Summoners’ Rift: Transmedia intertextuality in League of Legends esports fan discourse

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 League of Legends 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 LoL 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 LoL 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 LoL. 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, LoL fans’ comments exemplify transmedia, with statements about the 2019 World Championship Finals drawing on knowledge from other media.