Multiplay - The UKs # 1 LAN Organisers and Home of the i-Series

Multiplay Gameservers now available in Argentina

Trust — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Multiplay Gameservers are growing as a business every day, as a result we can now offer our products and support to the gamers of Argentina.

These servers provide great connectivity to the entire of South America and include Battlefield 3, Team Fortress 2, Teamspeak 3 and many more. If you have any questions about our servers in Argentina please get in touch!

Multiplay Hiring Full Time Support Staff

Trust — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Multiplay are taking steps to seriously drive forward in key areas of our business, especially our online services. Due to our expanding userbase, we need more Support team members to help keep our high support standards, and to deal with growth moving forwards.

Vacancy - Customer Services and Support Technician - Full Time

Purpose: Ensure a high level of customer care and quality of service for Multiplays online operations, most notably our hosted services such as game servers, voice comms and dedicateds.

Location: Multiplay Office - Blackfield, Southampton
Package: £14000+ per year depending on candidate
Hours of Work: Full time contract (minimum 40 hours per week). Likely to involve night shifts and unsociable hours on a rota basis.

Areas of Work:

Provide support to the Customer Services Manager which will include but not be limited to:

* Ensure timely resolution to customer service, sales and support enquiries
* Responsible for managing ticket queues from within the e-support system
* Responsible for managing all enquiries via telephone, Live Support
* Process on line service orders as required
* Monitor server farm performance metrics and respond to monitoring alerts
* Create and maintain documentation as necessary

Skills and Experience:

* Good written and verbal English communication skills
* Experience in both UNIX and Windows systems administration
* Experience in working in a customer service environment
* Competent in network administration, operation and diagnostics
* Good IT literacy

How to Apply:

Candidates should apply online by heading to http://support.multiplay.co.uk and submitting a ticket in the jobs/hr department with the job title in the reference. You should also attach an electronic copy of your CV to the ticket as you create it. If you have any questions, please submit a question in the same place and well do our best to respond.

Quiet PC silently return to Insomnia 49

Trust — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Quiet PC are back at Insomnia! If you've ever been to Quiet PC stand before you will know that they always bring a fun laid back kind of atmosphere with them. Of course the fun aspect will remain but this time around they'll be doing things a little bit different...

FREE FITTING
If you were lucky enough to be part of the Multiplay Community during i28, then you may remember Quiet PC selling products and fitting them for free at their stand. Well the free fitting service is back! If you're looking to purchase a new CPU cooler, PSU or any other product they have available and you're feeling a tad lazy, unqualified to fit or don't have the time, let Quiet PC fit it for you. They know what they're doing, honest!

They will also be offering a free consultation service for anyone who wants any advice on cooling their PC. Quiet PC specialise in quiet components, but even if noise is not a concern they will still offer suggestions on how to raise your cooling performance.

COMPETITIONS
Quiet PC will be running a number of gaming related competitions on their stand for lots of cool prizes. Make sure you stay up to date with their activity by following them on twitter @Quietpc and liking them on Facebook.

Rising Storm Game Server Launch

Trust — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Multiplay are pleased to announce the latest addition to our multiplaygameservers.com catalogue, Rising Storm. For fans of the award-winning Red Orchestra franchise, you'll not want to miss out on the Pacific Theater of World War 2 and the brutal and intense combat between the US Army and Marine Corps forces and the Imperial Japanese Army.

With up to 64 server slots from 48p/0.57 euro each, you can make your own Battle Royale with your friends. Come grab your server today!

Plantronics Gaming Teams Up with Riot Games

Trust — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Plantronics Gaming Teams Up with Riot Games as Official Headset Partner of the

League of Legends Championship Series
Santa Cruz, Calif. – May 15, 2013 – Plantronics (NYSE: PLT), a global leader in audio communications, today announced it has been selected by Riot Games as the official headset partner for Season 3 of the League of Legends World Championship Series. Plantronics eSports headsets will be used exclusively throughout the series, including the World Championship tournament. League of Legends attracts everyone from beginners to pro players who demand the best gaming peripherals available, and Plantronics headsets feature a powerful microphone, superior sound quality, and long wear comfort critical to successful competitive gaming.

“At Plantronics, we are big League of Legends fans and players, so we are particularly thrilled to be the official headset partner of the League of Legends Championship Series,” said Chuck Frizelle, Head of Gaming at Plantronics. “Our headsets offer competitors a true eSports tournament headset – designed to provide outstanding audio quality in the noisiest LAN environments, while fitting comfortably for marathon gaming sessions.”

“We wanted an official headset partner that produced a headset made specifically for eSports professional gamers, while also offering quality headsets to our audience at all gaming levels and price points,“ said Dustin Beck, Vice President of eSports at Riot Games. “Partnering with Plantronics, we are able to provide an exceptional audio experience for our players throughout the Championship Series.”

Currently the world’s most played online game, League of Legends blends the speed and intensity of an RTS (Real Time Strategy) with RPG (Role Playing Game) elements. Players form teams of unique, powerful champions and battle head-to-head across multiple battlefields and game modes. Throughout 2013, the best players on the planet will compete in the League of Legends Championship Series, a professional gaming league with teams from North America and Europe, featuring multiple regular season matches each week, as well as HD streaming broadcasts available globally for free.

Providing audio excellence across multiple fields, Plantronics Gaming offers a unique live environment eSports headset. Working closely with Riot Games, Championship Series tournaments will exclusively feature Plantronics headsets designed to isolate noise from the thousands of dedicated League of Legends fans that come to experience live matches at events such as Gamescom, PAX Prime and the League of Legends World Championship.

At A Glance: Plantronics Gaming and the League of Legends World Championship Series
Season 3
• Tournament participants will use Plantronics eSports headsets throughout the series, including the Season 3 World Championship
• Gamers will be able to experience Plantronics retail headsets at the free-to-play LAN areas of various events including the Fall 2013 North American and European Championships
• Weekly North American and European matches will be broadcast online. More information can be found at Gamecom.Plantronics.com

HALO 4 prize pool boost to £3,000 thanks to Console Deals

Trust — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

ConsoleDeals.co.uk have kindly sponsored the Insomnia 49 HALO 4 tournament this Summer. Thanks to Console Deals, the prize pool has increased from £2,000 to a minimum of £3,000! Check out our prize page to see how the cash prize breakdown will work out for you guys.

ConsoleDeals.co.uk is a dedicated video games console comparison site, currently comparing prices on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation Vita, Nintendo Wii,Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii U. By visiting over 20 different retailers to find the best console deals, games and bundles we make finding and buying a perfect bundle much less painful. Check out their Facebook here.

£1,200 Online ShootMania Joust 1v1

Trust — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Weve teamed up with premier peripheral supplier, Plantronics to bring you our first ever Online ShootMania 1v1 Joust tournament. With a prize pool of £1,200 and a stunning 7.1 surround sound GameCom 780 headset up for grabs for the winner, youll not want to miss out!

"The Plantronics GameCom 780 USB headset with Dolby® technologies transforms standard audio into a stunning 7.1 surround sound experience. The noise-cancelling microphone kills background noise so your commands are loud and clear. When you need to take a break, built-in spin joints let the earpods lay flat for easy storage. Need to adjust volume? No problem. The controls are right on the earpods so you’ll always have your eyes on the game. The GameCom 780 is built to last with superhero-strength cords and joints; ultra-comfortable ear cushions and headband let you stay in the game for as long as it takes."

In order to sign up, check out the Online Tournaments page with all the details youll need to enter. Good luck!

IMPORTANT ESET UK Masters Announcement

Trust — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Update on the ESET UK Masters Starcraft 2 at Insomnia49

ESET UK gave away £10,000 in season 1 of the ESET UK Masters, which saw the epic finals hosted at Insomnia48 in March. Some of the best players in the world faced off in Telford, England and the champion was crowned.

Snute is the reigning champion from Season 1

Season 2

Season 2 qualifiers will begin soon online, with yet another £10,000 prize fund available for the championship tournament at the end of the season. This will be in the form of online tournaments hosted over on esetukmasters.com and include open tournaments and invitationals.

We are aiming to have the online tournaments take place on different evenings to the Blizzard World Championship Series so everyone can still take part. Also doing this means you can watch the stream and enjoy the tournaments from home! Watch our awesome casting team of John “JoRoSaR” Sargent, Adam “Madals” Simmons and Kaj “Lyrlian” Landman (and potentially some guest casters!) and catch some of the best Heart of the Swarm action on the ESET Twitch channel.

Unfortunately due to tournament licensing we cannot run the ESET UK Masters Season 2 grand finals at the Insomnia49 event, so we have decided to create a brand new event in September especially for our grand finals, with the venue still to be announced. We will still be hosting a qualifier at Insomnia49 for the Starcraft 2 community, so some spaces in the Grand Finals event will be available for the BYOC attendees. We are still negotiating whether we can have an extra prize pool for this qualifier, but expect an announcement about that soon!

Ladders

One other way you can get involved with the ESET UK Masters is our soon to be launched Season 2 Ladder! Taking place on the esetukmasters site, you will be able to challenge other players on the ladder and see who can be the best players in the community. Earn better seeding positions in our open qualifiers based on your ladder position as time goes on and spot prizes for the most consistent ladder players that play the most games each month!

£2,000 HALO 4 tournament at Insomnia 49

Trust — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This Summer we will be expanding our console area once again - this time with the addition of HALO 4. With a minimum prize pool of £2,000 up until we have 32 teams signed up, and scaling all the way up to £5,000 if a 64 team bracket is achieved, and several prize triggers on the way, it’s worth signing up and just having a go, you could walk away with some cash!

Tournament sign ups will be available next week and will be announced in a separate post so keep your eyes peeled! If you havent already grabbed your ticket, head on over to our tickets page and take a look at TUP (Turn up and Play) tickets, which youll need to participate in this tournament. Alternatively, you can bring your own computer/ console and still enter. Its up to you!

Top 5 Reasons to attend Insomnia 49

Trust — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Shootmania 1v1 and 3v3 now open!

Trust — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Shootmania is returning to the UK’s biggest gaming festival. With a prize pool of £2,000 split between the two gametypes, the team based 3v3 Elite and the 1v1 Joust gametypes, you have two chances to take a prize. Get your Bring Your Own Computer ticket and sign up today. Keep an eye on our tournaments page to find out the prize breakdown and schedules in the coming weeks!

What are you waiting for? Grab your tickets now and sign up here!

Aquatuning Team Fortress 2 Tournament Sign Ups Open!

Trust — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Aquatuning LOVE Team Fortress 2 community and are back to support the Insomnia 49 tournament which will be the TF2 event of the year! Many in the community are putting their money on the Insomnia 49 tournament to be even bigger than the massive TF2 event that was Insomnia46 in summer 2012.

With a prize pool of £5,000 some of the biggest teams from around the world are expected to fly in and play for the cash. We will also be running a secondary fun tournament for those that cannot quite compete at the highest level, with tickets to our next event as the prizes! Get involved by grabbing a team of 6 players and following this link.

If you havent already got your ticket, you can grab it here. Were currently running our Early Bird 20% off until May 1st, so get them cheap whilst you can!

GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN!

Special Effect 24 Hour Charity Live Stream Tonight 10PM!

Trust — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Tonight at 10PM BST, well be live streaming Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 for 24 hours! You might be saying thats crazy talk! but we can assure you, its all for a good cause. Every donation goes to our charity of the year, Special Effect.

Check out the video below, they do some cracking work, enabling children and adults who wouldnt usually be able to play games, enjoy gaming and socialise with their friends and family.

The stream can be found on Twitch.tv/Multiplay and you can even go as far as donating towards the cause at Just Giving.
Thanks!

PC Gamer ShootMania Launch Cup

messioso — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

ShootMania Storm launches today. It’s a competitive shooter built for eSports, and as you might expect from Nadeo, the developers of TrackMania, it’s extremely malleable, with a level editor that lets you plug prefab components together to create your own arenas. It’s a game of breathless pace and precision, with its two-hit kills requiring well-timed projectiles - old hands at Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament should feel right at home.

To celebrate ShootMania’s arrival, PC Gamer is holding a tournament from 15th April to 7th May, with £800 in prize money to be divvied up between the three top teams. Whether you’re a pro-player in need of pocket money, or just a fan of old school shooters looking to recreate the twitchy thrill of a railgun duel, you’re very welcome to enter. Read on to find out how.

The game mode will be Elite 3v3, so you’ll have to find two buddies to sign-up as well. There’s no restriction on location, but the servers will be hosted in Europe, so bear that in mind if you are signing up to play from another continent.

We have partnered up with the lovely folks at PC Gamer to run the tournament, you will still need a Multiplay account to participate! Create one here if you dont already have one!. As soon as you have head over to the PC Gamer website to sign up your team!

Make sure you check out the PC Gamer coverage too: where youll see Ziggy "nVc" Orzeszek and David "Zaccubus" Treacy from Team Dignitas commenting on their Twitch TV stream each Tuesday night from 6pm GMT, and weekly written round-ups every Monday.

Signup here!

Multiplay recruiting more Support Technicians!

Dentist — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Multiplay are taking steps to seriously drive forward in key areas of the business, especially online services. Therefore, further support team members are required to help maintain high support standards and ongoing growth for the business.

Vacancy - Customer Services & Support Technician - Full Time

Purpose: Ensure a high level of customer care and quality of service for Multiplays online operations, most notably hosted services, such as game servers, voice comms and commercial services.

Location: Multiplay Office - Blackfield, Southampton, UK

Package: £14,000+ p/a plus anti-social hours compensation

Hours of Work: Days & Nights including Weekends (rota-based)

Areas of Work:

Provide support to the Customer Services Manager which will include but not be limited to:

Ensure timely resolution to customer service, sales and support enquiries

Responsible for managing ticket queues from within the e-support system

Responsible for managing all enquiries via telephone and live chat

Process online service orders as required

Monitor performance metrics and respond to monitoring alerts as appropriate

Create and maintain self-help user information as required

Skills and Experience:

Good written and verbal communication skills

Competent at both UNIX and Windows systems administration

Experience working within a customer service environment

Competent in network administration, operation and diagnostics

Good IT literacy

Candidates must be eligible to work and permanently reside in the UK

How to Apply:

Candidates should apply online by heading to http://support.multiplay.co.uk and submitting a ticket in the Jobs/HR Department. Please ensure that you attach an electronic copy of your CV to the ticket as you create it. Should you wish to contact us by telephone you call 0845 868 1337 (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm).

WE'RE HIRING!

Trust — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Fancy joining the team here at Multiplay? We're growing fast! Some of our current vacancies, all based at our Southampton office in the UK:

Marketing Manager - Marketing Manager - No 1 Video Game Services Company Vacancy in Southampton (4828)

Sales Executive - Sales Executive - Technical & Advertising - No.1 Video Gaming Community Vacancy in Southampton (4751)

3 x Support Technicians - Job info here

More to follow. It's truly exciting times within the company!

Insomnia 49 League of Legends Tournament Sign Ups Open!

Trust — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Razer are once again sponsoring our very popular tournament, this time with an even bigger prize pool and some awesome hardware from Razer themselves.

With a prize pool of £5,000 why are you still reading this? Get your BYOC ticket and bring your 4 team mates and sign up for the tournament now. Also, for those that don’t make it out of the prize tournament group stage, we are putting on an intermediate bracket for those that want to keep playing. This will have lower skilled teams enjoying more matches against each other right through the weekend, so you won’t get bored!

Follow our step-by-step guide to sign up!

DOTA2 tournament sign ups now available!

Trust — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Yes you can believe your eyes! The UK’s biggest gaming festival is hosting an official UK DOTA2 tournament. Get your friends involved and show us that DOTA2 is here to stay!

With a minimum prize pool of £2,000 up until we have 32 teams signed up, and scaling all the way up to £5,000 if a 64 team bracket is achieved, and several prize triggers on the way, its worth signing up and just having a go, you could walk away with some cash. Also, for those that don’t make it out of the prize tournament group stage, we are putting on an intermediate bracket for those that want to keep on playing. This will have lower skilled teams enjoying more matches against each other right through the weekend.

And finally, ladies and gentlemen, the DOTA2 tournament sign ups for Insomnia 49 are now open! You and your team can sign up here today! Follow the simple instructions and you could be well on your way of winning your share of up to £5,000.

Gods to battle among us at GAME in the quest to discover the UK’s best Injustice: Gods Among Us Play

Trust — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Gods to battle among us at GAME in the quest to discover the UK’s best Injustice: Gods Among Us Player

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment teams up with GAME to unveil a tournament to decide the nation’s best Injustice: Gods Among Us player, with the winner representing the UK in the Injustice: Gods Among Us International Tournament Final in Paris

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is giving comic book and beat-‘em-up fans the opportunity to settle the age-old-question of “who will win?” in person at special Injustice: Gods Among Us tournaments being held in GAME stores around the UK during the month of April.

Prove to the people that Superman is indestructible, that Batman cannot be defeated or The Flash will best his adversaries in no time and win amazing prizes along with the opportunity to challenge the rest of the world at the Injustice: Gods Among Us Tournament UK Final in London and International Final in Paris.

Eight UK heats are being held in GAME stores nationwide in after-hours lock in events at the following locations:

Hull Superstore – Monday 1st April 17.00
https://www.twitter.com/GAMEhullsuper

Liverpool Lord Street – Tuesday 2nd April 19.30
https://twitter.com/GAME_Liverpool

Nottingham Victoria – Wednesday 3rd April 19.00
https://twitter.com/GAMENottingham

Norwich – Thursday 4th April 19.30
https://twitter.com/GAMENorwich

Morfa Swansea – Friday 5th April 20.30
SA1 7DF https://twitter.com/GAMEmorfa

Birmingham Bullring – Sunday 7th April 17.30
https://twitter.com/GAME_bullring

Peterborough Serpentine – Monday 8th April 20.30
https://twitter.com/GAMEHampton

Lewisham – Tuesday 9th April 21.30
https://twitter.com/GAMELewisham

All eight heats are being hosted by pro-gamer hosts "Ketchup and Mustard" and there will be exclusive prizes for all competitors.

The UK heat winners will walk away with some super prizes, including a limited edition Injustice: Gods Among Us Fight Stick, a DC character Bobble-Head, gaming headset and a weekend ticket to the Multiplay Insomnia 49 event

Runners up will win a copy of the Red Son Special Edition of Injustice: Gods Among Us on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

All competitors will receive an Injustice: Gods Among Us goodie bag.

The heat winners from each event will also earn themselves a spot in the UK Injustice Tournament Final which will be held at Warner Bros. HQ in Central London on the 19th April, to coincide with the game’s launch.

The victor of the UK final will not only be crowned the UK Injustice: Gods Among Us Champion but will also receive:

The Injustice: Gods Among Us UK Tournament Winner’s Belt

A 40" SMART TV

A handheld console

A Collector’s Edition copy of Injustice: Gods Among Us on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360

As a true Super Hero, the UK Champion will also be asked to represent the UK in the Injustice: Gods Among Us International Tournament Final, which is being held in Paris in the week commencing the 22nd April. Here the champion will be in with the opportunity to win the Grand Prize – The International Injustice Winner’s Belt and a one-of-a kind Injustice: Gods Among Us Arcade Machine.

Entrance to compete is free but the number of places available are limited. You can register at any of the eight stores above or by emailing injustice@multiplay.co.uk

Entrants must be aged 18 or over and ID may be required.

Please visit www.Injustice.com and the game’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/injusticegame for more details.

Full terms and conditions can be found at: www.game.co.uk/events

Injustice: Gods Among Us is an all-new game in development by award-winning NetherRealm Studios. The title debuts a bold new fighting game franchise that introduces a deep, original story featuring a large cast of favourite DC Comics icons such as Batman, Green Arrow, Cyborg, Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Solomon Grundy, Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and many others. Set in a world where the lines between good and evil are blurred, players will experience heroes and villains engaging in epic battles on a massive scale.
™ & © DC Comics. ™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
(s13)

Insomnia 49 Tournaments

Trust — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This Summer, we will be bringing you the biggest and best Insomnia Gaming Festival yet. With a massive prize pool of £33,000, youll not want to miss out on the our eSports tournaments well be bringing to Insomnia 49. Make sure you grab your ticket to guarantee your place at the event and then you will be able to enter one of our awesome tournaments.

Heres a quick break down of whats to come...

ESET UK Masters: Season 2 - Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm - £10,000

Once again well be hosting the ESET UK Masters at Insomnia. This time around well be kicking off season 2. Both with our pre-LAN online qualifiers and an in-LAN qualifier. ESET will be bringing back their amazing mini stage and youll see the usual set of casters this Summer. Dont miss out!

Mad Catz STRIKE Challenge - Counter Strike: Global Offensive - £7,500

We have upped the prize pool thanks to the Mad Catz UK team, from £4,000 to a nice £7,500. This wont be an event that the hardcore CS community will want to miss out on.

Razer League of Legends Cup - League of Legends - £5,000

After the roaring success of Insomnia 48, Razer are back to support the Multiplay LoL community this Summer. Another nice prize money hike, from £2,500 to £5,000 here. Teams will have plenty of time to get their practice in before August.

FIFA13 - £1,000

FIFA13 at Insomnia 48 was a huge success thanks to the team at SweetpatchTV. Well be bringing you up to £2,000 for a 64 player 1v1 prize pool for Insomnia 49. Our usual mini tournaments will also have their own set of prizes, so be sure to keep an eye out for updates.

Aquatuning Team Fortress 2 - Team Fortress 2 - £5,000

If you were not there for Insomnia46′s TF2 extravaganza then you missed out on the biggest LAN in TF2 history! Around 1 million people tuned in to see what the US and EU teams had to offer, and everyone at the LAN itself had the best seats in the house! This Summer were looking to make it bigger and better. Bringing you a £5,000 prize pool to tempt those foreign teams.

Minecraft - £1,000

Our ever popular Minecraft booth will be present at Insomnia48 with even more exciting competitions and general fun times for all. We will have the classics, and some new fun modes for everyone to get involved with. Game modes will be announced in the future, but we guarantee that fans of Minecraft will not be disappointed.

Shootmania - £2,000

Another prize pool hike here. Thanks to the popularity of Shootmania at Insomnia 48, well be bringing this great FPS game back for the third time at Insomnia.

DOTA 2 - £2,000

Due to overwhelming demand from the community, weve introduced DOTA2 to our every expanding list of tournaments for this Summer. With a nice starting prize pool of £2,000, youll not want to miss out this Summer.

Get Involved!

Sign ups will be available soon but make sure you take full advantage of our Earlier Bird 30% discount for BYOC tickets today. This offer will only be available until 4PM on the 2nd of April so grab it whilst you can!

iLive Byte #11 - Tournaments and Earlier Bird

Trust — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Its the end of the LAN :( Shed and a_spec round up an awesome, if snowy event. Insomnia 49 Earlier Bird is on for one week only, so dont forget!

MINIMUM OF £33,000 PRIZE POOL AT INSOMNIA 49!

Trust — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Along side our 30% Earlier Bird discount, we now have a minimum of £33,000 for next Insomnia. This is certainly an event you wont want to miss out on. Grab your tickets today.

Earlier Bird 30% discount for Insomnia, now available!

Trust — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The Earlier Bird is now available! Grab your 30% discount off your next Insomnia ticket for this Summer LAN.

Top 5 Facts about the Earlier Bird...
30% off ticket price
Gold discount members get free EAS too
Unlimited ticket sales (wed love to sell 3000 at this rate in the next week!)
Time limited for 1 week only. Open now and ends strictly at 16:00 on 2nd April
The Earlier Bird is said to only crow once its had Wizzos creamy goodness

You can grab your tickets here. GO GO GO!

iLive Byte #10 - Final day with Shedboy

Trust — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A very sleepy Shedboy talks us through the final day of Insomnia and lets you know about the raffle... its at 2pm by the way.

Razer League of Legends Cup Final Result!

Trust — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Sunday at Insomnia 48 brings the final of the League of Legends tournament with teams Animate eSports and ‘Eh Ehhhhhhh’ competing for the grand prize of £1500 or being left with the runner up prize of £625.

Coming in to the match the strong favourites ‘Eh Ehhhhhhh’ won all of their games leading to the final, knocking Animate eSports in to the loser bracket earlier on in the day. With this advantage they enter the finals with a one map advantage in a best of three.

Casting the match were @dignitasStress, @Pulsed and @spuddington, bringing a wealth of knowledge to the table.

Lineups for the teams are as follows:

	Eh Ehhhhhhh	Animate e-sports
Top:	Nitrix	Tundra
Mid:	Cookmysock	Mayh3M
Jungle:	Taylor	Akilord
ADC:	Shacol0l	Akamezz
Support:	yerrowstarr	Samwise12

First Game:

Animate pick a strong push and disengage lineup with the following champions; Varus, Thresh, Elise, Vi and Twisted Fate. Countering this, Eh Ehhhhhhh chose a team fight oriented lineup with; Jarvan, Zyra, Caitlyn, Renekton and Orianna.

The first action of the game came from Animate eSports invading the lower tri-bush and catching Zyra out of position, first blood to Animate e-sports definitely gave them the confidence to push this game to a two game final.

Eh Ehhhhhhh spent a lot of the early game pushing Animate eSports back to their towers, keeping up the map control without much contest. A counter gank from Jarvan in top lane and a Twisted Fate ultimate gank in the bottom lane took this game to a 4-2 lead for Eh Ehhhhhhh at the 10 minute mark.

Eh Ehhhhhhh kept up the pressure and managed to take down all three outer towers of Animate e-sports, whilst Animate eSports concentrated on picking up the occasional kill. With a 4k gold lead for Eh Ehhhhhhh they looked for team fights where they could, Nitrix on Renekton was the player to watch keeping Animate eSports at bay. 25 minutes in, Eh Ehhhhhhh managed to take a good advantage and turn it in to both a dragon kill and 4 kills on Animate eSports. No more than 5 minutes later Animate eSports turn the tables and steal Baron Nashor from Eh Ehhhhhhh giving them the boost they desperately needed to stay in the game.

Eh Ehhhhhhh were still in a good position objective wise in the game, 34 minutes in they were 5 towers up to 2 and 7k ahead in gold. As a team, they made a push behind the creep waves to take down the last inner tower in top lane and give them the map control they wanted to close out the game.

At 40 minutes both teams were dancing around the centre of the map looking to pressure objectives as they spawn. Nitrix on Renekton made an ambitious initiation deep in to the team of Animate eSports, which Animate eSports managed to turn around and ace Eh Ehhhhhhh allowing them to not only push through the towers in the middle lane but take down the inhibitor also.

Not 3 minutes later Eh Ehhhhhhh are pushing through the middle to counteract the supercreeps coming toward their base when Animate eSports again catch them out of position. A second ace by Animate eSports allowed them to push to the nexus towers and win the map for a 1-1 result so far.

Second game:

Animate this game aimed for a safer line up than before, with the confidence they received from winning the first finals map, they aimed for a more conservative team to have a better shot at taking the title.

Animate eSports pick; Varus, Lulu, Vi, Irelia, Twisted Fate versus the Eh Ehhhhhhh team of; Jarvan, Thresh, Ezreal, Jayce, Kassadin.

Eh Ehhhhhhh had appeared to be going for the early to mid game assassination lineup where they would aim to establish dominance and prevent Animate e-sports from gaining a foothold.

To start the game, Animate invaded again to secure first blood to their jungler Vi. This allowed them to switch top and bottom lanes secure in the knowledge that Irelia can handle any lane thrown at her. This proved more than successful, with Irelia escaping Eh Ehhhhhhh’s various attempts to keep her in check, leaving her at tiny fractions of health and staying ahead of her competition, Jarvan.

A series of ganks at the top lane, involving AD Carries and Supports for both teams, brought Animate eSports to a 4-3 lead in kills. The pressure then let them take down the middle turret, a key objective in the early-game plan.

In an attempt to regain control of the games momentum, Eh Ehhhhhhh made a show of attempting the dragon objective in order to bait out Twisted Fate’s ultimate, successfully catching him in a trap.

Mere minutes later, Animate eSports pulled off the same strategy and caught Eh Ehhhhhhh in an off-balance team fight, where they managed to ace the team, taking the dragon and pushing themselves to a 36k to 29k gold advantage and 9-7 kill lead.

Next Animate eSports again put pressure on the dragon objective, forcing Eh Ehhhhhhh to initiate a fight in an attempt to stay in the game. Animate eSports won the fight with an ace and the majority of their team still standing, allowing them to push through the middle and take down the inhibitor. Using the pressure of the supercreeps, Animate eSports methodically take down a second inhibitor to grant them map superiority.

Finally Animate eSports feigned an attempt on the Baron Nashor objective forcing Eh Ehhhhhhh to respond. Animate eSports switched to the top lane and the remaining inhibitor, steadily pushing until taking the nexus and the game, finishing with 22 kills to 13 in favour of Animate eSports.

Impressive teamwork from both teams in an amazingly close final here at i48 and hopefully we’ll see more of these teams at future Multiplay events and also online in the RIOT League of Legends series. A very well done to Animate eSports coming through as the underdogs to take the title and the prize money.

Creative Minecraft Build Competition – Judging soon!

Trust — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The judging for the Creative Minecraft Build Competition is going to take place soon over on the Minecraft stand. 24 players in 9 separate teams spent 48 hours creating Minecraft masterpieces carving their very own place in the Minecraft Hall of fame! (The prizes are a bonus of course) Up for grabs are the following:

1st - £200 + £50 server voucher
2nd - £100 + £25 server Voucher
3rd - £50 + £25 server Voucher

Good luck to everyone taking part!

FIFA 13 sponsored by Mad Catz Grand Final results

Trust — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

After a hectic two days of almost non-stop FIFA 13 action, the FIFA 13 tournament sponsored by Mad Catz and hosted by the brilliant Sweetpatch TV has come to a close. There have been some brilliant games in the run up to the Grand Final, and you can catch up with highlighted games from throughout the tournament over at the the Sweetpatch TV stream.

Following a thundering victory from Ty Walton representing dignitas over TCM Gamings Olly Shaw (0-1, 3-1, 6-1) Ty progressed to the grand finale to face the winner of the losers bracket to face off against winner of the losers bracket Tass. To reiterate earlier information: The format of the tournament is best of three; however, Tass needs to win two best-out-of-threes due to him coming from the losers bracket. Both players opted to play as Real Madrid. Heres how it all played out.

GAME ONE

Ty and Tass both trade attacks viciously throughout the first half, with each reading the other incredibly well. Ty had a brilliant shot from just inside the box off the post by Ronaldo. The second-half followed this course, with an 85 minute penalty to Ty being blocked by some skill and a lot of luck by Tass Casillas. Extra time commenced, and Tass took it down off a long ball into a skill dribble off a spin-collect to make the score 1-0. In the 2nd half of extra time, Ty planted a beautiful floating ball from inside the box to the far post for a swish diving header from his Ronaldo to equalise just before the end. Tass won the game 3-2 on penalties.

GAME TWO

Ty shot out of the gate, poking around Tass tight defence, until a 15 break resulted in an absolute blooter off the volley for Tys ronaldo. Continuing this positive trend Ty whacked out skill after skill, but couldnt seem to break through the final defences. Ty furthered the distance with a 71 header off a corner, but Tass twisted things further by planting a Sergio Ramos header off a corner, followed by a 90 goal to equalise. A 118 header in extra time to Tass swung him the game, and the first best-of-three.

BEST-OF-THREE #2

GAME ONE

An early on target free kick resulted in a corner for Ty was knocked out by Tass Casillas to become a corner which Ty easily scored, making it a swift 1-0. A defensive mistake resulted in a converted penalty to Tass in the mid-game. Ty kept possession, but nothing came of it throughout extra time, ending the game in penalties. Tass wins 5-4.

GAME TWO

An unbelievable early miss from Tass opens the game as Ronaldo pounds the ball off the left post during a one-on-one. A mid-game corner turns into a cool scissor kick from Ronaldo making it 1-0 for Tass. Ty couldnt keep up under the pressure, switching to a 424 all-out attacking formation, that resulted in a 75 corner-to-header goal for Tass.

Having one both best-of-three rounds, Tass takes home the £400 first place prize, leaving defending champion Ty with the £200 second-place prize. All-in-all there were some absolutely cracking games, and the stage is set for an incredible follow-up at i49. Thanks to Mad Catz for their prize sponsorship, and Sweetpatch TV for their hosting and enabling this fantastic tournament to happen.

iLive Byte #9 - Gambling Charitably

Trust — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The one where StevieSG talks to Marcel and Chris about last nights charity poker tournament held to raise money for Special effect.

Razer League of Legends Cup final begins at 17:00

Trust — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The Razer League of Legends Cup begins at 17:00 on the main stage, with Eh Ehhhhhhh clashing throwing creeps at the towers of Animate eSports. You can also catch all the ganks you can shake a ruby sightstone at on our official Multiplay iSeries Stream.

With a minimum prize pool of £2500 this isnt one youll want to miss.

Mad Catz CS:GO STRIKE Challenge - Anexis WIN!

Trust — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

If you missed the CS:GO finals coverage here at i48, you missed a brilliant game fought between Team dignitas and Anexis who were widely expected to be the underdogs for this match. They not only went on to win the tournament but also managed to build a significant lead over Team dignitas.

Round 1 breakdown
Anexis went onto build a significant early lead over dignitas, securing a solid 6-0 lead. Team dignitas managed to drag themselves 3 consecutive round wins before submitting once again to make it a favourable 7-3 to Anexis, who were now on the defensive. Although hard fought, Team dignitas didnt seem to have it in them to make a full comeback despite dignitas hudzG denying an important tournament win for Anexis, they went on to take the round 10-5.

Leaders: Anexis

Round 2 breakdown
Team dignitas to start on the attack, played incredibly poor in the early rounds, forcing them to an embarrassing 15-5 to Anexis. Team dignitas seemed to have gotten their wind back and fought hard and managed to accrue 2 rounds before finally losing the tournament to Anexis, making the final score 16-6.

Very well done to Anexis, who take home £2,000 and Team dignitas who take away £800.

Team dignitas Win The i48 Shootmania 3v3 Finals

Trust — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Team dignitas have won the i48 Shootmania 3v3 finals winning 3-0 over rivals Team Infused. dignitas walk away with the £600 first place prize and Team Infused win £300 between them.

DAY 3! Non-stop back-to-back finals!

Trust — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Good morning and welcome to Day 3 on Insomnia 48! Don’t forget to get your breakfast fix over at food.multiplay.co.uk to give you a nice wake up call.

Today we have a lot of the tournament finals, starting with Aquatuning Shootmania at 11am. You can watch this final at the main stage, or if you’re not at the event – why don’t you watch our stream? Infused take on team dignitas in a 3v3 showdown! Whilst Infused are the favourites to win, it still could be anyone’s game. The winners will walk away with £900!

Later on we have the Mad Catz STRIKE CS:GO tournament, Razer League of Legends Cup, Minecraft Creative build, ESET UK Masters StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 finals on the main stage – we will post what times and which teams throughout the day. There have already been some shock results this event across all the tournaments!

How did you find yesterday? Did you enjoy the Pub Quiz? If you didn’t see the stream last night, why don’t you challenge yourself to one of the rounds in the quiz last night? Or check out the photos from across the weekend?

COMING UP LATER TODAY!

Mad Catz CS:GO STRIKE Challenge - 14:30
Razer League of Legends Cup - 17:00
Minecraft Creative Build ENDS - 17:30
ESET UK Masters Grand Final - 20:30
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Grand Final - 22:30

i48 ShootMania 3v3 finals on the main stage.

Trust — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

At 11:00 this morning the i48 Shootmania 3v3 finals are taking place on the main stage. In the finals are Team Infused vs Team Digitas.

Team Infused have been tipped as being the stronger team this match seeing as they are coming from the upper bracket. But as always, anything can happen. This really should be good match!

i48 - FIFA 13 1v1 bracket sponsored by Mad Catz and casual 2v2 signups

Trust — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Sweetpatch TV, with the help of stellar sponsors Mad Catz, hit back this morning with day two of their FIFA 13 festivities. Opening the show is the knockout round of the 1v1 tournament: Check out the live bracket over at Sweetpatch.tv. You can watch all the action on the Sweetpatch TV stream, or you can head over to the Sweetpatch TV booth in the main exhibition hall to catch the inevitably glorious goals in person. While youre waiting, check out this Day 1 highlight video, kindly compiled by Josh Wragg and Jack Cummins.

Also today in iSeries football gaming news is the 2v2 casual cup. Registration is absolutely free and closes at 16:30, so grab a friend (preferably a talented one) and head on over to the Sweetpatch TV booth for a chance at winning £200. Theres a 64 team cap, so get in there quickly. Heres a brief schedule:

10:00 – 16:30 – Registrations
16:30 – Create groups
16:45 – Teams Meeting
17:00 – Kick off Groups/Bracket
PM – Final

iLive Byte #8 - Mad Catz, eTeknix and British weather