I am what I play: how interfaces inscribe the emerge of professionality in esports organizations

This article aims to analyze the relationship between digital interfaces and the development of professional roles into competitive videogames organizations. The starting hypothesis of our work is that esports constitute a new, dynamic and still little explored field of art and entertainment where the theories of inscription and sociomateriality can find fertile ground in deciphering how forms of technology, apparently non-material, like in-game interfaces give rise to material organizational practices and human/non-human networks. Starting from the empirical study conducted with professional athletes of Valorant (one of the most famous eSport videogame in 2024) and some participative netnography, we attempt to explain how the digital interfaces and design choices of competitive video games give shape to forms of material, discursive and relational inscriptions that impact the formation of professional roles within esports organizations.