Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Competitiveness and Meritocracy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: An Ethnography of Gaming Practices in Santiago, Chile

This ethnographic study examines how meritocratic discourse shapes the everyday gaming practices of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players in Santiago, Chile.

• The study argues that video games often embed a meritocratic ideology, the belief that outcomes reflect individual skill alone while ignoring chance and structural conditions.
• Participant-observer ethnography and in-depth playable interviews were conducted in urban Santiago, Chile, between October 2022 and January 2023 with 50 participants aged 18 to 35 (43 men, 7 women), ranging from beginners to players who had competed in international tournaments.
• Participants still affirm meritocracy as a value, but in practice it often serves other purposes, as players hybridize meritocratic discourse with the social experience of gaming in Chile.