Weaving the author's own lived experience with theoretical insights from the fields of game studies, psychology, and anthropology, Esport Play probes and advances current gaming topics such as addiction, skill development, and toxicity. With a focus on League of Legends – one of the flagship esports of our time – Karhulahti explicates what esport play is: documenting and identifying competitive play as a present-day means to satisfy basic human needs. Ultimately, the book presents a theory of psycholudic development that explains and organizes the development of player-play relationships that may last for years.

Veli-Matti Karhulahti works in Finland as a Senior Researcher at University of Jyväskylä and as an Adjunct Professor at University of Turku. He has researched gaming, health, and the human mind in places such as Yonsei University (Korea), IT University of Copenhagen (Denmark), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA). Karhulahti's interdisciplinary research has been published in leading journals of diverse fields from culture and game studies to health and psychological sciences. He is an active participant in metascientific development.