This Fall, the Middle School Esports League returns with more games, updated formats, new experiences, and more pathways to victory so your students can experience success. The 2023-24 school year was our best and biggest to date, and we also learned a TON from our new initiatives, so let’s take a deep dive into what you can expect from MSEL for 2024 - 2025.
New Middle School Esports League Game: Minecraft Bed Wars
This has been a popular request for a few years! We are excited to supplement Minecraft Survival Games with Bed Wars in the Spring of 2025. We will first introduce Bed Wars in a head-to-head two-team format as a “beta test” / proof of concept. It gets a bit trickier to create a four-team match in terms of both matchmaking and scoring, so we’d like to ensure this game mode will be supported by schools before adding it to the development team’s roadmap.
See the MSEL Yearly Calendar for more information on games offered each season!
Season Length and Makeup Rounds
The change of the season length to six weeks was met with very positive feedback – until the playoff seeding. Tiebreaking statistics became a major talking point for folks at the 3-3 and 4-2 lines. Next year, we’ll re-introduce a 7th regular season match to better differentiate participants on the leaderboard.
However, the season’s calendar will not be extended. The make-up week will be combined with week 7, and participants will have the option of queueing twice on the last day if necessary.
For example, if Rocket League has three queue times at 3:00 PM, 4:00 PM, and 5:00 PM, then one of those queue times will be a roster’s official “Week 7” match, while any additional queues may be used to make up a missing match.
Format Adjustments
This Spring, we implemented the same 3-region structure from HSEL (East, Central, and West) for both Rocket League 3v3 and Super Smash Bros.™ Ultimate. Additionally, all other titles that had a nationwide regular season matchmaking pool were split into “Atlantic” or “Pacific” brackets for the playoffs. This helped facilitate better match times for schools, and allowed for more students to earn a playoff experience!
Next year, we’re doubling down on regions. As MSEL continues to grow, more games will be divided into East, Central, and West regions. Smaller titles will keep a nationwide pool for the preseason and regular season, but will split into the 3-region structure for playoffs. Student success is often a catalyst for growing an esports community, and with each additional region/bracket comes additional opportunities for that success!
Rule Changes
Player and Coach Code of Conduct
We are updating the Player and Coach Code of Conducts and moving them into the General Tournament Rules. Along with this, we are clarifying the expectations for students and coaches interacting with tournament officials during live matches and disputes in order to resume play as quickly as possible.
Unplayed and Unscored Matches
We’re adding clarification to the “Unplayed Matches” rule to account for matches that are unscored.
Game-specific Rules
As always, we'll take a deep dive through all the rulebooks over the summer. If you'd like to see something changed, now is the time to send us your feedback!
Which competitions will be free to enter?
We are committed to ensuring students have access to esports, and the following competitions will be offered for free participation in Fall 2024:
10 Minute Chess
Rocket League 2 vs 2
Rocket League 3 vs 3
Access plans are available now. Avoid the back to school rush and renew your school today!