In a rented home on a sunny street in Los Angeles, a team of professional gamers sat hunched over in swivel chairs while a pair of ergonomic specialists observed their posture, asked questions and took notes.
The gamers reported pain in their necks, their lower backs, their hips, wrists and shoulders. Carpal tunnel was a common complaint. Most of them were not yet 20.
Over several days in May 2018, specialists who had come from Herman Miller, the modern furniture company, and Logitech, the computer accessory and software manufacturer, watched professional teams practice in their training facilities (often large homes they shared with teammates) and play in a tournament.
They noticed how the gamers gripped their toes on the bases of their chairs to support their bodies, how they would incline forward when they played and how, in their downtime, they would exhibit what Herman Miller personnel dubbed “the teenage slouch.”
“We’re over 50, we don’t know anything about gaming,” said John Aldrich, the vice president of advanced engineering at Herman Miller, which is best known for its Eames lounge chair and mid-century modern furniture. “Watching multimillionaire 19-year-olds playing games was not what I expected to do with my career.”
Perhaps not, but Mr. Aldrich has devoted much of his professional life to ergonomic design, an area of relevance to anyone who sits for extended periods of time, as gamers do. And many players gravitate toward models that resemble chunkier, aggressively colorful office chairs.
Gaming-specific chairs have become unusually coveted during a pandemic that has made both sitting and gaming common occupations. From March to mid-May, Amazon saw a more than 300 percent increase in sales of gaming chairs. Overall video game spending in the United States hit a 10-year peak in June, according to a report from the NPD Group, a market research firm.
Which is to say, whether they knew it or not, the ergonomic specialists had a very good problem on their hands.
The Occupational Hazards of Gaming
It’s not unusual for a professional gamer to sit for 13 hours at a time. And during busy tournament seasons, there are many weeks where teams don’t take a day off from practice, said Noah Francis, a 22-year-old professional Counter-Strike player for Team Envy, who went pro at age 15 and goes by the name “Nifty.”
Carpal tunnel, arthritis, chronic pain and repetitive strain injuriesfrequently result from sustained sitting and gameplay. “Nerd neck” and “keyboard arm” are terms that are tossed around often.
“People shake off back pain like, ‘Ah, I’ve been sitting for a long time,’” Mr. Francis said. “It’s actually not normal to have back pain at such a young age — you shouldn’t have it for another 20 years at least.”
Some players rely on massage therapists and chiropractors, and elite teams often travel with physical therapists. They also have personal trainers and “mental trainers,” a term that seemed to apply broadly to sports psychologists, performance specialists and general talk therapists.
Professional gaming is a sport, and the attention devoted to its players’ health is not unusual. Still, the specific ailments sound a bit geriatric for a field that skews so young. Though the average age of competitive players varies from game to game, the oldest person in the North America League of Legends Championship Series is 28. The champion of last year’s first Fortnite World Cup was 16.
“I guess I could compare it to some modeling or pro sports careers — like late 20s to early 30s is when your pro days are behind you,” said Nate Hill, a 25-year-old Fortnite player for FaZe Clan.