Positivity and Negativity in Team Communication as a Coordination Mechanism of Ad hoc Virtual Teams: Evidence from Game Teams in League of Legends (LoL)

Ad hoc virtual teams are increasingly common in flexible and dynamic environments, yet research lacks how affective communication shapes their performance. Conceptualizing ad hoc virtual teams as a minimal form of organization, this study examines whether affective information embedded in team communication functions as an informational signal that supports coordination and predicts team outcomes. Using League of Legends (LoL) teams as a naturalistic empirical context, we analyzed in-game chat logs from 40 randomly selected matches. Communication was coded into positive and negative language, and frequency and ratio indicators were used to predict performance outcomes, including total gold earned and win-loss results. Results indicate negative language-particularly its proportion relative to overall communication-consistently predicted poorer team performance across outcomes. Temporal analyses further revealed that negative language in the latter half of the game had a stronger detrimental association with performance, whereas positive language exhibited more limited and conditional effects. Specifically, positive language contributed to performance primarily when it outweighed negative language within team interaction. Exploratory analyses of discrete emotional content indicated that praise emerged as a significant positive predictor of both resource acquisition and winning, suggesting that certain positive expressions may operate differently from general affective tone. Overall, the findings highlight the role of affective communication as a behavioral mechanism through which coordination and performance emerge in minimally structured virtual teams. The study contributes to research on ad hoc and virtual teamwork by demonstrating how emotionally laden communication in high-pressure, technology-mediated environments carries meaningful implications for collective outcomes.