The advancement of esports has been explosive within the past few years. Leagues have popped up from around the globe and have been enthralled by the competition and accessibility of these games. Lately, esports has become main industry for investors to venture into. With all of this support, colleges have been drafting talent of students who could not prove their worth in competition, but only by ranking. However, with PlayVS and their newfound support, the high school scene will change drastically.

PlayVS has been attempting to develop the esports scene at the high school level for some time. They recently announced that they received a 15 million dollar investment from Investors New Enterprise Associates, Science, CrossCut Ventures, Cross Culture Ventures, Nas, the San Francisco 49ers, Coatue Management, Dollar Shave Club founder Michael Dublin, Twitch co founder Kevin Lin, and many more. With this amount of backing, PlayVS can establish a strong and competitive platform to begin high school esports.

PlayVS initially partnered up with NFHS, the high school sports league, to create esports leagues and a strong infrastructure. The NFHS has dictated all of their leagues’ rules and regulations, but they are not well-versed in esports. Thus the partnership was formed between PlayVS and the NFHS to correctly structure esports in high schools.

PlayVS will kick off their first season in October. These tournaments will include 18 states and about 5 million students. Esports have exploded in the entertainment world, and with the popularity of games like Fortnite and League of Legends, these high-schoolers have legitimate reasons to play video games. PlayVS has announced they will focus solely on PC gaming and emphasizing MOBAs, Fighting games, and Sports games.