Teacher Positions and Play Qualities in Esports at Specially Planned Youth Education Programmes Peter Gundersen 1 , Thorkild Hanghøj 2 and Erik Ottar Jensen 2 1 University College Absalon, Copenhagen, Denmark 2 Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark pgu@pha.dk thorkild@ikp.aau.dk erikoj@ikp.aau.dk Abstract: This paper examines how teacher roles influence gaming activities within esports programmes offered at Specially Planned Youth Education (STU) in Denmark. The STU programmes cater to young people with developmental, cognitive, and psychosocial challenges, who are unable to participate in mainstream education. This paper introduces play theory as a valuable framework for understanding how teachers facilitate gaming, especially in the context of structured esports programmes. Traditional approaches to game-based learning often focus on goals, achievement, and knowledge transfer. In contrast, this study emphasizes the affective and sensory dimensions of gameplay using concepts from play theory. Our study is based on two years of fieldwork at three different institutions. We collected data through observations, interviews, and video recordings. The empirical data is based on observations and presented in the form of three detailed narrative vignettes, each illustrating a specific teacher-student dynamic while playing either League of Legends or Counter-Strike. These narratives demonstrate how changes in teacher positioning influence the emotional flow of the gaming environment, with shifts between moods such as devotion, intensity, tension, and euphoria. In the context of STU institutions, we find that teacher presence plays a crucial role in helping students regulate emotions, stay engaged, and connect socially. A teacher can help calm a high-intensity situation or raise the energy and focus of a group through timely intervention. These dynamics are especially significant for students with special needs, who may rely more on adult cues and support to navigate social situations. Our findings highlight that successful facilitation of esports in special education settings depends on teachers’ ability to read and respond to the emotional and sensory dynamics of play. Teachers who can shift roles fluidly not only affect game-related performance but also contribute significantly to the social and affective experience of the students. This paper provides new insights into the potential of esports as an educational tool and proposes that play theory offers a valuable framework for understanding game-based learning beyond a narrow focus on learning outcomes. Keywords: Play, Gaming, Esports, Special education, Teacher roles, Vulnerable youth 1. Introduction The use of commercial games as part of special education curricula have become increasingly common in Denmark in recent years. In particular at the Specially Planned Youth Education for young people aged 16-25 called STU. Here, we focus on Esports programmes at STU, which are offered as specialised tracks or elective programmes at nearly 20 STU programmes nationwide (stuguiden.dk). The young people who enroll in esports tracks often do so in consultation with their municipal youth guidance counsellors (KUI-vejledere), based on their interest in gaming. A previous study has focused on how game-based teaching can be divided into different phases of planning, orientation, playing, and elaboration (Kangas et al 2017). These phases call for different demands and competencies for the teachers. However, little emphasis within research on game-based teaching has been put on understanding educational gaming as a playful and situated activity. In fact, earlier research on games and learning tend to background playful aspects of games and instead emphasize games as more or less instrumental tools that can ensure specific learning outcomes (Nolan & McBride, 2014) Following this, we argue that game-based teaching in the context of special education should be conceptualised as a playful activity, which we can understand by drawing on insights from play theory. In this paper, we unfold two aspects that can help enrich our understanding of gaming as a playful activity. The first is the feel and rhythm of playing videogames. It is an aspect that builds on phenomenological understandings of how players experience gaming activities and how games and players are connected (Keogh 2018, Vahlo, 2017). What we pursue here is a deeper understanding of what it feels like to be engaged in gaming activities primarily from a student perspective in the particular setting of the STU? Second, play theory is introduced to focus on how teachers position themselves in and around gaming. Our interest here is what kind of change shifts in adult positions have on students’ game experience, feel and rhythm? To answer these questions, we start by introducing the context of gaming activities at the STUs. Then, we introduce our theoretical perspectives, which are a blend of game and play theory connected by key concepts 348 The Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Games Based Learning