Spring Major 2023 Begins Today!
The wait is over; today is the first day of the 2023 HSEL Spring Major regular season! We're excited to watch your students compete over the next eight weeks and beyond.
To ensure your team’s success, we recommend saving this newsletter, as it contains several important resources for the upcoming season.
First, for any new competitors, remember that matches are generated at match-time by utilizing our queue system.
Coaches, we heard your feedback! To make this process easier for you, queues now open five minutes earlier (but close at the same time). Queuing for a match demonstrates the intent to play, so please ensure your team is ready to go! For more advice, consider reading our Match Day Protocol article.
Match-Day Support
First, if you need help in real time, the best place to start is the “Help” bubble at the bottom right of every page.
This bubble can help you search our Help Site and will also provide you with the options of either connecting to our live chat or submitting a support ticket. We recommend using the live chat for questions or issues that require an immediate response, filing a ticket when disputing the outcome of a match, or asking questions that are not time-sensitive.
Platform & Competition Updates
We have continued to make changes to our platform and league in pursuit of the best student experience possible. Here are some notable changes:
Privacy: We are moving away from displaying students’ real first names in competition settings and instead now display their usernames. Team administrators will still be able to see students’ names when editing rosters.
Valorant: any new game connections will require students to sign in with Riot Games. In the coming weeks, we will prompt students to re-add their game connections by signing in with Riot.
Minecraft Survival Games: last week, we pushed an update to this service to reduce players’ ping.
During the offseason, we also updated the map pools for Valorant and CS:GO, and updated the spectating rules for Rocket League.
Brawlhalla
The Brawlhalla participation quest returns this spring!
Our friends at Brawlhalla will provide the first 250 students to complete three Brawlhalla matches & claim the associated quest with an in-game code which will unlock the legend Queen Nai with her “Snake Charmer” skin and both of her unique weapons.
Discord for Educators
Looking for a place to chat with other educators in esports?
The Esports Educators' Community on Discord is a great place to connect with HSEL and MSEL coaches. Join the server here!
Gaming Concepts
Have you been thinking about augmenting your esports program with structured activities and lessons? Generation Esports will have SIX courses available for the 2023-2024 school year, including Middle School: Exploring Life Skills Throughout Scholastic Gaming, and for high school, Fundamentals: A Video Gaming Curriculum For Schools.
Spring Webinar Series
Led by industry-leading experts, join us this spring for an esports webinar series that promotes the normalization of esports in our schools through student leadership, collaboration, communication, perseverance, and self-efficacy.
Your Esports Fundraising Solutions
Level up your fundraising capabilities and get funds to help your program off the ground with Fan Cloth. HSEL has partnered with Fan Cloth to provide programs an avenue to offer custom apparel and accessories while also raising money.
Don't miss this opportunity to drive real dollars back to your program while also building brand awareness!
Click here to get your fundraiser started!