Situational analysis of Iran’s eSports ecosystem

The purpose of the study is to map and interpret the structure, actors, and dynamics of Iran’s eSports ecosystem, and to develop a context-sensitive understanding of how competitive digital sport sustains and evolves under political, infrastructural, and economic constraints. The study adopts Clarke’s situational analysis, a post-modern extension of grounded theory. Data sources comprised semi-structured interviews with 19 Iranian eSports stakeholders (professional gamers, organizers, streamers, and policy influencers), document analysis of institutional reports and policy statements, and digital media analysis of platform content (Aparat, Telegram communities, Persian forums) and international coverage. The mapping process identified complex interdependencies among human and non-human actants and foregrounded a dominant pattern of fragmented grassroots resilience: community-led practices (local tournaments, LAN centers, VPN-enabled streaming, mobile adoption) sustain activity in the face of censorship, internet instability, limited payment access, and underrepresentation of women. The maps make visible structural bottlenecks (governance fragmentation, infrastructural fragility) and adaptive strategies; these mapped findings are then interpreted in the Discussion as analytical positions that theorize developmental pathways and stakeholder roles.