INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
with a league akin to traditional sports like basketball or football
Through a partnership with the NFHS, high schools (or parents, or the students themselves) can pay $64/player to be placed in a league to
compete with neighboring schools, just like any other sport.But PlayVS partnerships go deeper than the NFHS (the NCAA of high school
sports), as the company is also partnering with the publishers themselves
This is the part that puts PlayVS a step ahead of its competition, according to founder Delane Parnell .While other companies are setting up
paid competitive leagues around video games, very few if any have partnerships at the publisher level
This means that those startups could be shut down on a whim by the publishers themselves, which own the IP of the game.PlayVS is the first
to productize the experience in a way that requires almost no lift for schools and organizations
Players simply sign into PlayVS and get dropped into their scheduled match
At the end, PlayVS pulls stats and insights directly from the match, which can be made available to the players, coaches, fans and even
recruiters.For PlayVS, the college landscape presents a new challenge
With high school expansion, the NFHS fueled fast and expansive growth
Since launch, more than 13,000 high schools have joined the waitlist to get a varsity esports team through PlayVS, which represents 68% of
PlayVS says that just over 14,000 high schools in the United States have a football program, to give you a comparison.The NFHS has a
relationship with the NCAA, but no such official partnership has been signed, meaning that PlayVS has to go directly to individual colleges
to pitch their technology
launch.Unlike the rest of the PlayVS titles, the first season of Fortnite competition will be free to registered users, courtesy of the
partnership with Epic Games
Registration for the first seasons closes on February 17 for high schools, and February 24 for colleges and universities
The season officially kicks off on March 2.The format for competition will be Duos, and organizations can submit as many teams of two as
The top teams will be invited to the playoffs with a chance to win a spot in the championship in May.
