PRAKTIK WACANA DALAM KONSTRUKSI IDENTITAS MEREK TIM ESPORTS (Analisis Wacana Kritis Fairclough pada Gaya Komunikasi di YouTube @PaperRex)

The development of the esports industry is driving professional teams to construct their brand identity on the digital media platform YouTube. The Valorant team Paper Rex, thru the "Mic Check" content, represents a typical communication discourse known as #WGAMING. This research aims to deconstruct how the verbal communication style discourse of the Paper Rex team is constructed and represented in this content to form the #WGAMING identity. The main analytical framework used is Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), supported by Robert W. Norton's Communication Style Theory, the 3C Model (Communication, Coordination, Cooperation), and Aaker's Brand Identity Model. The research results show that the #WGAMING discourse is textually (Norton) constructed from the dialectic between tactical order (Precise/Dominant Style) and expressive chaos (Open/Dramatic/Friendly/Controversial Style). Functionally (3C Model), this order supports Coordination, while expressive chaos strengthens the pillar of Cooperation. At the level of discursive practice, this discourse is packaged editorially as an entertainment product. Socioculturally, these findings are confirmed as a complete #WGAMING brand identity construction according to Aaker's framework, highlighting the brand as an organization (flexible culture) and the brand as a symbol (hashtag #WGAMING). In conclusion, the communication displayed by Paper Rex is a discourse of strategic construction that reproduces the ideology of alternative professionalism. This finding has implications for the importance of communication as a narrative asset in the digital entertainment industry.