During the past 5 years, esports prize pools have shot up by 600%. A key factor in a youthful audience growth as player earnings are beginning to exceed earnings in other professional sports.

However, esports presents an immense challenge, physically and mentally. Gamers burn out even more rapidly than in any other professional sport because players are required to practise between 10 to 14 hours a day, every day. Furthermore, since gamers are in their teens, the vast majority underestimate the long-term health risks of over-training.

Therefore, GrandOptical needed a way to break into the hardcore gamer’s mind with a solution tailored uniquely to their interests and ambitions.

In order to get GrandOptical’s health message across to the Czech esports community, key players from the major Czech clubs were invited to take part in the “Gamer Eye Test” - the first eye test that used video games instead of traditional posters with letters. This way, pro players could see in real time how even the smallest correction can affect their gaming performance.

The Gamer Eye Test used two of the most popular esports games (Fifa and CS:GO) to diagnose two of the most common eye conditions (vision sharpness and contrast sensitivity). Players also learnt how these two conditions can affect the main skills in esports (accuracy and reaction time).

The tests were supervised by GrandOptical’s optometrist, equipped with all the official tools necessary to perform an accurate eye checkup.

80% of eye conditions can be cured if diagnosed in advance, so getting people to start taking preventive eye checkups is crucial. Especially if you are an esport player who practises more than 10 hours a day. The problem is that most of them are teenagers who couldn’t care less about long-term health issues.

So, in order to convince them, we focused on showing them the impact an eye test can have on the one thing every professional sportsperson cares about - maximum performance.

That is why GrandOptical teamed up with major Czech esports clubs, offering their players a special eye test designed to reveal the potential weaknesses of individual players’ acuity and reactions directly in-game.

They were then invited to share their thoughts about the experience on their SoMe channels in order to spread the word around the community.

Over 3 months, the Gamer Eye Test project was developed between the optometry department from GrandOptical and Entropiq, a top-tier esports team. It was then launched during the esports offseason (January - February), when pro gamers are training the most and therefore, their eyesight is more exposed to the health risks of over-training.

The testing took place at Entropiq’s headquarters where pro players from all major Czech esport teams were invited.

The project was supported by influencers, PR, and other traditional touch-points, such as newsletters, banners, and social media ads.

The Czech esports community´s response exceeded expectations, making GrandOptical work on scaling the project up to other countries such as Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary, as well as extending the current partnership to make the Gamer Eye Test an official part of the esports teams’ program.

For the first time in the Czech gaming community, a health topic became part of the esports news feed.

100% of gamers who participated in the experience declared that an optometrist can have an impact on their career. What started off as a partnership became a health message which reached 90 percent of the Czech esports community, influencing even aspiring pro gamers´ views of the impact an optometrist can have on their performance.

The positive response rate surpassed expectations, as the Gamer Eye Test project earned free media valued at eleven times (11x) more than what GrandOptical paid for sending a press release.

Furthermore, the Gamer Eye Test became an official part of the esports program of two of the top 3 esports clubs in the Czech Republic: Entropiq and Esuba. The Gamer Eye Test will take place twice a year: during the offseason and immediately after the Tournament season.