Sociabilidade e esportivização: A equipe de counter-strike da UFMG e o e-sport universitário

Abstract

This study aims to describe and understand the different interactions motivated by the electronic games among university students who are part of an athletics focused on electronic sports. The main questions that moved it were: How the process of sportivization of the electronic games happens? What is its importance to the social interactions among university students? The inquiry centers on aspects of ethnography and uses interviews and participant observation of students of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais who are members of the athletics Fênix – carried out virtually, given the pandemic period. Because it is an incipient topic, there are a few studies that deal with both the process of sportivization and the potential for sociability of electronic games in this segment of the population, as well as studies that do not approach the electronic games solely under an educational perspective. The relationships built by the members of the Athetics can be understood as association and sociability: in the first one, the individuals subjects interact with each other for a later purpose, that is, their meeting is a means for them to reach a certain objective; in the second one, the individuals interact for the pleasure and satisfaction of being together, that is, the interaction is the purpose of the action (SIMMEL, 2006). The students' permanence in the Athletics is, in short, due to three reasons: playing with colleagues, belonging to a community with common interests and playing competitively in championships. Even though the last one is applied only to players, the Athletics is not restricted to them, it includes directors, assistants and especially electronic game enthusiasts. In that regard, the construction of a gamer community that unites numerous university students is one of the driving forces of the Athletics’ events and existence. The creation of groups in two on-line platforms fosters the growth of such a community. Developing a sense of belonging, jokes and teasing are striking features in communication between university students, however the environment does not become toxic. Even inserted in the world of games, young people do not completely dominate digital technologies, and their knowledge is restricted to the practices that are familiar to them. Regarding sportivization, the university context fits into a gap between amateur and professional, as it has its own characteristics that sometimes bring them together, sometimes distance them. The students identify that the most latent characteristics of this process are the spectacularization through concerts and events, the investment of money and the creation of communities that consume game related contents. As a leisure experience, students find in Athletics, in addition to a place to play competitively, a welcoming environment that provides the meeting of individuals who share interests.