Psychomotor Performance in Esports Players: A Comparative Study of Visual Reaction Time and Hand-Eye Coordination

Background: This study aimed to compare psychomotor performance between regular League of Legends players and control participants. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 71 adults aged 18 to 30 years, divided into a player group, n = 35, and a control group, n = 36. Eleven outcomes assessing visual reaction time, target acquisition, response speed, accuracy, synchronization, and bilateral hand-eye coordination were evaluated using browser-based tasks and CogniFit assessments. Between-group differences were examined using Welch's t-test with Holm adjustment for multiple comparisons. Mann-Whitney tests were conducted as sensitivity analyses. Results: After making the adjustments, nine outcomes remained significant. Players showed faster visual reaction times using their right hand (mean difference = -45.33 ms, 95% CI [-60.55, -30.12], d = -1.41) and left hand (-47.67 ms, [-65.09, -30.25], d = -1.29), quicker target acquisition with the right hand (-116.68 ms per target, [-153.69, -79.67], d = -1.49) and left hand (-156.01 ms per target, [-227.35, -84.67], d = -1.03), and shorter response times on the Simon Task (-0.107 s, [-0.153, -0.062], d = -1.12). They also obtained higher scores on HECOOR (1.11%, [0.28, 1.94], d = 0.63), UPDA-SHIF (0.44%, [0.13, 0.76], d = 0.66), and bilateral hand-eye coordination. Conclusions: These results indicate that League of Legends players exhibit better psychomotor skills on tasks requiring quick visual responses and good hand-eye coordination. Still, because this study used a cross-sectional design, we cannot draw causal conclusions. More research is needed to confirm these specific effects.