View the High School Competition Rulebook for league details.
Introduction and Purpose
These official rules (rules) of the PlayVS Scholastics Esports League apply to each of the teams who have registered and met the requirements for the 2025-2026 school year, as well as their head coach, assistant coaches, vice principals, athletic directors, starters, substitutes (collectively team members), and other members.
1. Game Rules
1.1 Game Account Connections
Players are required to create and connect the in-game name of their Riot Games account to their PlayVS profile before competing in a match.
Players without in-game accounts connected are ineligible to participate in the match.
Per section 6.2.7 Connected Accounts of the league’s Competition Rulebook,
teams must address missing game account connections before establishing a game of record. Reaching a game of record without confirming game accounts or addressing missing game account connections is not grounds for a match restart or loss.
1.2 Roster Requirements
Team members must be eligible to compete on behalf of their school as listed in section 2. Team Member Eligibility of the league's Competition Rulebook.
Each league page will list the number of players necessary to fill a team’s roster and bench. No individual may simultaneously hold two or more roles as listed above. All players and coaches are expected to be present physically or virtually for all official PlayVS matches. The roster and bench must be finalized before the roster lock date, as listed in section 3.4 Roster Submission of the league’s Competition Rulebook.
1.3 Substitutions
Substitutions must be made before the start of each game by using the Match Assistant to change the roster and re-confirm rosters during the roster confirmation step.
Once a game of record is established, substitutions are not allowed. Once the game is complete and the results are recorded, player substitutions may be made before the start of the following game.
In the event the Match Assistant is unavailable, rosters and substitutions must be confirmed before the start of each game unless otherwise approved by a League Official and stated by a PlayVS Admin in the Match Lobby Chat.
Players on the bench may be used for any match their team is competing in within their assigned league. Eligible substitutes for a match will be displayed on the Bench tab of the team’s roster card. Only the players shown on a team’s bench can be used as substitutes in an official PlayVS Match.
If a player on the starting roster cannot compete in the match and there are no available substitutes, competition may continue without that player as long as it does not disadvantage the opposing team.
1.4 Game of Record
A Game of Record (GOR) in League of Legends is established under the following conditions:
Any attack or ability is landed on minions, jungle creeps, structures, or enemy champions.
Line-of-sight is established between players on opposing teams.
The game timer reaches two minutes (00:02:00).
Once GOR is established, game restarts will only be allowed under limited conditions as listed in section 7.4 Game Restart of the league’s Competition Rulebook.
1.5 Stoppage of Play
Directed Pause
At any time, League Officials may order the pause of a match at the sole discretion of League Officials. Teams may complete the current game and finalize the results.
Player Pauses
As long as there are no team engagements (such as team fights, or skirmishing around objectives), players may pause a match using the in-game pause function by typing “/pause” within the in-game chat.
They must notify a coach and identify the reason for the pause in Match Lobby Chat immediately.
Once paused, all coaches and players must return to the PlayVS Match Lobby page, where both coaches should provide updates in the PlayVS lobby chat to address the situation.
Pauses that are expected to last longer than 10 minutes must be approved by a League Official, and verified by a PlayVS Admin in Match Lobby Chat.
When the pausing team is ready to unpause the game, a member of each team must confirm the resumption of play by typing “ready” or “r” in the chat. To communicate with the opponent, players will press enter, type “/all” followed by a space and the message, and then press enter again to send the message.
Penalties will be applied at the sole discretion of League Officials under the following circumstances:
Excessive pauses or unpauses during active team engagements (such as team fights, or skirmishing around objectives).
If a player pauses or unpauses a game without permission from the coaches.
Player Disconnection
If a player disconnects from the online match during a game, the player should attempt to reconnect to the match as soon as possible. In the event of a disconnect, players should pause the game.
If the player cannot rejoin within the allotted timeframe, the game will continue with the current players found in the lobby. Please provide a screenshot for all disconnects as proof of when the disconnection happens.
You cannot fill the spot of a disconnected player with a different player in the middle of a game. You must wait until after the game to substitute the disconnected player for another player.
Team Disconnection
If an entire team disconnects from the online match during a game, the disconnected team must share a message in the Match Lobby Chat to notify the opposing team. If the team cannot reconnect in a timely manner, notify PlayVS Support immediately for further assistance.
1.6 Match Format
Format | Best-of-Three (Bo3) |
Mode | Tournament Draft |
Team Size | 5 players |
Each team will compete in a match consisting of Bo3, with the winner of each game determined by the following:
The team that destroys the opposing team’s Nexus.
The winner of the match is determined by the team who wins two games first.
If a single team reaches two game wins before the start of the third game, then the third game will not be played.
All matches within the season will share the same Match Format as listed above, regardless of phase.
For a detailed breakdown of each phase available for the league, see section 5.2 Phase Details of the league’s Competition Rulebook.
1.7 Specific Rules
Draft Tools
Teams can choose to use online draft tools to facilitate the draft pick process. Both rosters must agree to use the online draft tool.
Prodraft is a tool that is available.
Custom Matches and Level Requirements
For matches where tournament codes are unavailable, custom lobbies must be created using the steps listed in the League of Legends Match Instructions.
There is no minimum level requirement that will be enforced. However, it is strongly recommended that summoner accounts reach level 10, which is the minimum level required to access all summoner spells in the game and will also allow you to create custom rune pages.
Role Assignments and Role Swaps
It is highly suggested that teams join the game lobby in their most likely position order:
Top
Jungle
Mid
Bot
Support
Players are free to swap roles during the champion select for any reason.
Error During Tournament Draft
If any champion is incorrectly picked or banned during the tournament draft process, the team who selected incorrectly must notify their opponent immediately in the PlayVS Match Lobby Chat.
If the draft is complete before correcting the error, the game must be paused immediately upon loading into the game.
The notification must include the champion selected incorrectly and the champion they intended to select at that time.
Teams must restart the tournament draft process immediately if there is a mistake or game client error. The draft should then be restarted and brought back to the point at which the error occurred, so that the team in error may correct its mistake.
All previous picks and bans except the mistakenly chosen champion must remain the same.
If all players are already loaded into the game, every player must exit the game using the "ESC" key to reset the match. Once all 10 players have left the game, a new lobby can be created using the same tournament code as before.
2. Player Equipment
2.1 Equipment
Each player on the starting roster must have access to school-provided equipment or must be permitted by the school to provide their own equipment in the following categories:
PC that meets the minimum Computer Specifications
Mouse and Keyboard
Stable Internet Connection
2.2 Riot Vanguard
Riot Vanguard is Riot Games’ custom in-house game security software designed to upload competitive integrity when playing League of Legends. This software is required to access League of Legends, and schools must ensure their PCs are set up properly before their first match. If a school computer is blocked by Riot Vanguard, an IT Administrator will be needed to access and edit the computer’s BIOS settings to enable TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, IOMMU, HVCI/VBS, and switch to UEFI mode.
A full support article for this highly technical process can be found on Riot Games’ Support for Riot Vanguard (League of Legends).
3. Match Process
3.1 Pre-Match Setup
Teams must adhere to section 6.2 Pre-Match Setup in the league’s Competition Rulebook as they prepare to join their match.
3.2 Match Setup
Join Lobby
Teams will follow League of Legends Match Instructions for lobby creation setup and joining the game lobby.
Side Selection
Each team will compete as either blue side (team 1) or red side (team 2) for each game. Side selection for each game is as follows:
Game 1 | Home team |
Game 2 | Away team |
*Game 3 | Loser of game 2 |
*For playoffs, The higher seed receives side selection for game 3.
Tournament Draft
Once all ten players have reported to the official game lobby, one member of each team confirms team readiness for the pick/ban phase. Once both teams confirm readiness, the room owner will start the game.
Clicking Start Game will take all participants into the tournament draft mode. Draft format phase orders proceeds as follows:
| Ban Phase #1 | Pick Phase #1 | Ban Phase #2 | Pick Phase #2 |
1. | Blue Team | Blue Team | Red Team | Red Team |
2. | Red Team | Red Team | Blue Team | Blue Team |
3. | Blue Team | Red Team | Red Team | Blue Team |
4. | Red Team | Blue Team | Blue Team | Red Team |
5. | Blue Team | Blue Team |
|
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6. | Red Team | Red Team |
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3.3 Match F.A.Q.
Spectating
In order to avoid giving any team an advantage, spectators should be removed from spectating unless both coaches have agreed to allow for a spectator by following section 7.7 Match Spectating from the league’s Competition Rulebook.
In-Game Content Updates
League of Legends is a live-service multiplayer game that may release new content patches with updated in-game content during the season.
New champions added to League of Legends during the regular season may be available for use in a PlayVS match. Any champions or items currently disabled in-game by Riot Games will not be available to use in PlayVS official matches. PlayVS will attempt to provide further information on these updates before they are available.
Any champion added to League of Legends after the regular season has ended will not be available for Playoffs. Champion Reworks will be monitored on a case by case basis dependent on the level of design in which the champion is reworked. League Officials will monitor these changes and announce rulings as quickly as possible
4. Post Match Process
4.1 Results
Results will be automatically recorded after a match has ended.
If a player uses a League of Legends account that is not connected to their PlayVS profile, the match will automatically be quarantined, and coaches will need to contact PlayVS directly to resolve the issue.
If tournament codes could not be used and a custom match was created, statistics are not tracked, and the match results must be submitted manually within 1 hour of match completion. Players should take screenshots of the match results and share those with their coaches.
In the event of an error, coaches must contact PlayVS directly.