While we will highlight all significant adjustments below, we encourage all coaches and players to review the detailed points and the rulebook for your game title.

Competitive leagues in Middle School have been a long time coming. We are starting small with leagues in certain esports that have remained healthy since middle school competition was introduced, and look forward to expanding our competitive offerings as soon as we feel we can.

On the other side, Recreational leagues continue to prove beneficial to our schools that are new to the platform, and for our younger players who are getting healthily introduced to the world of competitive gaming.

However, the adjustments we made to Recreational leagues in the Spring did not land as we hoped. With competitive leagues being offered for our Middle School players now, we wanted to offer a hybrid of our two scheduling systems. Matches will remain optional in recreational leagues; however, teams that want to treat this as a training ground to foster budding competitive players will now be able to do so with scheduled matches.

With the transition to a paid model, we wanted to add a clear rule around the membership fee for our community to reference. While teams may start competition while they are ironing out their payment, teams will not be able to continue competing into the season if they have not completed payment.

Next, we’ve received quite a bit of feedback over the years surrounding our communications rules once the player(s) enter the game. We have moved our communications rules to be title-specific, and where possible, have replicated the ruleset present at the collegiate or professional level.

The remainder of these updates are made to provide more clarity on our existing rules, as opposed to true changes. The most notable being the rules around the Grace Period (stating how teams can use this rule, and when a team can claim a win due to their opponent violating that rule) and Match Disputes (clarifying that a match must be paused for our team to properly review any issues).

With the addition of competitive leagues, the majority of these changes were to align our Middle School rules with the existing High School rules.
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​The most important addition is that with the return of competitive leagues, teams are once more subject to the publisher guidelines. For Rocket League, participating players must be at least 13 years of age at the start of the match.

Our previous rules around a team’s roster aimed to provide flexibility and avoid forfeits when it didn’t impact the opposing team. However, this resulted in more confusion starting the match.

In all instances, schools may only compete while missing one (1) player for team-based esports (i.e., a Marvel Rivals team must have at least 5 players in the lobby to compete. Less than that requires that the teams reschedule, or the team in violation must forfeit the match).

Lastly, the individual titles now have a specific rule surrounding coaching, and when a coach is eligible to communicate with their players. The rule will vary, as different competitive scenes have their own perspectives on how this process works. We believe this update strikes a balance between what the students can expect as they continue to compete in their respective esport, and what the coach can provide once a game of record has been established. For quick access, here's an overview for each title:

Our previous rules stated that Voice Chat must be set to OFF, which negatively impacted players who were unable to use third-party software to communicate with their teammates. With this update, players can communicate with their teammates and avoid communicating with their opponents by following the provided steps.

Additionally, as Fortnite allows in-game avatar customization, this title is subject to the guidelines surrounding in-game cosmetics within the PlayVS Code of Conduct.

As League of Legends allows in-game character customization, this title is subject to the guidelines surrounding in-game cosmetics within the PlayVS Code of Conduct.

The latest edition of Madden NFL arrives on August 13th, 2026. This section will be updated shortly after with any new and updated rules to align with the newer version of the game.

After review of the feedback provided by coaches, the one clear consensus was that the change to four (4) races for the preseason and regular season led to matches ending too quickly, while not allowing a team that was down any opportunity to come back. To address this, and make it easier for teams transitioning from the regular season to playoffs, all games will now be six (6) races.
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​We have also added the ability for teams to select tracks, reducing the total number of track options to eight (8). Selecting tracks allows teams to develop specific strategies and avoids a significant amount of RNG that was created under the previous random-only rules.

Additionally, we wanted to note that we are looking for more detailed feedback on the overall match format for Mario Kart this season. We’ve received enough feedback in our support channels and Discord to investigate, but not enough that could warrant a widespread change to our rules. If you have feedback on things like our team-based ruleset, map selection process, or any other rules for this title, please share those with us via support@playvs.com - Thanks!

We have updated the Map Pool to reflect the current competitive ruleset in Marvel Rivals.

Additionally, 1.8 Costumes and Customizations has been fully removed from the rulebook and replaced as a guideline provided in the PlayVS Code of Conduct. We felt that matches were too often being paused or stopped entirely due to cosmetics that did not impact the competitive integrity of the match. Players are now expected to obtain coach approval prior to using cosmetics in-game to avoid any violations, and behavior reports may be submitted to our team should a user violate this new guideline.

As Overwatch allows in-game character customization, this title is subject to the guidelines surrounding in-game cosmetics within the PlayVS Code of Conduct. We have also updated the Map Pool to reflect the current competitive ruleset in Overwatch.

We have updated the match format and tournament draft process to reflect the transition to three (3) Pokémon bans per game. Additionally, we’ve added some clarifying language on how to properly start the match with a bot if only four (4) players are available for a team on match day.

We’ve added some clarifying language on what teams can expect if a match is expected to occur 3v2/2v2.

We have added guidelines for teams missing a player to use the new Concede Series to proceed through the match without contacting support.

Additionally, 1.8 Costumes and Customizations has been fully removed from the rulebook and replaced as a guideline provided in the PlayVS Code of Conduct. We felt that matches were too often being paused or stopped entirely due to cosmetics that did not impact the competitive integrity of the match. Players are now expected to obtain coach approval prior to using cosmetics in-game to avoid any violations, and behavior reports may be submitted to our team should a user violate this new guideline.

We’ve added guidelines for teams missing a player to use the new Concede Series to proceed through the match without contacting support.

We have updated the Map Pool to reflect the current competitive ruleset in VALORANT.

We’ve also added guidelines for the in-game lobby setting for Cheats. While the name inherently clashes with our competitive integrity concerns, the setting can be quite helpful when enabled and used honestly. We’ve added clear guidelines on when the setting may be turned on, which selections may be used in a match, and the penalty that can be expected when the process is not properly followed.