In the wake of their separation from NACE, Playfly has released their new competitive structure. The announcement was made in a post on X, though they revealed more information on their website.
This announcement comes less than a week after NACE and Playfly publicly ended their partnership following alleged differences between both parties. NACE also recently wrapped up their 2024 NACE Convention where discussions took place on how their league’s structure will look going forward. Announcements have yet to be shared with those who did not attend the convention.
Much is retained from former NACE Starleague competition
From their announcement, it’s clear that Playfly is looking to build on the format they created previously with NACE. The newly branded Playfly College Esports will consist of two major divisions: Open and Premier. Within those divisions, there are Varsity and Open groupings that separate the top team competing from each school from all other competing reserve teams.
Schools that compete in the Varsity Division must meet a variety of selective criteria. This includes having an official esports program (as opposed to a student-run club), dedicated space on campus to compete, and be willing to compete at in-person competitions.
Schools competing in the Varsity Division will have to pay $2,000 per academic year. Playfly is offering a discount, though, to schools that pay in advance for two years. For those schools, the price is cut to $1,500 per academic year.
The Open Division, on the other hand, is paid for on a per student basis. Open Division memberships start at $40 per student, going up to $75 for those that want to compete in the Open Premier Division.
The decision to charge for the Open Division was first made back in February of this year, back when Playfly was still running NACE Starleague alongside the NACE. The announcement post on X garnered a sizeable negative reaction from observers and NACE Starleague members.
That cost, though, does provide schools in both the Varsity and Open Divisions an opportunity to compete at the annual LAN competition hosted by Playfly. Other perks of membership include free Playfly merch drops and scholarship prizing totaling more than $150,000.
Playfly Announces Fall Game Schedule
Playfly also announced their Fall 2024 game lineup and schedule. As always, several large titles share competition days across multiple of the big collegiate leagues.
Both Playfly and NACE will be running Rocket League on Mondays this fall. They’ll also overlap with League of Legends on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
NECC also plans on running League of Legends on Tuesdays alongside Playfly and NACE. Those interested in competing in both Playfly and ECAC will run into a host of overlapping dates. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, VALORANT, and Counter-Strike 2 all overlap between Playfly and ECAC, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday respectively.
Additionally, Playfly announced their LAN dates, targeting the first weekend of May, which would conflict with the CECC May Madness tournament hosted on the same weekend since 2022. Playfly shared that they will be looking at other dates for their LAN event.
The New College Esports Landscape
With the unveiling of the new Playfly College Esports brand, there are now four major competitions present in collegiate esports. While this does create greater options in the space, schools will have to decide which leagues work best for them to determine which ones are worth the cost and time commitment, on top of publisher run leagues such as CLOL and CVAL.
As each league begins rolling out their Fall 2024 plans, it will be worth evaluating which schools compete in each of the four leagues. While bigger programs could afford multiple memberships, smaller programs will likely be limited to choosing just one. Keep an eye on College Esports News and our various social platforms as we provide more info on all of the major collegiate esports leagues.
