Earlier this week, Generation Esports—the owner and operator of scholastic esports program the High School Esports League, or HSEL—told coaches at participating schools via email that it had to cancel its season end, in-person LAN event, the HSEL Nationals. The message, attributed to the HSEL Competition Team, was posted online earlier this week on social media:
“We are reaching out to inform qualifying schools that we have made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person competition for HSEL Nationals this year. We know that many teams look forward to this aspect of the competition, and we want you to know this decision was not made lightly. We are currently exploring another competition option that will properly recognize and work for all teams. We will follow up with more information soon.
“We thank you for being such an incredible member of the HSEL community and look forward to celebrating your team’s accomplishments as we close out the 2025 HSEL Premier season. Stay tuned for more information regarding these competitions shortly.”
Public reaction to the news was negative, as coaches and players expressed frustration in public over the timing of the announcement, as seen in this X thread.
A representative for Generation Esports told The Esports Advocate that the organization expects to make an announcement next week with the possibility of additional prizing to make up for the situation. TEA has also learned that multiple interested parties (both publicly and privately) have offered to host the in-person event, but it appears that it will remain online only as of this writing. The company did not elaborate on why the in-person LAN event was canceled.
The HSEL Nationals is the grand finale for the season, bringing together the best schools in the HSEL Premier for a final competition in Valorant, Super Smash Bros., and Rocket League. The competition rewards the top performing participants with prizes such as hardware provided by sponsors (Raven, Oakley, Intel, and Valor) and scholarships. HSEL Nationals were set to take place from May 30 – June 1 at AdventHealth Sports Park at Bluhawk in Kansas City, Missouri, and hosted in partnership with LEVELUP Arena.
It should be noted that schools can pay anywhere from $750 to $5,000 per site, depending on the package they choose (details on pricing can be found here).
TEA will continue to follow this story as it develops.