WATCH: ROUNDS’ players helped gather data for Santasport’s behavioural eye tracking test

Background check: Who are Santasport?

Santasport Lapin Urheiluopisto (Lapland Sports Institute) participates in, or serves as the lead coordinator for, several development projects. These initiatives either help develop the institute’s internal operations or generate new industry expertise. The content of these development projects is also closely integrated with the institute’s educational programs. All projects fall under their research, development, and innovation (RDI) activities. ROUNDS has been collaborating with Santasport / Lapin Urheiluopisto since 2022. On top of this, we are actively researching ourselves as well, and are interested in participating actively in other research collaborations too. We feel like this eye tracking test goes hand-in-hand with our collaboration with Silmäasema, boosting our professionality regarding eyesight-related research in competitive gaming. The behavioural eye tracking test is a part of Santasport’s “Digital Sport and Healthy Active Lifestyle Ecosystem” -project, more specifically the work package number five: “WP 5: Improving skill performance through esports / Santasport/RKKY”. The work package in question focuses on improving skill-based performance in esports, or enhancing skill performance through esports. Santasport’s project working group brought up the idea of measuring the visual and eye-tracking performance of esports athletes. They wanted to conduct testing on our e-athletes, with their control group being a group of amateurs from Rovaniemi, Finland.

What were our thoughts?

I managed to have a chat with ROUNDS’ Project Lead and former Counter-Strike coach Toni “FrisKy” Nikka. Here’s what he had to say about the project.

One of the biggest surprises of the eye tracking test was the sheer volume of data it yields; it was a positive surprise even for an experienced coach. This technology allows us to directly compare and identify the key differences between experienced and inexperienced players. – Toni “FrisKy” Nikka, Project Lead

Experienced players: We can see how quickly an experienced player can glance at the radar, check the surviving players and everyone’s utility, and use that information to decisively steer the round in a better direction. Inexperienced players: In contrast, an inexperienced player may not realize they actually have the time to use their vision to build a comprehensive picture of the situation: information needed to call the round, request support from teammates, or communicate crucial details. “As a result, an inexperienced player might fail to guide the team entirely because they aren’t gathering critical information during the moments in the game when they have the opportunity to do so. While in-game roles naturally affect how this is balanced, the data consistently showed, without exception, that experience and tactical know-how are directly reflected in visual behavior”, Toni added.