Communication Sequences Indicate Team Cohesion: A Mixed-Methods Study of Ad Hoc League of Legends Teams

Team cohesion is a widely known predictor of performance and collaborative satisfaction. However, how it develops and can be assessed, especially in fast-paced ad hoc dynamic teams, remains unclear. An unobtrusive and objective behavioural measure of cohesion would help identify determinants of cohesion in these teams. We investigated team communication as a potential measure in a mixed-methods study with 48 teams (n=135) in the digital game League of Legends. We first established that cohesion shows similar performance and satisfaction in League of Legends. teams as in non-game teams and confirmed a positive relationship between communication word frequency and cohesion. Further, we conducted an in-depth exploratory qualitative analysis of the communication sequences in a high-cohesion and a low-cohesion team. High cohesion is associated with sequences of apology->encouragement, suggestion->agree/acknowledge, answer->answer, and answer->question, while low-cohesion is associated with sequences of opinion/analysis->opinion/analysis, disagree->disagree, command->disagree, and frustration->frustration. Our findings also show that cohesion is important to team satisfaction independently of the match outcomes. We highlight that communication sequences are more useful than frequencies to determine team cohesion via player interactions.