BERWYN, Pa. (July 25, 2024) – Playfly College Esports, the newly rebranded and fully owned and operated college esports community from Playfly Sports, the Fan Focused and Data Driven leader in sports media, marketing, and technology, is excited to team up with Chess.com for its fifth season of the Collegiate Chess League. Over the past four seasons, the league has seen exponential growth across the world, including a significant uptick in India.
During the Spring 2024 season, India was represented by 10 schools with 52 teams, comprised of 321 players. For the upcoming schedule, the league expects roughly 150 teams, per Chess.com.
“India is super passionate about chess and has some of the most promising talent coming up right now,” said Joe Lee, Commissioner for the Collegiate Chess League. “We believe India has a ton of potential, so we’re really excited to see how many players and teams compete for India’s College Chess Championship!”
Across the board, the Collegiate Chess League has quickly blossomed into a heavily attended platform, especially in the US. Saint Louis University, who was crowned Division I champion for the past two seasons, headlined 180 schools in Spring 2024. Within that were 376 teams of 2,235 players.
“Since the start of our partnership in 2022, we’ve seen outstanding growth and interest in our chess competitions,” said Joe Navarro, Playfly Esports Operations Manager. “Spring 2024 was our largest season yet and now we’ve reached a point where we can be spinning into regional competitions to better meet a significant portion of our international colleges at a more comfortable, local time – which in turn will enable further growth.”
Among the long list of school participation, the Power 5 has representation from 49 schools as well as eight that are Playfly Sports Properties.
Registration for the upcoming Fall 2024 season for India competition opens on Thursday, July 25. To be considered fully registered, all rosters must complete the following three (3) items prior to the registration deadline on August 11:
– All Players must be registered on LeagueSpot on a Chess (4v4) team, with their team being registered by the team representative for the India Collegiate Chess Championship competition
– Each team should have a minimum of four (4) players
– Team representatives must fill out the Chess.com registration form HERE for their roster
– All players must complete the FairPlay agreement HERE
**Failure to complete one or more items by the registration deadline may result in removal from competition.
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ABOUT PLAYFLY SPORTS
Playfly Sports is a sports media, marketing and technology business centered around the team, league, brand and network. Believing in ‘Fandom as a Service’ and focusing on a consultative, data-driven approach to REACH, ENGAGE, MONETIZE AND MEASURE FANDOM gives the company’s partners and brands a competitive advantage. Playfly connects more than 2,000 brand partners and over 100 sports properties and entities to approximately 85% of all U.S. sports fans. Through the proprietary platform, the business delivers scalable, data-oriented marketing, technology, and media solutions with capabilities including exclusive MMR management, sponsorship sales and activation, streaming, consulting, ticket/premium sales, all along with new revenue-driving platforms and technologies. Founded in September of 2020, Playfly Sports is now home to approximately 1,000 team members located across 43 U.S. states dedicated to maximizing the impact of highly passionate local sports fans. Follow Playfly Sports on social media @PlayflySports or visit www.playfly.com, and for more on esports follow @PlayflyGG on social media or visit playflycollege.gg.
