Life after esports: a grand field challenge

Esports has experienced unprecedented growth recently and with it, the proposition for aspiring gamers to pursue a professional esport career has become increasingly attractive. “Esports” are video-games played competitively (and often professionally) through the means of cyberspace (Campbell et al., 2018) and are an important fixture in the overall gaming industry, which is estimated to be worth more than 120 billion US$ (Takahashi, 2020). The exponential rise in popularity has led to the inclusion of two esports (Rocket League and Street Fighter V) in an International Olympics Council sanctioned tournament before the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games (Martinello, 2019). Despite the appeal of esports as a profession, aspiring esport athletes face many obstacles that can threaten their prospective career timespan, and present post-career difficulties. To date, very limited formal exploration exists into this challenge; thus, this grand field challenge aims to explore the difficulties faced by esport athletes. It also highlights the unique skillsets and experience acquired during a professional esports career, and the value these could offer to alternate high performance professions.