A growing force in the culture of digital games fandom, e-sports represents the profes-sionalization of digital games play. This thesis examines League of Legends, a prominent game in e-sports, to understand the relationship between e-sports and the ideology of neoliberal economics. Using Clifford Geertz?s descriptions of sentimental education as a model, the author argues that League of Legends and other e-sports texts create an environment where neoliberal economic values can be practiced and

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... explored in a meaningful space. The game as text, the culture of e-sports fandom, and the e-sports broadcasting industry are all examined to reveal the ways that e-sports fosters a space to both practice neoliberal values and potentially question them through the conflicting values of Web culture. Understanding the ways e-sports texts and e-sports culture explore ideological values allows for the potential to create more recursive e-sports texts that question this ideology in the future.