BERWYN, PA (July 9, 2024) – Playfly Sports, the Fan Focused and Data Driven leader in sports media, marketing, and technology, and its esports division are excited to announce a rebranding of its owned and operated college esports ecosystem. Founded in 2009 and formerly known as Collegiate Starleague, CSL Esports, and most recently NACE Starleague, North America’s largest collegiate esports community will be reestablished as Playfly College Esports. The same team that’s been responsible for organization and operations will remain in place and will be augmented by the full breadth of Playfly’s back-office resources.
“We are excited about this new chapter for college esports,” said Charles O’Donnell, the Head of Esports at Playfly. “All of our partners from publishers, sponsors, and our platform provider, LeagueSpot.gg, are all very supportive of the service that we are able to provide to our community and we sincerely thank them for their trust in us. This new iteration is a direct result of our Founder and CEO, Mike Schreiber’s vision for Playfly. In addition to our external partners, we also have the fortunate advantage of leveraging world class personnel, capabilities & best practices from Playfly’s diverse & innovative business units. This really is our secret sauce and allows us to execute at an extremely high level.”
Playfly College Esports will continue to support a wide range of game titles at the Varsity & Open levels and will continue to operate competitions for the Collegiate Chess League, the eNASCAR College iRacing Series, PUBG MOBILE Campus Championship, and BIG EAST Esports under the new banner.
One structural change of note is that Playfly’s Vice President of Esports Operations, Curtis Winger, will also take on the responsibility of Commissioner. In this new role, Winger will work with an Advisory Committee, made up of volunteers from participating schools to help shape and govern competition and to ensure that Playfly continues to provide the best-in-class experience that it is known for.
To that end, Playfly College Esports is excited to announce a few of the benefits coming online, effective immediately:
– Launch of new website, playflycollege.gg, which will serve as the community hub. Read up on all the latest competition updates, check out photos from past events, shop our latest merch, and more.
– Varsity membership granting access to exclusive competitions and services
– 20% off Early Bird pricing available for all Open memberships
– Over $150,000 in scholarship prizing to be awarded between top Varsity and Open divisions
– Weekly broadcasts featuring top Varsity and Open division teams on twitch.tv/playflygg.
– Annual LAN Grand Finals for top Varsity and Open division teams (May 2-4, 2025). Travel stipends will be available for all participating teams.
– Free t-shirt and commemorative merch for all registered players across all competitions
– Opportunity to help shape the future of the collegiate esports ecosystem by joining our Advisory Committee
– 25% discount for all first-time purchases through our new online storefront (promo code: PLAYFLY25)
– Opportunity for varsity programs and clubs to establish their own print-on-demand online storefronts and merch collections at no cost
– Marketing kit for programs to help with asset development and enhance their social channels
– A continued commitment to student development through paid workplace experience. Join our team of passionate, dedicated tournament administrators, and help to oversee operations of North America’s largest collegiate esports community. For more information visit playfly.com/join-our-team.
“Throughout this journey our mission has always remained the same: To offer exceptional esports experiences to students and the schools they represent,” said Winger. “Playfly College Esports is the embodiment of that mission. Through it, we’re able to offer more opportunities and more value to our community than ever before. We have seen record-breaking participation numbers, at all levels of play, and we expect this upward trend to continue next year and beyond. We’re excited to pull back the curtain and show you what we’ve been working on.”
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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 with approximately 83% 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.
