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Esports Performance Academy and Center for BrainHealth Form Partnership to Implement Esports Protocol

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Center for BrainHealth and Esports Performance Academy

The Esports Performance Academy is partnering with Center for BrainHealth® to implement a novel performance initiative for esports players. A targeted group of EPA clients and students is participating in The BrainHealth Project, a research-backed training protocol to improve cognitive performance and strengthen overall brain health. The goal of the collaboration is to see how the brain health measures of esports gamers can be affected by these protocols for healthy brain practices, leading to their eventual implementation throughout the esports industry. Few studies currently exist to provide a comprehensive understanding of players' brain health and ways to maximize performance. Over 95% of this study’s participants have collegiate, semi-pro, or professional experience in esports as a player or a coach, making this cohort a representative microcosm of high performers. “We aim to change the paradigm of this industry, to be proactive and preventive when it comes to players’ brain health,” said Andrew Cooley, chief executive officer of the Esports Performance Academy. ”Overtraining leads to stress and burnout, and the brain health science championed by the experts at the Center for BrainHealth points to a better way to encourage top performance.” A comprehensive focus on brain health offers a new approach to pro training. The BrainHealth Project protocols focus on various components of the brain’s health and fitness that are relevant to esports players – strategic attention (knowing what to focus on and what to tune out), reasoning and problem solving, and innovation (developing new strategies to beat an opponent), among others. “We are bringing to this collaboration our extensive experience working with top performers and people in high-stress environments, such as military special ops and first responders,” said Jennifer Zientz, deputy director of programs at Center for BrainHealth. “By learning and adopting healthy brain strategies and techniques, esports players will be able to operate more efficiently and continue to improve their cognitive skills well beyond the average for their peers.” The Esports Performance Academy focuses on holistic player development and its goal is to increase the longevity of professional players in the industry. It has implemented the world’s first High-Performance Coaching Certification for esports, which uses neuroscience to promote player mental and physical health. “The groundbreaking work that the Center for BrainHealth is undertaking will impact players around the globe by providing evidenced-based protocols to enhance player cognition,” said Andrew Cooley.CONTACT Stephanie Hoefken 972.883.3221 stephanie.hoefken@utdallas.eduABOUT CENTER FOR BRAINHEALTH Center for BrainHealth®, part of The University of Texas at Dallas, is a translational research institute committed to enhancing, preserving, and restoring brain health across the lifespan. Major research areas include the use of functional and structural neuroimaging techniques to better understand the neurobiology supporting cognition and emotion in health and disease. This leading-edge scientific exploration is translated quickly into practical innovations to improve how people think, work and live, empowering people of all ages to unlock their brain potential. Translational innovations build on Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Tactics (SMART™), a proprietary methodology developed and tested by BrainHealth researchers and other teams over three decades. ABOUT THE ESPORTS PERFORMANCE ACADEMY The Esports Performance Academy represents an all-star team of coaches, players, students and partners seeking to foster excellence in esports. It does this with a focus on holistic growth and development by providing the world’s only High-Performance Holistic Coaching Certification. It provides programs and standards-based curriculum that concentrate on player cognition and brain health and that use neuroscience and data to promote player long-term mental and physical health.

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Katie Hinds, MS, CCC-SLP

Program Manager, Cognitive Training Programs

Jennifer Zientz, MS, CCC-SLP

Director of Programs and Head of Clinical Services Center for BrainHealth

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