PLAYFLY COLLEGE ESPORTS: PRIMER

UPDATE - 8/19/2024 @ 10:33AM: To make the Open Division more accessible to our communities, pricing for Open Plus has been reduced to $10 per player and $20 for Open Premier respectively. See Open Membership section below and Blog update here.

College esports, we’re back! The Playfly team has been hard at work and we are thrilled to finally pull back the curtain on Playfly College Esports, the very latest offering from the folks that brought you NACE Starleague, Collegiate Starleague, and more. Check out the press release HERE for the high-level details, if you haven’t already reviewed. In this article we’ll provide a more detailed introduction to our new membership model, and we’ll dig into several of the benefits being introduced to participants this Fall.

MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS

There will be two distinct membership types available for participants heading into the 2024-2025 competition year. 

Membership is not required to participate in Collegiate Chess League, eNASCAR College iRacing Series, and PUBG MOBILE Campus Championship.

Varsity Membership

The Varsity Membership will be available to schools with existing, school-supported esports programs. This membership allows for unlimited participation by school-supported students and teams in exclusive competitions for all supported games during a single school year. Varsity Member schools will also have access to Circuit titles at no additional cost. 

A Varsity Membership will cost $2,000 per academic year and will include Fall and Spring seasons of competition; however, we know for most schools, budgets are already locked, and there’s not always wiggle room around that. That’s why we’re offering schools a one-time opportunity to sign up for a two-year membership, with no payments until July 2025 and a 25% discount off the regular base price (that's $1,500/year, or $3,000 in total for two years).

Only schools that meet certain criteria will be eligible for Varsity Membership (dedicated space on campus, commitment to in-person play, etc.). More details will be available when applications for Varsity Membership open on July 15th.

Open Membership

Unlike Varsity, the Open Membership is student-based. Currently enrolled students at accredited universities and colleges with a physical address in the United States and Canada will be able to select from one of two membership tiers - Standard and Premier.

At launch, Open Memberships will be available on a per-season basis only - Fall 2024 or Spring 2025. Early Bird pricing (20% off base rates) will be available until September 3. Both memberships also allow access to Circuit titles at no additional cost (see chart below). 

The Standard Membership will cost $10 per season and will provide a student with unlimited access to all Open competitions for supported games, with the exception of our highest division of play (see Premier). 

To clarify, for one low fee a student will have access to regular, organized competition for more than 10 different games.

The Premier Membership will cost $20 per season, with all of the same benefits as the Standard Membership, but will also include access to our highest division of open competition - “Premier”. Note: Students competing in the Premier division are ineligible for other divisions of competition within the same game title.

Membership Chart

COMPETITION BENEFITS

Scholarship Prizing

During the 2024-2025 school year, Playfly College Esports will award more than $150,000 in scholarships between our highest Varsity and Open divisions and Circuit competitions. 

Weekly Broadcasts

Our weekly broadcasts are returning for the 2024-2025 school year, and each week we’ll feature select Varsity and Open matches from all supported games.

Annual LAN

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. Travel stipends will be available for all participating teams. More details around this year’s event will be announced at a later time.

Free Merch Drops

As a thank you, every single student that participates with us moving forward will be rewarded with free, exclusive merch from our shop, and each season we’ll have a new drop. Participants only pay shipping and handling. 

For Fall 2024, this will include a College Esports t-shirt and commemorative flag. We expect the first items to ship after October 1.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Help shape the future of our collegiate esports ecosystem by joining our Advisory Committee. Generally, the Committee will be responsible for providing recommendations on competition structure, schedule, rules, games, critical processes (i.e. seeding) and more, and will oversee the appeals process. To ensure all participating parties have a say in decision-making the committee will be made up of representatives from all levels of esports - directors, club officials, and student participants. 

Nominations are now open. Click HERE to nominate yourself, a colleague, or a deserving student.

EXTRAS

Website

Alongside the launch of Playfly College Esports we’re excited to welcome you to our newly redesigned website. Read up on all the latest competition updates, check out photos from past events, shop our latest styles, and more.

Shop

College esports is a lifestyle and we’re excited to debut the College Esports clothing line, which is intended to blur the lines between traditional varsity collegiate styles and esports. Each season, select items will be available exclusively to participants before becoming available to the public for purchase at a later date.

To celebrate the launch of Playfly College Esports, we’re offering a 25% discount on all first-time purchases through the new playflycollege.gg shop (promo code: PLAYFLY25).

School Collections

Varsity programs and clubs are now able to establish their own print-on-demand storefronts and merch collections at no cost through the new playflycollege.gg shop. All we need is an approved mark and your school colors. For more information, and to see a sample shop and collection, please click HERE.

Marketing Kit

We know not all groups have the time and resources to develop their own bespoke collateral for social media. That’s why we’re developing a kit for growing programs to help simplify the development and maintenance of creative assets (roster reveals, broadcast tune-ins, and more). We expect the kit to launch prior to the start of Fall 2024 competition.

GET INVOLVED

At Playfly, we are firmly committed to student development through paid workplace experience. Our team of passionate, dedicated tournament administrators help to oversee competitive operations, and gain invaluable experience while doing so. Admins are the backbone of any competition, and ours have gone on to subsequent roles with publishers, high schools, collegiate institutions, and more. 

Applications are now open for the 2024-2025 school year. Click HERE to apply. 

WHAT’S NEXT

We will share the full 2024-2025 competition structure and calendar on July 15th, and registration for the Fall 2024 season will begin on August 1st. And that’s not all. We’ll have a few other exciting announcements to make in the coming days, so follow @playflygg and join our Discord to stay up to date on all our very latest news and updates.

Over the years we’ve provided tens of thousands of students with organized, structured competition, and we’re thrilled to continue building on that legacy with Playfly College Esports.

We can’t wait to welcome you this Fall!

Until next time.

CW