BOOM Esports are using every method in their arsenal in order to have a great run at The International 11. The Southeast Asian stars have moved their bootcamp to Malaysia, added new staff and most importantly, hired an esports psychologist. What does an esports psychologist do? How does it help the team? Here are all the answers that you need!
What does an esports psychologist do?
As BOOM Esports entered their final bootcamp of the season right before the International, the team hired Jax Lau “BigBearMon” Jun Xiong as the team’s esports psychologist. BOOM esports staff had the opportunity to interview BigBearMon about his role during the bootcamp, and his job overall.
BigBearMon has a masters in psychology from Soo Chow University and is a part of a Malaysian company called Ask Psy. He focuses on occupational therapy, essentially a form of therapy that focuses on workplace interactions. BOOM Esports is not the only team that have taken in an esports psychologist, OG Esports have mentioned in the past that they are another team to employ the services of a psychologist.
The job of an esports psychologist and a traditional sports psychologist are much the same. A psychologist allows teams to center themselves and focus on the gameplay right before a match. They provide important reminders to the team that can help their mentality throughout a series. This will be BigBearMon’s main goal going into the bootcamp.
“My job is to get them (BOOM Esports) ready and mentally prepared during the game to execute the strategies in the best way possible.” Said BigBearMon
Where is BOOM Esports at in terms of mentality?
BigBearMon has been only with the team for a few days but he said that the team is young and competent. The team’s biggest hurdle is changing their perspective from being players to winners. He believes that BOOM Esports must look higher in order to truly achieve the heights of winning The International 2022. The boys must transition from players, to global winners.
BigBearMon realizes that the team has a lot of pressure ahead of The International. However, he believes that pressure is not always a bad thing.
“Pressure doesn’t just cause you to underperform.” BigBearMon said. “Pressure can also be a great force to push you to go beyond your boundaries.”
What are BigBearMon’s goals with BOOM Esports?
He believes that the team is able to lift the Aegis this year. However, there is still work to be done. A lot of BigBearMon’s job will be rooted in fixing communication between the players. If there is any differences in ideas, he will act as a middle man to fix the issues. According to him, every single second playing the game counts, and there is something to be learned.
BOOM Esports’ bootcamp to prepare for The International has gone all out. Hopefully the addition of an esports psychologist will help the team reach their goals. Either way, it is incredibly interesting to see the insights of this completely new role in an esports team. Let us know how you think BOOM Esports will do at The international 2022!