Impact of AmaTea® Max on physiological measures and gaming performance in active gamers: A placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized study

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The activity of “gaming” has increased greatly in popularity in recent years, with many gamers using nutritional supplements to aid mood and gaming performance. We evaluated the impact of AmaTea(®) Max (referred to as AmaTea(®) throughout; a patented dietary supplement consisting of a blend of caffeine and polyphenol antioxidants), compared to both caffeine and a placebo, on gaming and cognitive performance in active gamers. METHODS: Subjects reported to the lab on three occasions, separated by approximately 1 week. On each day, they had baseline measurements taken and then played the game Fortnite for four 1-h periods. Measures of cognitive performance, gaming performance, heart rate and blood pressure (BP), and blood cortisol were measured before and at selected times following gameplay. RESULTS: Neither caffeine nor AmaTea(®) impacted gaming or cognitive performance in a statistically significant manner. However, a trend (P=0.075) was noted for the condition effect for kills/match, with values 21% higher for AmaTea(®) (1.84) compared to placebo (1.51), and 12% higher for AmaTea(®) compared to caffeine (1.63). Subjective mood was relatively unaffected, although a condition effect was noted for jittery (P=0.05), with values lower for placebo than for caffeine (P=0.02). BP was minimally elevated with both AmaTea(®) and caffeine, while cortisol followed the normal diurnal variation and was lower for placebo than AmaTea(®) and caffeine. CONCLUSION: AmaTea(®) modestly increased kills/match during gameplay. It is possible that a different gaming stimulus, varied time of gameplay, or different dosage of the supplement may have yielded different results. RELEVANCE FOR SUBJECTS: Active gamers who seek to use a dietary supplement for purposes of gaming performance may benefit slightly from ingestion of AmaTea(®) before gameplay while experiencing greater vigor and lower fatigue as compared to placebo.