Microsoft has just added support for query hints to Azure SQL Database, giving database administrators a powerful tool to manage the performance of ISV application code. Here's how it works.

An alternative - again, if supported - would be to create a view that works the same as the derived table, and use this in your query instead.

Due to zero-based counting, indexes 1 and 2 map to the second and third columns in the Player table, which are the handle and the emailAddress. When the code builds and runs, the output is as follows: ...