Narcissism, Big Five Personality Traits, and Performance in Temporary Teams: An Investigation of League of Legends

Esports are competitive video games that are typically played online. League of Legends (LoL) is an esport with a ranking system that measures player performance in temporary teams. Qualitative studies have suggested there are behavioral differences between ranks, with lower ranking players being more entitled and communicating antisocially. This study attempts to quantify this relationship of behavior and ranking, using trait Narcissism and five-factor model personality traits to measure these tendencies in behavior. Four hundred and forty-four players were recruited across paid and unpaid sampling. Narcissism was the only trait to be significantly associated with LoL ranking. This result may suggest Narcissism is slightly beneficial to success in LoL’s temporary teams, potentially through better emotional regulation while playing. However, as personality traits only predicted 2.8% of variance in LoL ranking, it is likely that player skill and other contextual factors have a larger influence on performance.