But despite the warm-ups, the stretching and the proactive ergonomics, are esports injuries inevitable? What if the traditional mouse is simply not conducive to good health, particularly with high-volume usage? This is what inventor and Evoluent founder Jack Lo was thinking when he invented and patented the vertical mouse.

The theory behind the vertical mouse, as seen in the promotional video below, is that the handshake position, versus a palm-down position, is more natural and ergonomically sound, because it does not require the forearm bones to twist and put undue stress on the tendons. Lo came up with the idea while he was working as a patent agent -- a job that required him to create diagrams and detailed drawings with a mouse. He was using a brand-name ergonomic horizontal mouse, where the palm faces downward, toward the desk.

"I found myself rotating my hand up to the vertical handshake position to relax and rest it before using the mouse again," Lo recalled. "And I thought that it would be nice to have a mouse that would work that way."

Lo patented his idea in 1994, and although some hardware companies showed interest, they all rejected the idea. Microsoft, for example, sent Lo a letter stating, "There are no proven biomechanic effects that we can speak of." Lo was devastated. But in 2001, he decided to produce and market the mouse with his life savings. He worked with a distributor in China to get the mouse on shelves, and to this day, he still does all the design by himself.

"It's mostly a one-man shop," Lo said. "When you don't have overheads, a small business like this can still be profitable."

Today, Lo's company, Evoluent, is very successful, and his invention has garnered praise from PC World, PC Magazine, TechTV and Business Insider, among others. There has never been a rigorous, clinical study of vertical-mouse design that proves the ergonomic benefits beyond a doubt, but the user reviews, many of which are written by doctors, physical therapists and sufferers of chronic wrist pain, paint a compelling portrait. Evoluent has released five generations of its vertical mouse, and Lo is currently designing the sixth generation, which will be out by the end of the year.

"The mouse has proved itself in the marketplace," said Lo. "It's not what I claim; it's what my customers claim. It's what my distributors and resellers tell me: that this is the leading mouse brand in ergonomics."

Lo's customer base is mostly comprised of businesspeople and home users. But what about esports athletes? Could a vertical mouse be a viable, competitive alternative to the traditional mouse? Lo states that some gamers have reached out to him, and during the next vertical-mouse release cycle, he plans on manufacturing a gaming-spec version, which he will send out to gamers to gauge interest.

Harrison does not endorse the vertical mouse -- he wants to see more scientific backing behind it -- but he believes it is viable in professional tournaments, as long as the player trains with it.

"If someone used a vertical mouse for five or six years and that's all they used, then of course they're going to be great at it."

"It can be competitive; if someone used a vertical mouse for five or six years and that's all they used, then of course they're going to be great at it," Harrison said. "But the vertical mouse hasn't been out very long. It's going to take time. Whatever elite gamers practice on most is what they can do well on."

Loomis echoes this perspective. He appreciates the idea behind a vertical mouse, but its success in esports depends on a person's experience with it. Loomis has been using a horizontal SteelSeries Sensei Raw for the past five years, but he's currently in the process of switching over to a SteelSeries Rival 310.

"The Sensei Raw was a smaller mouse, which meant that there was less of an arch in your hand; hopefully, the Rival 310 [which is larger] will take some of the pressure off my carpal tunnels," said Loomis. "I had a thumb problem, and I thought changing my hand posture would be good for me. But it's very hard for a professional gamer to make a switch. If he or she has been playing on one mouse for years, moving it becomes second nature."

"I've never seen vertical mice used for gaming," said Jason Christian, product manager for SteelSeries. "But it's definitely an interesting concept from what I've read and seen, and it's something we'll continue to monitor."

Christian noted that many professional players use low dots-per-inch mouse settings. This equates to low sensitivity, which requires players to pick up and set down the mouse multiple times during a match. A proper gaming vertical mouse would need to account for that.

SteelSeries is currently focusing on refining the traditional mouse and keyboard for long-term play rather than rejecting the template altogether. The Rival 310 mouse, for example, is a product of player feedback on the Rival 300. Customer feedback called for better side grips, a smaller body and less weight; the company followed through on these requests.

Whatever a mouse's design, any hardware solution to esports injuries must be competitively sound first and ergonomically sound second. There are so few professional players who can make a living as it is, and most players would rather a tournament edge than an unquantifiable injury preemption.