Human-autonomy-teaming in e-sports: An exploratory study

Advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have enabled the formation of Human-Autonomy Teams (HATs), where humans and AI collaborate interdependently toward shared goals. Despite this progress, research on HAT effectiveness remains limited and often relies on constrained laboratory settings and quantitative methods, raising concerns about ecological validity. To address these limitations, this study proposes e-sports, specifically professional competitive gaming, as a viable and underutilized context for HAT research. E-sports involve complex human-AI interactions, characterized by emotional intensity and high-paced decision-making, offering a naturalistic and alternative research environment to study HAT dynamics. To establish the psychological fidelity of e-sports as a HAT setting, we conducted interviews with professional EA FC (formerly FIFA) players and coaches from various European leagues, exploring critical aspects of human-AI collaboration. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed that EA FC meets key criteria of HATs and mirrors teamwork constructs identified in prior research. Additionally, the findings highlight underexplored dynamics such as adaptive learning, training, and team identity formation. We conclude by discussing the implications for HAT theory and call for greater use of e-sports as a testbed for advancing HAT research. • Human-Autonomy-Team (HAT) research lacks insight into real-world team effectiveness and is dominated by quantitative findings from controlled lab environments. • We propose professional e-sports (EA FC/FIFA) as a high-fidelity, ecologically valid context for studying HATs. • Interviews with professional gamers across Europe were collected and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. • Results reveal strong overlap between e-sports and HAT challenges and provide novel insights into training, familiarity and teammate perception.