Date of Award
2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
Department
Leadership and Innovation
First Advisor
Robert Calvert Ph.D.
First Committee Member
Fred Estes Ed.D.
Second Committee Member
Richard Woodruff Ph.D.
Abstract
Emotional regulation and stress management are important to both casual and competitive esports players. When players become dysregulated, they experience a phenomenon known as “tilt” within the gaming community, where they often lose control of their emotions and their performance declines. This study aimed to investigate whether a psychophysiological variable in heart rate variability could predict tilt in college-age esports players. Additionally, the relationship between heart rate variability and emotions predicted by the Tiltometer system with gameplay performance and winning or losing was tested.
This study used a quantitative correlational research design. Participants for this study were college-age players (N=23) who were a minimum of Bronze rank in the video game Valorant, making them eligible to engage in an online ranked match. Participants competed in a single online ranked match while wearing a Polar H10 heart rate monitor and having their emotions tracked using face and speech recognition data through the Tiltometer system. Gameplay performance was evaluated by an external panel of two experienced players who watched recordings of subject performances.
Results suggest a significant but weak negative relationship between heart rate variability and Game Sense, Utility, and Overall Gameplay. The emotions “Angry” and the “Tilt Modifier” from the Tiltometer system shared a significant but weak positive relationship with Safe Play, and “Angry” also had a significant but weak positive relationship with Overall Gameplay. Heart rate variability had no significant associations with winning or losing, and only “Happy” had a significant and weak positive relationship with winning. When predicting tilt based on player performance, heart rate variability was a significant predictor with moderately strong accuracy. Tilt based on the Tiltometer system and player self-reporting had no significant relationships with heart rate variability.
Findings from this study suggest that a relationship between HRV and tilt based on player performance exists, but more factors are necessary to improve the precision of model predictions. The negative direction of the relationship between HRV and gameplay also suggests a potentially more complex relationship between physiological stress and player decision-making. Continuing to explore the psychophysiological aspects of tilt will contribute to improved player performance and well-being.
Pages
193
Recommended Citation
Rhea, Nathan. (2026). Predicting Tilt in Esports: A Psychophysiological Approach to Understanding Player Emotional Regulation. University of the Pacific, Dissertation. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/4323
Included in
Exercise Science Commons, Other Physiology Commons, Psychological Phenomena and Processes Commons
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