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Volume 9, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2046-6692
  • E-ISSN: 2046-6706

Abstract

This article examines fan articulations in response to a Facebook post announcing the results of the final match between G2 Esports and Fun Plus Phoenix (FPX) during the 2019 World Championships. Five themes emerged after analysing the data, which are: (1) expressions of congratulations to FPX, the team that won the championship; (2) references to SK Telecom T1, a Korean team that has won the most titles in World Championship history; (3) negative articulations towards G2, implying that they are a bad team; (4) statements discussing tactics and gameplay during the match; and (5) articulations that G2 deserved to lose because of their trash talking against their competitors on social media. This article argues that fans’ comments drew on players’ knowledge of the game, and the fandom’s mediascape, thereby demonstrating the dynamics of transmedia intertextuality within their community. Fan articulations on G2’s poor performance, as well as the tactics and gameplay used by both teams during the finals, were informed by players’ knowledge of how to succeed in . On the contrary, comments that articulated that G2 deserved to lose indicated fans’ familiarity with the Twitter trash talk that took place prior to the final matches. In this case study, fans’ comments exemplify transmedia, with statements about the 2019 World Championship Finals drawing on knowledge from other media.

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2021-06-01
2026-04-14

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Summoners’ Rift: Transmedia intertextuality in League of Legends esports fan discourse
Journal of Fandom Studies, The 9, 123 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1386/jfs_00037_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jfs_00037_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jfs_00037_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): cyber athletics; esports; fan discourse; gaming audience; League of Legends; LoL Worlds 2019; Riot Games; trash talk

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