Caffeine improves the shooting performance and reaction time of first-person shooter esports players: a dose-response study
What this study found
Caffeine improved shooting performance and reaction time versus water, with both doses generally showing benefit and no clear dose-response advantage for 3 mg/kg over 1 mg/kg. Static clicking score improved with CAF1 and CAF3 versus control (p = .023 and p = .005), and reactive tracking accuracy also improved (CAF1 p = .041; CAF3 p < .001). PVT reaction time was faster with caffeine, at 279.8 ± 29.1 ms for CAF1 and 273.0 ± 28.3 ms for CAF3 versus 290.8 ± 31.1 ms for control (p = .008 and p < .001). Static clicking hit rate improved at POST1 for both doses and remained significant at POST3…
- Study & population
- Adult first-person shooter esports players who regularly used mouse and keyboard and were habitual low to moderate caffeine consumers were studied.
- Intervention
- Acute anhydrous caffeine was administered in capsules with 250 mL water at two doses: 1 mg/kg body mass and 3 mg/kg body mass.
- Key limitation
- The study was acute and small, with only 24 participants completing the caffeine arms.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
Caffeine is recognized as one of the most effective dietary ergogenic aids in sports, yet its evidence-based effectiveness in esports is unclear. This study investigated the effects of two different doses of caffeine on the shooting performance and reaction time of 24 first-person shooter (FPS) esports players (22 men, 2 women; age = 22.29 ± 2.91 years). Participants completed three experimental trials in which they consumed either a water control (CON), a 1 mg·kg−1 BM (CAF1) or a 3 mg·kg−1 BM (CAF3) dose of caffeine. Performance measures (e.g., score, accuracy (%), hit rate (hits/sec), and shots fired) were assessed in a static clicking and reactive tracking style task on the KovaaK's FPS aim trainer. Reaction time was used to assess vigilance on the psychomotor vigilance test (PVT). Performance was measured at four time points in each trial: pre-treatment (PRE), 60 min (POST1), 80 min (POST2), and 100 min (POST3) post-treatment. Significant differences were identified using repeated-measures analysis of variances. Caffeine, irrespective of dose, significantly improved performance compared to CON for static clicking score and hit rate, reactive tracking accuracy, and reaction time on the PVT. Significant interactions between treatment and time were identified and post hoc analyses showed that compared to CON, CAF1 significantly improved static clicking score at POST1 and POST3, static clicking hit rate at POST1, reactive tracking accuracy at POST1, POST2, and POST3, and reaction time on the PVT at POST1 and POST2. Post hoc analysis also showed that compared to CON, CAF3 significantly improved static clicking score, reactive tracking accuracy, and reaction time on the PVT at all time points, in addition to static clicking hit rate at POST1 and POST3. In summary, caffeine supplementation enhances the shooting performance and reaction time of FPS esports players.