General recommendations for esports research

Esports science research is still in its infancy. This chapter will offer practical recommendations for conducting esports research and provide a roadmap for future fruitful empirical avenues. Given the inter and multidisciplinary nature of esports science a key challenge for future research is a grounding in the melting pot of esports. We discuss how to implement greater research designs, embracing open science initiatives, how to understand participant sampling, understanding skill level identification and a thorough understanding of human computer interaction and especially high-performance human computer interaction. The weight of evidence and empirical advancements in the respective areas of esports are discussed and offer strategies for advancing the field, with key considerations in how to achieve this included. Key highlights include: (1) a discussion surrounding implementing more rigor in esports research specifically addressing theory/frameworks, randomized controlled trials, and robustness, replicability, and reproducibility, (2) an inventory of ten current critical issues in esports research accompanied by multiple practical suggestions for how to solve each, (3) a brief discussion of six future challenges for esports research with recommendations for each, and (4) an insightful interview with an early career esports researcher.