This dissertation narrates the data corpus of a 3-year autoethnography of a gaming community that created a history-themed esports event, the EU4 LAN. Descriptive writing and thematic analysis was utilized to illustrate the enacted roles of EU4 LAN community's (I)dentities across its affinity network. The aim of this research has been to elucidate the multimodal design features that facilitated identity exploration throughout the EU4 LAN's learning ecosystem. This dissertation documents how members of this gaming community interact, share knowledge, and learn across physical and virtual spaces. Using an ecological approach, my research context describes the EU4 LAN as an esports learning ecosystem that embedded live-action role-playing (larp) features to scaffold identity exploration in a game- based environment. I explore how esports learning ecosystems can be designed with features such as agency, immersion, community, and legacy. These design features allowed the EU4 LAN community to engage through in-person interactions, as well as, across the streaming platform, Twitch.tv and it's virtual affinity network. The EU4 LAN community was examined from three perspectives, the EU4 LAN players, the organizers, and the Twitch stream participants. My analysis revealed three enacted roles that emerged as themes across the aforementioned perspectives. These were Map Painter, Keepers of the Kingdom, and Bards of the EU4 LAN. The first theme, Map Painter, described the community's mastery of history and EU4 knowledge and game mechanics. It also showed the community's interest and motivation around in-game challenges and the encouragement of the Twitch stream participants. The second theme, Keepers of the Kingdom, describes the rules and regulations required to cultivate the EU4 LAN. This included the specialized knowledge of the non-player characters, as well as, the ability to design immersive interactions within in-person events and the streaming chat. The final theme of "Bards of the EU4 LAN" characterizes the storytelling that happen before, during, and after the event. It outlines the ways players create artifacts of the EU4 LAN and share their stories to the EU4 community. These artifacts create a legacy to motivate and inform the next generation of EU4 LAN participants. I conclude with a reflection on esports-based and larp-based design features that can facilitate identity exploration in esports learning ecosystems, and provide directions for its application in a variety of learning environments. This research contributes to our current understanding of identity exploration in game- and esports-based learning ecosystems, and offers a framework for designing and researching esports learning ecosystems. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]