Heated issue involving small group of players (5)
I believe the answer is:
steam
'heated issue' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to change as well as being verbs in their base form.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'small group of players' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'group of players' becomes 'team' (I've seen this before).
's'+'team'='STEAM'
'involving' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for steam that I've seen before include "Like old radio" , "Source of energy" , "Kettle emission" , "Energy (colloq.)" , "Driving force" .)