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When immersed in intrinsically motivating activities, individuals actively seek optimal challenge, which generally brings the most satisfaction as they play hard and finally win. To better simulate real-life scenarios in the controlled laboratory setting, a two-player online StopWatch (SW) game was developed, whose format is similar to that of a badminton tournament. During the game, a male opponent played by a confederate ensured that the same-sex participant paired with him won both matches, one with a wide margin (the lack of challenge condition) and another with a narrow one (the optimal challenge condition). Electrophysiological data were recorded during the entire experiment. An enlarged Stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) was observed in the optimal challenge condition, indicating a more concentrated anticipatory attention toward the feedback and a stronger intrinsic motivation during close games …