Distributed Cognition and Temporal Knowledge in League of Legends

Abstract

Elite video game competition provides a setting for studying how digitally connected teams handle massive amounts of information that no individual could manage on their own. This article discusses observations of the University of California, Irvine's scholarship League of Legends teams' practices and competitions from fall 2016 through spring 2017. The observations explore the nature of distributed cognition of time and temporal information in a high-pressure, competitive environment. The capacity and strategies of these teams to maintain high levels of coordination, while sitting at desktops for hours at a time, can provide insight into how other kinds of teams might learn to collaborate skillfully in networked settings.