Purpose: To identify the state of the literature concerning the role emotions play in esports performance as well as strategies for regulating emotions and maintaining performance.

Methodology: We conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles sourced from databases commonly used for publishing papers in the field of games user research, using a set of keywords related to emotions and esports performance.

• Led my research team in developing the research questions and strategizing the search approach.

• Conducted a literature search of peer-reviewed articles sourced from selected databases using a set of keywords.

• Organized and filtered articles for inclusion that met the goals and aims of our review.

• Synthesized the literature into categories corresponding with our research questions.

• Created tables highlighting the research focus, methodologies, and main goals of each study included in the review.

• Discussed implications of work and provided recommendations for future research.

• Produced an academic paper for publication.

• Step 1: Conducted literature search for articles meeting our inclusion criteria using a set search string that was adapted to the search requirements for each database.

• Step 2: Filtered and organized articles into sections corresponding to our research questions (N=32 articles were included in the review).

• Step 3: Synthesized literature into appropriate sections concerning the role emotions play on performance, how players regulate their emotions, and technical interventions that exist to help players cope with their emotions.

• Step 4: Summarized results and discussed implications as well as directions for future work.

There is much more to see in the paper, but the key takeaways are that:

• Various in-game situations evoke emotional responses among esports players (e.g., achievement-related, teammate-related, game design-related, social identity-related).

• Emotions influence esports performance (positive emotions tend to improve performance compared to negative emotions); however, how one responds may be moderated by emotion regulation strategies.

• Esports players attempt to regulate their emotions during competitive play, however, lack appropriate coping styles that effectively respond to the fast pace of esports contexts.

• Technical interventions are currently being developed to assist esports players in regulating their emotions and improving performance, but require further development before their potential is realized in esports contexts.