CSPPA, We.Care launch mental health program for CS:GO players

31-5-2021 14:00

The association is now providing counselling services to all members in an effort to curb the rising number of players with symptoms of stress and burnout.

The Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association (CSPPA) and We.Care, a Danish online mental health company, have announced that they have expanded their mental health program to include all CS:GO players following a two-month pilot program with North last summer.

CSPPA members will have around-the-clock access to a dedicated clinical psychologist that they can talk to via encrypted video or messaging. The counselling services will be provided by therapists specialised in the treatment of gaming-related issues and with a background in working with elite athletes from various sports.

"When it comes to mental health issues, CS:GO players are particularly exposed to such issues because of the stress of our busy tournament and practice schedules," FunPlus Phoenix player and CSPPA board member Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk said in a statement.

"So, this mental health program is completely online driven and flexible according to the players’ demands."

The program is aimed at providing treatment to immediate mental issues when necessary and equipping players with the tools to develop a "long term, preventive capacity", according to We.Care, which added that CS:GO players face a number of issues, including stress, burnout, anxiety, loneliness and depression.

Researchers from the University of Chichester revealed in 2019 that professional CS:GO players deal with "51 different stress factors". These mental conditions, the study added, are similar to those "experienced by pro athletes, including footballers and rugby stars, in high-profile tournaments."

"CS:GO players are not too different from other elite athletes in terms of how their minds play a huge part in their performance," said Linisha Palm, CEO and Founder of We.Care.

"Our therapists have an elite sports background making them able to truly understand what kind of pressure CS:GO players are under. At the same time though, CS:GO is a very unique discipline with rigorous training programs that can take a toll on anyone."

Nice. Shouldn't this be provided by the org though? i mean if they want their players to play at the highest level possible wouldn't they want to invest in something like this themselves

2021-05-31 14:05

8 replies

some orgs do this

2021-05-31 14:07

I think this also makes it an industry standard, so that orgs are pushed to keep their players healthy, which is a good thing too, as it'll make the tough t2 scene better too

2021-05-31 18:06

they do this because some orgs *cough astralis* burn out their players and fuck their mental so hard they have to get medical notes from doctors just for some time off

2021-05-31 19:22

some smaller orgs need good treatments but they dont have conditions to do it in a regular schedule so I think this is good.

2021-05-31 19:30

it costs money

2021-05-31 20:50

3 replies

well being of the employees is the responsibility of the oganisation

2021-06-01 08:19

2 replies

no lmao? nt liberal

2021-06-01 11:18

1 reply

i don't know if you are arguing if it should be or not, but at this moment in your country (im guessing sweden) it is written in law that the employer must take care of their employees health

2021-06-01 11:44

Amazing!

interesting

They car!

4 replies

who cars??

2021-05-31 15:48

I_car cars ;(

2021-05-31 15:51

Rip in pepperoni

2021-05-31 15:54

i car for my health

2021-05-31 20:34

Very nice but will wait to see how its implemented + who has access to it + how useful it actually is

2021-05-31 14:06

7 replies

+1 maybe it’s the first time CSPPA has done something useful

2021-05-31 14:09

2021-05-31 15:03

Everyone has access to it: we.care/en/csgo/ There is content available for free, but the sessions or writing with therapists cost money. Right now there is 70% off for the first purchase. Just saying :)

2021-05-31 15:33

Luckily im doing well mental health-wise but if all is as it seems (which it rarely is within CS) then this is a really good initiative and continue doing what you're doing!

2021-05-31 19:53

2021-05-31 15:46

2021-05-31 19:52

+1 hope everyone has a great week further xx <3

2021-06-01 00:48

who.cares?

2021-05-31 17:12

A lot of people. It's irrelevant that you don't.

2021-05-31 21:57

eto bila svoeobraznaya shutka tipo who.cares? we.care nu da ladno uzhe pohui

2021-05-31 23:12

Vizhu 10/10

2021-06-02 02:09

sure

That's a great concept

Glad you like it! We are excited to be able to help all CS:GO players, as our concept isn’t just limited to helping pros

2021-05-31 16:22

Awesome!

2021-05-31 14:08

Sounds good Hopefully this initiative is aimed at the scene at large not just tier 1 players (at least the advanced mdl level of players) Then again these initiatives won't mean crap if the tournament schedule keeps a crazy intense pace but I guess managing that is as well csspa job

2021-05-31 14:15

It is :) It is for everyone, and not just pros or members of CSPPA. we.care/en/csgo/

2021-05-31 15:39

so that means no more crying guardian on LAN finals??

cringe

2021-05-31 14:18

Who cars

2021-05-31 14:20

We.Car

2021-05-31 15:25

+1 this should be the name

2021-05-31 16:42

Yea but some players have too big of an ego, won't ask for help and will still rage: ape x, choko, etc.

2021-05-31 14:23

nice

Damn pro players need mental health program. Might be hard sitting in front of pc for 10k$ in a month😞

11 replies

2021-05-31 14:46

Yeah, maybe it is. With expectations from fans and organisations and what not. Put under a microscope from the CS-community at a young age. Think about the situation with ztr in NIP, being 17-years old and people, mostly young people but adults too, criticizing everything he does just because he played bad. Can't be easy to handle, definitely for the younger players as their brains haven't fully developed yet.

2021-05-31 15:04

2021-05-31 15:40

2021-05-31 16:36

2021-05-31 16:59

2021-05-31 22:10

Many programmers suffer a lot and their job is also "sitting in front of pc".And pro players will have more pressure since they have to perform well or they might be benched.

2021-05-31 15:11

Money isnt everything when you sacrifice health and happiness and add stress, anxiety

2021-05-31 15:31

the preasure must be huge especialy when you get realy good salary, playing for eq. FaZe can be pure nightmare imho, must be absolutely horible feeling when you suck in this position

2021-05-31 17:24

This is the stupidest comment I've read in a while

2021-05-31 19:57

Again one more bullshit frm csppa for trying to be relevant.. if players need brake thn they shdnt participate in every tournaments

2021-05-31 14:28

5 replies

It really is a fucking joke, and I don't get how they thought the community wouldn't see through them with this move? These guys have been the masters of saying one thing and then doing absolutely nothing to help, or in a few cases causing more harm. Maybe with the recent administration change things will also improve and actual have a positive impact for the players they claim to care about.

2021-05-31 14:59

if im paying u 30k/month ur gonna play in whatever tournament i say

2021-05-31 15:09

I can understand that argument for tier 2 team , no tier 1 org gonna force their team to play every tournament n if they won't agree thn its better to chnge org ..

2021-05-31 19:37

Orgs nowadays have many contractual obligations to attend Blast and ESL events, which cover most of the calendar. Sure, players could skip some of the events over the span of the year, but its less than you make it out to be. Also mental health doesn't only pertain to partaking in tournaments. There can be many different reasons for high levels of stress, depression or burn out.

Ye but u signed the contract and if it says that u are obligated to play in whatever tournament they want then u dont have a choice. However if they(org) put their team in many tournaments(like mouz when they played 4 bo3's in 1 day) then they cant expect you to play and win every one of them cuz that is like 10 hours of cs and nobody(not even s1mple and zywoo) can play at their best for 10 hours straight. And as we saw mouz didnt play well in every bo3's. Bottom line is , they cant blame u for bad results and burning out cuz its their own fault for putting u in that situation.

2021-06-01 17:50

still online era lul

ok i dont care

2021-05-31 14:30

Or may be you guys can work on better schedule and strict implementation of such scheduling and break rules

2021-05-31 14:31

thats cool

2021-05-31 14:37

CSPAA strikes again

2021-05-31 14:38

living the dream making nice $ playing videogame, nice!

2021-05-31 14:39

doesnt mean we shouldn't care about mental health...

2021-05-31 14:45

yes stress and burnout are real problems

2021-05-31 14:51

We_car

2021-05-31 14:40

As if tournament orgs will care anyways

2021-05-31 14:50

Looking at what happened to North I'm not sure this is a good idea

2021-05-31 14:54

Is so hard to play videogames for living

2021-05-31 14:56

ESL calendar goes brrrrrrrrrrrr

csppa we.cars vroom vroom

Poor players.. sitting on a chair playing video game while making money. Life must be hard

2021-05-31 15:10

I hope faceit and mm players get this too

we cars

2021-05-31 15:13

2021-05-31 15:15

Remove cheaters from faceit before

2021-05-31 15:24

We.Dont

some players must know deep down that he's nothing but a loser because he can't win if he don't heat. and he's even more of a loser without any skills in real life. that must be a terrible feeling lol

what on earth are you on about?

about the heaters my handle for example

2021-06-01 15:43

This is important to the industry of esports, it is a problem which have been underacknowledged for a while also in well-established sports. GJ favorite game community

And actually I would add that esports is pretty close in this with music industry. Performer need to grind everything they got when the iron is hot and if they popular enough they get good money for it. But that comes with a price of pretty hectic life of 300+ annual travelling days and constant practice without any rest. There is quite a few examples of drug/other addictions and mental issues related to this. Ofc one could argue that it is not so bad but what people forget is that when performers brand is employing other ppl too it's not just a matter of greed like "I need to perform more to get more money", there is a lot of pressure from other ppl too to do so, even if you yourself would be happy for half of the gigs and money in real life in these kind of environments it's all or nothing.

2021-05-31 16:53

And?? if you need a psychologist you can get one especially when you have money. The problem is not the help is missing the problem is that the patient probably doesn't find the way to heal.

2021-05-31 18:07

what and? your argument: "i will work harder on the cost of my mental health so i get more money and fame just for myself, but i have money for psychologist so its ok" my argument: its not just "personal greed", there are other stakeholders that pressure ppl to do this kind of things. also its not zero sum game playing with mental health and then just using psychologist to make the problems go away. both music industry and esports seem to acknowledge now, this is what the CSPPA is addressing here and with e.g. the 6 man rosters.

2021-06-01 10:06

Great news.

2021-05-31 15:52

hooker

2021-05-31 15:53

yeah GROND style xD

2021-05-31 17:30

i dont wanna play games at 10am, what do i do ? KEK

2021-05-31 16:10

2021-05-31 16:11

GTFOH

2021-05-31 16:12

Good stuff!

Pretty good idea. Playing tournament every weekend, have elimination games all the time, training, preparing 8+ hours a day, ppl talking sh#t about you on internet - that pressure adds up. xd Edit: Also valve faked up (surprise) prohibiting 6 man rosters. That would have been a solution to take weight of players back. (Or maybe it's the other way round - you don't perform you get benched iunno.)

2021-05-31 16:19

Why do they feel the need to promote “mental health”??? I swear mental health is just some weird propaganda at this point

2021-05-31 16:21

We.car

2021-05-31 16:25

lmao, all the while they do actual jack shit when important stuff happen, like the immense shitstorm we saw just past month. A token at its best.

2021-05-31 16:26

Sorry but what kind of mental health program? Can be really sad life. They are playing 7/24 with a videogame and getting big amount of moneys... So depressing life tbh.

2021-05-31 16:27

Thats the thing, all most pros do is just play the game 24/7. In that case they dont have the time or possibilities to have actual social life (if we take LAN era into consideration with all the traveling) and so on. And if the results are lacking and so on, it can be a big mental pressure. Look how fnatic looked when they got knocked out of FP3, it looked like someone had died or smth. Doing a constant grind and not getting the results can lead to some to lose motivation and if all you have done is just played video games, you are kinda fucked as you have no other skills outside of the game and if you lose your job, your even more fucked. All that can be mentally tough. Just because they make a lot of money playing a video game doesnt mean they are automatically mega happy and joyful. A lot of CEOs make a lot of money, but some are hella miserable and burnt out by all the pressure. Also mental health programs are normal in a lot of regular jobs aswell.

2021-05-31 16:41

That's awesome

2021-05-31 16:57

This could have saved ence lol, very nice!

2021-05-31 17:03

ezpz

2021-05-31 17:04

Even though I really like he initiative and the effort, I am kinda disappointed that this comes out when the rest of the scene is in shambles due to their i apt approach in general. Feels like this is long term high priority, but low priority for RIGHT NOW. Mental health within CSGO doesn't mean much IF CSGO is dead in 1-2 years

2021-05-31 17:19

Admittedly there is a lot of ambiguity to the whole thing but if this does work out as intended, I'm all for it. :)

2021-05-31 19:34

I am not against the initiative, I just think it is a waste of time, personnel and energy to do this while orgs and TO's work towards the best of the scene!

2021-05-31 19:41

nice!

This is "marketing" they act like there is no opportunity to see a professional. That is crap and any player can go and find a therapist.

2021-05-31 18:02

Not many players will have the time nor money to look for a private therapist unless they take time off due to personal health constraints, like Allu did.

2021-05-31 19:36

LUL They have the best job for that. Because they can take an hour off when they schedule it. Normal people that work the whole day don't have that option. They have real trouble finding one.

2021-05-31 20:45

You're still making assumptions regardless.

2021-05-31 21:46

It is called reality. You make assumptions by ignoring the fact that pro players have it very easy to change the schedule a little bit meanwhile normal people don't

2021-06-01 07:41

Fact =/= Assumption I'm sure some professional players could easily alter their schedules but I don't think every professional player has that same luxury, it's assumed it is all the same. Claiming this is an attempt at "marketing" is also an assumption.

about time

2021-05-31 18:12

thank you! i was starting to feel exhausted

2021-05-31 18:18

wow dude I play csgo for a living, i need mental health please how am i going to deal with literally playing all day long

2021-05-31 19:06

I don't think you know how mental health works, friend...

2021-05-31 22:34

who gives a shit what you think

2021-05-31 22:44

That doesn't really matter, that wasn't the point I was illustrating... Do you know how mental health works?

2021-05-31 22:48

of course

2021-05-31 23:21

This is soft

2021-05-31 19:28

Very nice... I'll always support fronts and advances towards assisting with mental health. :)

2021-05-31 19:32

i car to

2021-05-31 20:03

CAPPA, WE.CAR

2021-05-31 20:39

great initiative, hope it will help players

2021-05-31 20:41

Hopefully ENCE situation won't happen again

2021-05-31 21:03

Well. Mental health is one of the most important things in our life. Actually a good thing and it has nothing to do with that pros sitting and earning ez money. You can get mental issues anywhere (Not that I understand how it works and how people are so weak) but a lot of people need actual help

2021-05-31 21:25

ez insider info about player for CSPPA :)

2021-05-31 21:39

Ok, but can you provide any real help?

2021-05-31 21:58

Wow the csppa did something

2021-06-01 04:13

Apex and s1mple should use it

2021-06-01 06:52

can i join? CS fucked my head up 100%

2021-06-01 12:11

i get mental issues are a tough thing to go through. but complaining that its alot of pressure to fucking play a game? some people have actual stress in life, that they dont know if they will be able to provide for their family, if they are going to survive the next month, and this guys are "stressed" wether they gonna win the match/tourney or not? fuck off.

2021-06-01 14:38