The High School Competition Rulebook can be viewed here.

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 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.

1.1.3 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.

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

1.1.5 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.

1.1.6 Season. Scheduled league play that will occur over a pre-determined 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 3.3 Roster Submission of the league’s Competition Rulebook.

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.

A Game of Record (“GOR”) in League of Legends is established under the following conditions:

1.3.1 Any attack or ability is landed on minions, jungle creeps, structures, or enemy Champions

1.3.2 Line-of-sight is established between players on opposing teams

1.3.3 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.

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.

So 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. and 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.

If a player pauses or unpauses a game without permission from the coaches, it will be considered unfair play, and penalties will be applied at the sole discretion of League Officials.

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 may pause per Section 1.4.2. 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 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

Mode: Tournament Draft

Each team will compete in a match consisting of Bo3, with the winner of each game determined by the team that destroys the opposing team’s Nexus, and the winner of the match determined by the team to win 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.

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.

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 Champion Select for any reason.

If any champion is incorrectly picked or banned during the Tournament Draft process, the team who selected incorrectly must notify their opponent immediately in 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.

Coaches are strongly encouraged to take advantage of Riot's "Campus League Unlocked" program.

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 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 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 Riot Vanguard (League of Legends).

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

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:

For Playoffs, The Higher Seed receives side selection for Game 3.

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 proceeds as follows:

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.

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.

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, then statistics would not be tracked, and the match results would need to 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.