Towards Improving Esports’ Working Conditions: Insights on Role of a Professional Players’ Association

Abstract

The esports’ scene is a multibillion-dollar industry with large global audiences. There is an increasing scholarly interest on the esports phenomenon, looking at it from a variety of disciplines. At the center of the esports ecosystem are the athletes who are members of teams that compete in leagues and tournaments, working in a still poorly regulated industry. Not surprisingly, the esports scene is usually characterized by poor working conditions, busy schedules and burnout. As a direct consequence, players’ push for better working conditions is frequent and a possible avenue for pursuing such efforts is the establishing of players’ association. In this context, this exploratory study aims to analyze the activities and initiatives carried out by the Counter Strike Professional Players’ Association, to promote better working conditions for professional esports’ players. The study qualitative analyses documents from the association, coding the initiatives and topics addressed by them. Results indicate that the association tries to address work conditions, regulations, player compensation and health issues by discussing guidelines and minimum standards of work with event organizers and teams organizations. We propose a model to understand the role of players’ associations in dealing with these parties as well as with game developers, and the possible outcomes from these negotiations. The incorporation of Human Factor and Ergonomics specialists to players’ associations can be a way to assist on driving for improvements on the esports scene.