Decision-making in Esports — William Collis, Team Genji
In their landmark look at skills demand in 2030, the UK’s top innovation agency NESTA ranked over 100 skills, abilities and types of knowledge that will be important to the future of work. Top of the list: Judgement and Decision-Making.
Playing video games calls upon the decision-making talent of players — intensely — and scientific research points to particular kinds of games that are most relevant: first person shooter games, strategy games and esports.
Esports calls upon so many skills: digital literacy, focus, growth mindset and decision-making, to name just a few. We wanted to find out more.
William Collis is the co-founder of Team Genji, the #1 Hearthstone esports team in the World with four Grandmasters pros. He is also founder of Gamer Sensei, the largest online coaching platform for esports, where Pro Gamers tutor Students to become esports Most Valuable Players.
GA: William, thanks so much for this interview. What skills do you see players expressing in games?
WC: Games are hugely skills-driven. There are obvious things like reflexes, hand eye coordination and responsiveness, the ability to prioritize, quickly assess an unfamiliar situation and respond to it effectively. But you know there are very meaningful strategic decisions that players make too.
GA: What skills do you think that games can teach and instill in players?
WC: It depends on the game you play but I think the biggest thing is perseverance. The biggest thing I see with pro players is how they’re really really good at slogging through difficult things to get to rewards. They’re really good at committing to something and holding to it and not deviating. Their ability to manage stress is incredible. And then there’s the ability to keep a positive disposition in the face of bad results, to say: “this is the game state now, forget about what went on historically and just move on.”
GA: Do these skills transfer into real life?
WC: To some extent games are a unique environment. But I think they are an indicator of what might transfer. Look, if I am hiring for a job, I would feel differently about someone who hit Legend in Hearthstone versus someone who quit at Rank 12. It’s a data point, that someone can stick with something — and master it.
GA: Our first Game Academy Course is designed to support gamers in making decisions, in-game and in life. What do you think is good decision making in a game?
Good decision making in a game is very abstract and tactical. You’re cognizant of the general direction a match is moving in. You’re cognizant of the play states that favour you. At the same time, you have very good visibility into the short term. I think it calls for a really interesting skill. Gamers have to bridge very short-focussed analysis of what is visible and optimizes immediately, but also sculpt a bigger picture from abstract, long-term uncertainty.
GA: What advice would you give a player to improve their decision making prowess?
WC: Correctly prioritise short and long-term trade-offs. A lot of people in games are either very focussed on the short term, or so focussed on the long term, that they don’t recognize how sometimes the optimisations in the short-term will drag them behind.
GA: Thanks so much, William. And very best to the next stages of the Grandmasters.
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Game Academy is a new platform for game players that translates in-game skills into real life and work, helping game players capitalise upon their talent using commercial games.
Want to know more about Game Academy and sign up to our first course on Decision-Making? Go to our site.
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