As with any experiment, a greater sample size means more comprehensive results, so Team Liquid also wants to start testing players outside the organization, including casual gamers. Still, Team Liquid is looking to have more of its 120-person roster take NeurOlympics.
"They really cannot be used for talent identification purposes." There's no evidence "to suggest that these measures are in any way predictive of current or future performance on a task," said Mark Williams, the chair of the health, kinesiology and recreation department at the University of Utah. More broadly, some observers have questioned whether the constant measurement is of any practical value in improving results. At least one player purposefully tanked the test in order to avoid scaring off teams that might have worried he'd get bored as a lineman, his position. The Wonderlic has been criticized for racial bias. Testing players for cognitive ability isn't without controversy. Matt Ryan, an NFL quarterback, has used cognitive training system NeuroTracker to refine his situational awareness. The NFL long used the Wonderlic test, a 50-question multiple choice test devised in 1934, to gauge the intelligence of prospective players, though it was retired ahead of this year's scouting combine, which will use the computer-based Player Assessment Tests.
Im pro gamer professional#
Team Liquid, along with racing group Alpine F1's esports team, is taking a page from the playbook of professional sports, a highly competitive realm where every element of performance – diet, sleep, training, mindfulness – gets scrutinized, analyzed and debated in the hopes of identifying an edge. "We're going to be able to identify their strengths and areas for improvement for them to focus on." "Coaches will know more about the players' styles of learning," said Tanner Curtis, Team Liquid's newly appointed team development coach. Armed with an understanding of player behavior, Team Liquid's staff also sees NeurOlympics as a way to tailor coaching to better nurture talent and skills. The team's managers use the results to determine whether a player is a fit for the typically five-person squads and what role he or she might fit best in. Team Liquid, a pro esports team with headquarters in California and the Netherlands, thinks NeurOlympics results may hold the key to winning matches in League of Legends, Valorant and more than a dozen other games in the pro circuit. A person's performance on the test is then run through an algorithm that evaluates performance in memory, speed and other characteristics. Another is an exercise in rapid reaction time. One involves remembering disappearing icons.
The 60-minute assessment guides people through four uncomplicated video games. NeurOlympics is a deceptively simple test. It remains to be seen if the cognitive testing will improve player performance to give Team Liquid an edge in competitions, but it's a sign of increasing professionalization in esports. This is the latest way esports is adopting what traditional sports have refined - in this case, diving into player behavior and improving player health. Team Liquid is one of the first esports organizations to use cognitive testing to improve player performance, as well as encouraging better nutrition, hydration and sleep.