June 8th saw the announcement of the Mid Atlantic Championship Series, a new esports league focusing on competition between Mid Atlantic colleges. The year-long competition will feature a $10,000 prize pool with LAN finals hosted in November 2024 and April 2025.
Schools located in the Mid Atlantic region (NY, NJ, PA, DC, MD, DE, VA, WV) can compete in League of Legends, VALORANT, Rocket League, Overwatch 2, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the price of $1,200 per school. According to the MACS guidebook, schools should also budget for LAN travel costs.
Schedule
Schools should keep an eye on the league’s important dates:
- Fall Registration: June 8 – Sept. 7
- Payment Due: Sept. 7
- Regular Season Start: Sept. 8
- Winter Finals: November 23-24
- Spring Registration: Closes January 19
- Spring Season Start: January 20th
- Spring Finals: April 19
The MACS have not yet shared the location of the 2 semester LAN Finals, or the in-person Super Smash Bros. Ultimate events.
Mid Atlantic Championship Series League Goals
The league is headed up by commissioner of the league and recent George Mason University graduate, Cara Chiswell, and David Dilly, owner of an iCode franchise in Vienna, VA.
Chiswell shared the motivation behind founding the MACS:
“When I was competing with GMU esports and working as the socials manager and then president, I loved traveling to LANS, making rivalries and friends with other schools, forming a deeper bond with my team, and eventually finding my purpose for what I wanted to do in postgrad.”
She went on to state, “This is the experience I wanted to bring to the schools in the Mid Atlantic region, with the goal of growing these programs, engaging with their communities, and watching them flourish in the future.”
The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate competition will feature a unique format that focuses on in-person, rather than online competition.
Chiswell shared: “We also are pioneering a new circuit structure with Super Smash Bros where teams compete on LAN in three majors to qualify for the championship at the end of the year. If this new circuit structure goes well, we want to move all titles to this method in the future!”
Costs
When asked about the $1,200 price tag, Chiswell explained that it would go towards covering the LAN costs for the 2 semester LANs, including:
- Venue costs for the 2 semester LANs
- PC Rental costs / Production Materials
- Prize Pool / Trophies / Gift bags for winning teams
- Emergency Tournament Costs
- Marketing / Promotion
The $1,200 deposit will cover both semesters and schools are expected to make their payment by September 7th in order to compete in the league.
Those interested in competing or volunteering as part of the competition council, can join the MACS Discord server.
