kg body weight caffeine, which is about two cups of coffee for the average man.

Participants then completed a series of tests on mood, memory, reaction time, and gameplay performance in the computer game CS:GO-a first-person shooter where participants virtually shoot at moving adversaries and targets. Tests were run again after one or two hours of caffeine consumption.

Based on these findings, the authors concluded that only the caffeine-containing 3 mg/kg dose could enhance shooting performance and response times of elite e-sport athletes. They have assumed that the action of caffeine is thus a result of the increase of neurotransmitter availability-in particular, dopamine and norepinephrine-via the activation of the central nervous system and also a decline in the perception of pain and fatigue.

In this study, nine male eSports athletes, with an average age of 20.8± years, examined the effects of taking 3 mg/kg of caffeine one hour before gaming. The research, which took place between January 1, 2022, and April 30, 2022, featured familiarization tests in addition to the actual study. Participants were randomized to either the caffeine or placebo group following these preconditions. They all conducted several tests and adhered to a set of guidelines, which included limiting caffeine use each day. According to the statistical study, shooting abilities, visual search, and reaction times all significantly improved after consuming coffee. In light of this, the trial suggests that coffee enhances performance in eSport.

It is among the first research to examine the effects of caffeine on e-sport performance and confirms a growing amount of evidence showing caffeine improves a variety of cognitive and physical performance metrics. The authors list a limited sample size, the absence of a control group, and the potential impact of individual variations in caffeine sensitivity and tolerance as some of the study’s limitations.

They went on to say that too much caffeine causes cardiovascular issues, anxiety, and sleep disturbances. As a result, they said, e-sport participants need to think about other things including training, sleep, food, hydration, and consuming little to no caffeine.