Playfly College Esports: Competition Structure
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CHANGE LOG - 1/13/2025 @ 2:30 PMET: "Premier" Registration Closing Date adjusted to January 21, 2025.
11/19/2024 @ 11:12 AM ET: Spring 2025 Merch Drop and Tournament of Champions graphics added below.
10/31/2024 @ 12:00 PM ET: Adjusted spring 2025 Registration Close date and Regular Season and Playoffs schedule for Varsity and Open Premier; added Hearthstone under Game Days.
8/20/2024 @ 2:09 PM ET: Based on survey feedback from our collegiate esports community, we will be adjusting the default game day of Counter-Strike 2 to Friday for the upcoming Fall 2024 season. See Game Days section below and Blog update here.
7/15/2024 @ 6:03 PM ET: Following player feedback, we have moved Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to Mondays, and Counter-Strike 2 to Wednesdays (see Game Days section below). This change removes conflicts with other popular community competitions. Thank you to everyone who brought these conflicts to our attention.
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Hey all!
It’s been an exciting few days and we appreciate all the support you’ve shown.
ICYMI: Don’t forget to check out our competition Primer which goes into detail on all the things we’ve announced so far.
As promised last week, I’m excited to share Playfly College Esports’ competition structure and calendar heading into the 2024-2025 academic year.
Divisions
Starting at the highest level, Playfly College Esports competition is broken down into two major Divisions - Varsity and Open. Varsity competitions are exclusive to Varsity Members and Open competitions are exclusive to Open members. Within each Division there are a series of sub-Divisions.
Question: My school is a Varsity member? Can I compete in Open?
A: All students competing in the Open Division must have a valid Open Standard or Open Premier Membership. For more information on the different types of Playfly College Esports Memberships click HERE.
Premier
Varsity Premier and Open Premier represent the highest level of competitive play within their respective Divisions. Premier is limited to one team per school and features multiple conferences (regional and/or traditional). Premier teams compete for scholarship prizing and may earn a spot at our spring LAN.
Plus
Varsity Plus and Open Plus have no registration caps. Schools may field multiple teams here. Plus may be further broken down into rank-based sub-Divisions depending on the total number of teams registered.
Each sub-Division is played as a standalone competition. There is no crossover between sub-Divisions.
See illustrative example below:
- 64 teams register for Plus
- They are sorted based on their average in-game rank, from 1st to 64th
- The top 16 teams form the 1st Plus division
- The next 16 teams form the 2nd Plus division
- The next 16 teams form the 3rd Plus division
- The next 16 teams form the 4th Plus division
Some exceptions may apply based on the total number of teams registered.
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Format
All individual Varsity and Open competitions feature a round robin regular season and conclude with a single elimination postseason playoff tournament. Premier includes an additional Last Chance Qualifier tournament between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs.
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Fall 2024 Schedule
Varsity Premier
- Registration Open: August 1
- Registration Close: September 3
Schedule Release: September 7Regular Season
- Round 1: Week of September 9
- Round 2: Week of September 16
- Round 3: Week of September 23
- Round 4: Week of September 30
- Round 5: Week of October 7
- Round 6: Week of October 14
- Round 7: Week of October 21
- Last Chance Qualifier: October 28 - November 3
- Seeding Committee: November 4 - 8
Playoffs
- Round of 16: November 12 - 15
- Round of 8: November 16 and 17
- Round 4: November 18 - 22
- Grand Finals: December 2 - 6
Open Premier
- Registration Open: August 1
- Registration Close: September 9
Schedule Release: September 13Regular Season
- Round 1: Week of September 16
- Round 2: Week of September 23
- Round 3: Week of September 30
- Round 4: Week of October 7
- Round 5: Week of October 14
- Round 6 and 7: Week of October 21 (double header)
- Last Chance Qualifier: October 28 - November 3
- Seeding Committee: November 4 - 8
Playoffs
- Round of 16: November 12 - 15
- Round of 8: November 16 and 17
- Round 4: November 18 - 22
- Grand Finals: December 2 - 6
Varsity / Open Plus
- Registration Open: August 1
- Registration Close: September 16
Schedule Release: September 20Regular Season
- Round 1: Week of September 23
- Round 2: Week of September 30
- Round 3: Week of October 7
- Round 4: Week of October 14
- Round 5: Week of October 21
- Round 6: Week of October 28
- Round 7: Week of November 4
Playoffs
- Round of 8: Week of November 11
- Round 4: Week of November 18
- Divisional Finals: Week of December 2
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Spring 2025 Schedule
Varsity / Open Premier
- Registration Open: December 10
- Registration Close: January 20
Schedule Release: January 24Regular Season
- Round 1: Week of January 27
- Round 2: Week of February 3
- Round 3: Week of February 10
- Round 4: Week of February 17
- Round 5: Week of February 24
- Round 6: Week of March 3
- Round 7: Week of March 10
- Seeding Committee: March 17 - 21
Playoffs
- Round of 16: Week of March 24
- Round of 8: March 29 or 30
- Round 4: Week of March 31
- Grand Finals: Week of April 7
Varsity / Open Plus
- Registration Open: December 10
- Registration Close: January 27
Schedule Release: January 31Regular Season
- Round 1: Week of February 3
- Round 2: Week of February 10
- Round 3: Week of February 17
- Round 4: Week of February 24
- Round 5: Week of March 3
- Round 6: Week of March 10
- Round 7: Week of March 17
Playoffs
- Round of 8: Week of March 31
- Round 4: Week of April 7
- Divisional Finals: Week of April 21
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Default Times
East Conferences
7:00 PM ET - Includes teams in the Eastern and Central Time Zones
West Conferences
10:00 PM ET - Includes teams in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones
Hybrid Conferences
8:30 PM ET - May include teams in all time zones; case-by-case only
Hearthstone
12:00 PM ET - May include players in all time zones
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Game Days
|
Monday |
Rocket League, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate |
|
Tuesday |
League of Legends, VALORANT |
|
Wednesday |
Dota 2, Overwatch 2 |
|
Thursday |
Call of Duty, Rainbow Six Siege |
|
Friday |
Counter-Strike 2 |
| Saturday | Hearthstone |
LAN Invitational
To close out each school year in a big way, we’ll take the top fall teams and the top spring teams from our highest Varsity and Open divisions and bring them together in one massive LAN. For 2024-2025, the event will take place in the spring from May 2-4, 2025. The number of invited teams will vary by title. Travel stipends will be available for all participating teams. More details around this year’s event will be announced at a later time.
Circuit Tournaments
Circuits are typically a series of individual tournaments that serve as a qualifying mechanism for some later stage or event. Our Fortnite and Hearthstone Collegiate Circuits will be returning for the 2024-2025 academic year. More details will be available on August 1, 2024. All memberships include access to Circuit Tournaments.
Publisher Championships
Stay tuned for more information related to Collegiate Chess League, eNASCAR College iRacing Series, and PUBG MOBILE Campus Championship.
If you have more questions - please feel free to join us in our two upcoming Town Halls on July 16 and July 23 at 2:00 PM ET (RSVP HERE) - and you can always visit our Discord server. We’ve dropped a lot of information over the past two weeks and we want to make sure you’re getting the answers you need.