Status : Verified
| Personal Name | Nathalie Gienah B. Dela Cruz |
|---|---|
| Resource Title | Breaking through barriers: examining the participation and performance of Filipina professional Valorant esports players in a gendered institution |
| Date Issued | 10 June 2026 |
| Abstract | This study examines how Filipina professional Valorant esports players construct and negotiate their participation and performance in professional esports tournaments. Drawing on feminist institutionalism (Mackay, Kenny & Chappell, 2010) and hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1987; Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005), the study reads the competitive Valorant ecosystem as a gendered institution in which formal structures and informal norms reproduce a masculine logic of appropriateness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five Filipina players who competed in all-female and mixed-gender settings, including FSL Game Changers, and analyzed using Braun and Clarke's (2006) six-phase thematic analysis. Six themes emerged: the masculine norm as baseline, the inclusion paradox of formal female circuits, team dynamics across the gender divide, identity and coping under the masculine gaze, love of the game as a sustaining force, and the structural cost of staying. Filipina Valorant esports players construct and negotiate their participation primarily through persistence, adaptation, and self-recognition of the barriers they face, rather than through direct contestation of those barriers. All five participants were inactive FSL competitors. While the motivation and the talent exist, the institution is not yet designed to convert either into sustained, equitable professional careers. |
| Degree Course | BA Broadcast Media Arts and Studies |
| Language | English |
| Keyword | esports; Valorant; gendered institution; Filipina esports players; hegemonic masculinity; Feminist Institutionalism; Gender and esports |
| Material Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
Preliminary Pages
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Category : F - Regular work, i.e., it has no patentable invention or creation, the author does not wish for personal publication, there is no confidential information.
Access Permission : Open Access