Esports

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/112506

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    Serendipity in E-sport: Understanding How Complementary and Redundant Information from Robotic Game Companions Influence Game Satisfaction
    (2026-01-06) Chen, Yiyao; Yang, Bo; Gui, Qinghe; Wang, Ying; Sun, Yongqiang
    Robotic Game Companions (RGCs) are AI-driven non-player robots designed to enhance player experiences by delivering contextualized information in the context of multiplayer online battle arena games. Given that RGCs can deliver unsolicited information in real time, this study explores how complementary and redundant information provided by RGCs impacts game satisfaction through perceived serendipity, as well as the moderating role of perceived game performance. A scenario-based experiment with 272 participants reveals that (1) complementary information (vs. redundant information) of RGCs has a greater impact on both game satisfaction and perceived serendipity; (2) perceived serendipity fully mediates the effect of complementary information (vs. redundant information) on game satisfaction; (3) perceived game performance moderates the relationship between complementary information (vs. redundant information), perceived serendipity, and game satisfaction. Contributions to theory and practice are then discussed.
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    Between Stigma and Support: How Esports Students and Teachers Experience and Negotiate Societal and Parental Attitudes Towards Esports
    (2026-01-06) Overå, Stian; Talberg, Niri
    Although esports are gaining traction in formal education, their legitimacy remains contested. Previous research has explored institutional developments, but fewer studies have examined how legitimacy is experienced and negotiated by students and teachers. Through reflexive thematic analysis of interviews with twelve students and two teachers in a Norwegian upper secondary esports programme, we identified three key themes: ‘They care but don’t quite get it’ (parental attitudes), ‘If it were football, they’d clap’ (societal perceptions) and ‘We have to make it make sense’ (legitimation strategies). The study contributes to esports research by demonstrating how students and teachers strive to align esports with institutional and cultural norms and by identifying key equity concerns related to recognition, gendered access and the symbolic framing of esports as a meaningful activity.
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    Modeling Strategic Drafting in Esports: A Generative AI Approach Using BERT for Ban/Pick Prediction in DotA 2
    (2026-01-06) Liu, Kaiyue; Samiee, Samaneh; Chen, Gavin
    Despite the rapid growth of the video game industry, particularly in the realm of esports, the comprehension of the increasingly intricate strategic behaviors, such as drafting, ban/pick, item builds, and others, within these competitive environments continues to be largely neglected. This study proposes the utilization of generative AI (GenAI) for the purposes of draft prediction and analysis in esports. We introduce a BERT-based model to predict ban/pick behavior in professional DotA 2, trained on 2,295 matches. Our proposed method not only serves as an innovative and more accurate framework to predict strategic behaviors in esports but can also be used to analyze ban/pick suggestions and identify key interventions, serving as a tool for practitioners to analyze the metagame. This work contributes both a methodological advance in modeling sequential strategic decisions and a practical framework that can be extended to other complex multi-agent behaviors in games.
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    Why Toxicity Persists in Esports: Introducing the Concept of Toxicity Legitimacy
    (2026-01-06) Chang, Kun
    The presence of toxicity in esports culture has become deeply rooted in and it now concerns both scholars and practitioners. Competitive gaming platforms experience persistent toxic behaviors regardless of increased awareness and intervention efforts. The paper presents the concept of toxicity legitimacy to analyze how toxic behaviors gain acceptance within esports communities. The effort shows how individual actors along with game organizations and sociotechnical infrastructures legitimize and perpetuate toxic behavior. The discussion details theoretical contributions while presenting managerial implications and suggests future empirical validation paths.
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    Introduction to the Minitrack on Esports
    (2026-01-06) Siuda, Piotr; Hedlund, David; Darvin, Lindsey; Witkowski, Emma