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 2024-2025 school year, as well as their head coach, assistant coaches, vice principals, athletic directors, Starters, Substitutes (collectively Team Members), and other members.

1.1.1 Game. An instance of competition that is played until a winner is determined by one of the following methods, whichever occurs first: (a) completion of the countdown timer or objective achieved, (b) Team Surrender, or (c) Team Forfeit.

1.1.2 Round. An instance of individual competition, often between individual team members. The player or team that wins the majority of available rounds will be determined the winner of the game.

1.1.3 Set. A series of games that is played until one player wins a majority of the total games (e.g., winning two games out of three “best-of-three”). The winning player will receive a win tally in favor of their team for the match.

1.1.4 Match. A group of sets that is played until one team wins a majority of the total sets (e.g., winning two sets out of three “best-of-three”). The winning team will either receive a win tally in a league format or advance to the next round in a tournament format.

1.1.5 League. A group of teams that regularly play against one another. There are two distinct types of PlayVS leagues: (a) Recreational and (b) Competitive.

1.1.6 Phase. A section of scheduled league play that comprises a season. There are distinct phases for leagues, with each phase having its own league format.

1.1.7 Season. Scheduled league play that will occur over a predetermined amount of time.

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.

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.

Substitutions must be made by one of the following:

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. Only the players shown on a team’s Bench before the start of the match 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 put the opposing team at a disadvantage.

A Game of Record (GOR) in VALORANT is established under the following conditions:

1.3.1 When the barrier drops in the first round.

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.

During any pause or stoppage, players may not leave the match area unless authorized by their coach. Coaches should communicate any disconnections or pauses inside PlayVS’s Match Lobby chat.

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.

Within a game, each team is allotted two (2) sixty (60) second tactical timeouts, limited to one timeout per “Side.” Only one team can call a timeout for the round.

A team member must type /timeout or /to to start a team vote. Once the majority of players on the team have voted in favor of taking a tactical timeout, a 60-second in-game pause will occur automatically at the start of the next round.

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, 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 happened.

You may NOT 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. Rosters are locked for each game once the game begins and a “Game of Record” has been established according to section 1.3.

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.

Format: Best-of-Three (Bo3) Games (or Maps)

Mode: Standard

Settings:

Each team will compete in a match consisting of Bo3 maps, with the winner of each map determined by the number of total rounds won, and the winner of the match determined by the team to win two maps first. If a single team reaches two map wins before the start of the third map, then the third map will not be played.

Each team will compete as either an “Attacker” or “Defender” for the first 12 rounds of a map, after which the teams will swap “Sides” for the remainder of the game. Once a team earns 13 round wins, they are declared the winner for the map.

A round winner is determined by one of the following methods (whichever one occurs first):

If the round wins are tied at 12-12, Overtime will occur to determine a winner for the map. In Overtime, teams will compete in a series of two-round sets, swapping sides after the first round. The team that wins both of the two rounds (one as Attacker and the other as Defender) will be the overall winner of the map.

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.

To mimic the competitive format of VALORANT, maps will rotate on a seasonal basis. The maps available to pick and/or ban for the season are:

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:

2.1.1 PC that meets minimum specifications as listed in 2.1.6

2.1.2 Monitor

2.1.3 Headsets or Earbuds

2.1.4 Microphone

2.1.5 Mouse & Keyboard

2.1.6 Computer Specifications

Riot Vanguard is Riot Games’ custom in-house game security software designed to upload competitive integrity when playing VALORANT. This software is required to access VALORANT, and schools must ensure their PCs are set up properly before their first match takes place. 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 and time-consuming process can be found on Riot Games’ Support for Vanguard Restrictions.

Before the competition, all players are encouraged to ensure that the Show Mature Content setting is toggled OFF before joining the lobby. Streaming or broadcasting a PlayVS match without this setting toggled OFF would be considered a violation of the PlayVS Code of Conduct and is subject to consequences at the discretion of League Officials.

Teams must adhere to Section 6.2 Pre-Match Setup in the league’s Competition Rulebook as they prepare to join their match.

Teams are expected to work together to determine which NA VALORANT Server provides the lowest possible ping difference between both teams.

If teams cannot agree, the Home Team will have priority Server Selection for Map 1. In the playoffs, the higher-seeded team will have priority Server Selection for Map 1.

For Maps 2 and beyond, the losing team from the previous Map will have priority Server Selection for the following Map.

At any time, League Officials can determine which of the available servers best fits the individual match.

The Home team will invite the Away Team Captain to the lobby using the invite button. Once the Away Team Captain has joined the lobby, both team captains will invite the remainder of their roster and their coaches if applicable.

Before the first game, teams will ban and select maps from the Rotating Map Pool and choose sides for each of the three (3) games. The pick, ban, and side selection process will proceed as follows:

Once the Lobby Host selects Start, players will have 80 seconds to select their agent for that individual Map. Both teams select their Agents simultaneously and will not see the other team's picks until after the Agent Selection ends. Teams can select the same Agent as their opponent, but an individual team cannot simultaneously have two (2) of the same Agents on their team. Players will be taken into the Map when all players have selected their Agent or at the end of the 80-second timer.

Coaches are eligible to spectate a match by joining their respective team’s Coach position. This will only provide access to the perspectives of their team’s players. Coaches or players should not be in the Observer position unless both Coaches provided approval for streaming or broadcasting in Match Lobby Chat.

VALORANT is a live-service multiplayer game that may release new content patches with updated in-game content during the season.

New agents added to VALORANT during the regular season may be available for use in a PlayVS match once the Agent Recruitment Event ends, and the Agent is eligible to be recruited for Kingdom Credits. Any agents, items, or maps 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 agent added to VALORANT after the regular season has ended will not be available for Playoffs. Any new competitive Maps added to VALORANT will be assessed for the following season.

If the match is completed using the PlayVS Match Assistant tool, players or coaches can record results at the conclusion of each game with this tool.

If the PlayVS Match Assistant could not be used, the match results would need to be submitted manually after match completion. Players should take screenshots of the match results and share those with their coaches.

Matches without results submitted are subject to forfeit at the sole discretion of League Officials. In the event of an error, coaches must contact PlayVS directly.