Attachment and Relational Regulation in Esports Psychology: Understanding Performance in Digital Environments

Esports has emerged as a rapidly professionalizing performance domain characterized by high cognitive demands, continuous social evaluation, and digitally mediated interaction. While research has largely focused on attentional, motor, and decision-making processes, the relational and regulatory dimensions of esports remain underexplored. Drawing on attachment theory, this chapter conceptualizes esports as a hybrid relational environment in which stress, evaluation, and mediated proximity simultaneously activate internal regulatory systems. It argues that digital communication channels may function as forms of secure base and safe haven, reorganizing attachment processes within technologically mediated contexts. Differences in attachment anxiety and avoidance are discussed in relation to performance stress, feedback sensitivity, team coordination, and long-term well-being. By moving beyond a purely cognitive account of esports performance, this chapter highlights the importance of relational regulation and psychosocial dynamics in sustaining high-level competitive play. Attachment theory is proposed as a holistic framework for understanding how players navigate threat, belonging, and exploration in the digital age. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.