Red Bull is bullish–pun intended–about several emerging sports, especially this one: eSports.
Envisioning the brand as a strong supporter for this sector isn’t surprising. They’re at the pulse of what’s next, even before the mainstream embraces it. Their exploration and investment in eSports shouldn’t go unnoticed; rather, it should be examined further insofar as the test-tube it’s turning into.
In fact, just a few months ago, Red Bull debuted its first-ever eSports Studio in Southern California. This facility functions to train eSports athletes and broadcasting respective tournaments. Such a venture represents a testament to Red Bull’s serious involvement within the gaming sphere.
Conversely, previous endeavors by Red Bull surface again in order to better position themselves in this highly competitive space.
When the Red Bull High Performance team explored eye-tracking technology down in Mexico for its surf science project, the tech’s successful deployment deemed it worthy to be tried again in a different capacity. The brand decided to the extend their evaluation of eye-tracking technology to the field of eSports. Initial tests were conducted with professional gamers during the Gamescom conference in Germany last year. With insights pulled showing some promise, Red Bull has now incorporated SensoMotoric Instruments’ (SMI) REDn remote eye-tracking device as part of the aforementioned hi-tech venue.
At this early stage, Kimberly Popp, Red Bull’s eSports Performance Manager, tells SportTechie that the project’s purpose is to “better understand eSports players to, in turn, adopt and create techniques and programs to improve gameplay performance and applications for athletes in other sports disciplines.”
Thus, this experiment intends to measure, deconstruct, and train key gaming skills to these individuals. SMI’s eye-tracking solution was selected to provide data for real-time performance assessment, including concentration, reaction time, precision, and anticipation. Their gadget enables Red Bull to discern how these critical skills are impacted by common factors such as stress, fatigue, and competitive play.
In conjunction with Red Bull High Performance, the eSports Studio serving as the hub is instrumental towards this experiment taking place.
While the biomechanics part of this lab is just starting to be constructed, the stage pertinent to understanding the brain and its impact on performance stands next in the lab’s growth cycle. By Red Bull focusing on the relationship between the brain and eSports, they’re maximizing the gamers that the brand currently supports. These elite eSports athletes should reap the most benefits from further knowledge and training platforms early on.
For this use case, the lab’s concept does manifest itself: Red Bull will be able to match gameplay data and stats with a player’s biometrics and team interactions.
The latter includes eye-tracking, brain states, heart rates, galvanic skin response, facial patterns, team communication, and etc., which details more information into what really goes into the performance of an eSports athlete.
The project, though, remains in the evaluation phase. Different technologies are being tested to evaluate possibilities in order to understand and improve eSports performance. The goal is to determine key physiologic and performance benchmarks for these athletes, incorporating visual training into sports exercise routines in the process.
Due to the monitor-based activities, Red Bull utilized the stationary SMI REDn eye-tracking peripheral device. While naturally playing eSports games on a PC, eSports athletes’ eye movements are recorded with the gadget attached to the PC monitor. Besides SMI’s eye-tracking technology, the lab is equipped to record and sync gameplay to several other physical and physiological data capture systems.
However, there are some differences and similarities of this eye-tracking deployment with the aforementioned surf science project worth noting.
“The difference is the physical setting, but the general approach to monitor and compare visual behavior in order to define the impact on performance is similar,” says Eberhard Schmidt, SensoMotoric Instruments’ Managing Director, to SportTechie.
“Athletes, in general, are mostly not aware of their visual strategies. Seeing their own gaze patterns, and comparing it to others, sometimes surprises them; and makes them look differently at their surf or at their play,” added Schmidt.
Popp mentions that the environment of the data capture as well as timeframe played roles in the contrasting instances.
In surfing, Red Bull determined that the athletes need a larger video capture area on their eye-tracking glasses. In eSports, on the other hand, that requisite isn’t an issue, with their field of view being able to be completely captured on a fixed computer screen. The surf science project was completed in a week, with certain technologies from the camp being applied in different settings forward. This eSports experiment has a long-term timeline, which is necessary to really study and understand this new field that has yet to be explored in great depth.
Red Bull’s eSports emphasis surrounds the titles of Dota 2, Call of Duty, Halo, and their partnership with a League of Legends team. Since the experiment was conducted in a training scenario, the hope is that they’ll be able to better comprehend the pieces of technology that don’t interfere with performance first then applying them in an actual competitive scene.
Still, it’s far too early to know which performance area–concentration, reaction time, and anticipation among the more pertinent ones–has the greatest effect on a gamer’s abilities. Most likely, it won’t be just one characteristic that’s determined to be superior over others, but a combination a few of them.
“Eye-tracking paired with other technologies may help better understand these concentrations,” believes Popp.
“For example, to determine reaction time, we can do a simple reaction time test–see the target appear and click the button. To get higher fidelity, we can add EEG technologies on top of that to parcel out the time it takes for the signal to appear on the screen, the time it takes to register in the brain, and the time it takes to click the button,” Popp states.
“The next level of fidelity on this is to add eye-tracking; that will help us determine when the player sees the target, so we can parcel times for the target appearing, seeing the target, registering the target in the brain, and the click time. To see how this is happening in an actual eSports game, with some many moving parts, we will need this fidelity to really understand performance,” continued Popp.
Eye-tracking technology can contribute to increased performance in a plethora of training applications. New options, like eye-tracking for HMDs, should add more immersive experiences. It’s a tool that can certainly improve the story and interactivity of eSports games, as game development companies continue to deploy it for usability testing within their respective games.
“Currently, we are talking about eye-tracking technology being used by advanced training centers, professional and academic researchers. In the midterm, we expect robust eye-tracking and gaze as a new interaction; modality becomes available as an integrated component on many screens–from PC monitors and TV screens, to tablets and smart glasses, to VR goggles–making it more widely available for end-users,” says Schmidt.
When the question is reversed, as far as what can be learned from eSports athletes that can be applied to traditional athletes, that’s when gaming will have credence from a performance, physiological standpoint.
Red Bull has been involved in the gaming space since 2006, when they brought on Halo champion Dave “Walshy” Walsh. Their High Performance segment for eSports is centered around the brain. Being at the forefront in gaining this knowledge, it will spur comprehensive findings that will help athletes over the long run.
“The eSports environment is almost an ideal setting to better understanding neuro-capabilities of athletes in the context of their sport,” believes Popp.