Professionalization of entertainment in contemporary capitalism: Electronic sport in Turkey

This study is based on observing being a professional e-sports player, considered as a special form of a gaming which is a new field that have been widely affected by the commodification mentality, over the contemporary platform of capitalist production system. Intending to explain how a practice such as gaming which has been previously regarded as a 'leisure' activity, has found its place in the value production logic under the conditions of contemporary capitalism, this study benefits from immaterial labor theory. Alongside above-mentioned subjects, the study further aims to indicate the level of correlation among creative industries approach, based on individual creativity discourse, while discussing the e-sports industry which is fundamentally the origin of professional e-sports. Within this context, in order to gather the most accurate information regarding the industry, the field of this study was limited to League of Legends which is the most predominant and long-established video game within the e-sports ecosystem in Turkey. Therefore, through semi structured profound interviews, data were gathered from 10 professional League of Legends players. Thus, study pursues to demonstrate the amount of correlation between the theoretical origins and practice as well.