HS Esports Startup Receives $15 Million From NFL, NBA, Celebs and More
HS Esports Startup Receives $15 Million From NFL, NBA, Celebs and More
PlayVS is the first official high school esports league sanctioned by the National Federation of State High School Associations and it just raised $15 million in series A funding.
The funding came from a variety of sources including the San Francisco 49ers, players from the NY Jets and LA Chargers, former NBA all-star Baron Davis, hip hop artist Nas and Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin.
“The 49ers have committed significant both financial and intellectual capital in really going into our community and supporting our community’s programs and building initiatives to create specific opportunities for kids to play and learn. […] That approach really motivated our investment in PlayVS.”
— 49ers chief investment officer Brano Perkovich
Securing the backing of the NFHS was a key step to PlayVS’ success. The NFHS is the United State’s primary regulator for high school sports and is active in all 50 states. It publishes the rules for 16 different high school sports and reaches over 11 million student athletes.
As the exclusive esports partner of the NFHS, PlayVS has a clear path to success. According to the company’s website, the partnership allows them “to operate esports leagues to their network of over 19,500 high schools nationwide.” On top of that, PlayVS matches will soon “be shown alongside the other 50,000 high school sports events broadcasted on the NFHS Network.”
High school esports are set to begin this fall, but there are still a few things PlayVS needs to work out. Most importantly, they still have yet to announce which four or five games will actually be available to play. It’s likely we’ll see League of Legends on the docket, but it’s a little murky beyond that.
What we know for sure is that there will be no shooters involved. PlayVS founder Delane Parnell told ESPN that they did not deem shooters appropriate for the high school environment. That means that CS:GO, Overwatch and Fortnite are all off the table. That’s a considerable blow considering just how popular all three games are, both as esports and video games in general.
That likely means that we’ll see at least one traditional sports game in the PlayVS lineup and maybe a dark horse like Rocket League, but we’ll have to wait until the official list comes out to know for sure.
For more information for students, educators and recruiters, check out the PlayVS website.
Also…
Don’t forget to check out some of our other weekly pieces, The LoL Weekly Preview, Recap and Highlight, as well as something I’m Forgetting and Week in Review.