Secrets of Gosu: Understanding Physical Combat Skills of Professional Players in First-Person Shooters
At a glance
- What
- A data-collection study that recorded eight professional and eight amateur Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players to test conjectures about what makes FPS professionals better.
- Why
- In-game statistics such as the kill/death ratio show who wins, not how, and the conjectures traded in online communities had never been scientifically tested.
- How
- The study built a logger that aligns body motion, gaze, device input and in-game state to one timestamp, staged one-on-one duels within each group and compared the groups on quantitative metrics.
- New
- Only six of 13 conjectures held up. Professionals pulled the mouse down more to counter recoil, so their crosshair sat farther from the target, contrary to the common advice.
Abstract
In first-person shooters (FPS), professional players (a.k.a., Gosu) outperform amateur players. The secrets behind the performance of professional FPS players have been debated in online communities with many conjectures; however, attempts of scientific verification have been limited. We addressed this conundrum through a data-collection study of the gameplay of eight professional and eight amateur players in the commercial FPS Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The collected data cover behavioral data from six sensors (motion capture, eye tracker, mouse, keyboard, electromyography armband, and pulse sensor) and in-game data (player data and event logs). We examined conjectures in four categories: aiming, character movement, physicality, and device and settings. Only 6 out of 13 conjectures were supported with statistically sufficient evidence.