Physical and/or cognitive warm-up effects on first-person shooter video-games performances

Abstract

With the growing popularity of eSport and the high level of competition among players, optimizing performance has become crucial. However, players often overlook the importance of a proper warm-up routine, which can significantly impact their game performance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of different warm-up strategies (physical, cognitive, or both) on the performance of experienced gamers in Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). Twenty experienced gamers participated in this counterbalanced study where five conditions were randomly administered seven days apart. Players were either resting or warming-up: physical exercise (PE), cognitive exercise (CE), PE + CE or CE + PE before playing a customized CS:GO task. Gamers’ performance was evaluated in terms of time to complete the task and accuracy. Accuracy is defined as the number of shots taken to eliminate a target. Physical exercise significantly reduced the time to complete the task compared to all other conditions but did not affect accuracy (p = 0.019). Cognitive exercise alone or in combination with physical activity did not improve gamers’ performance. This study suggests that a physical warm-up before playing CS:GO can improve gaming performance by reducing the time to complete the task. The findings of this study can help eSports players to optimize their performance by adopting effective warm-up strategies. Furthermore, we contribute to the growing body of evidence supporting the positive impact of physical exercise on cognition, demonstrating its transferability to first-person action video games.