Things are kicking off now over at Insomnia Scotland, with the main event opening itself up throughout today. The event itself is, of course, being run by Multiplay, who are making an increasing effort now to provide more than just the standard set of iSeries LAN’s we’re all used to attending. This time around they’ve added both iScotland and iIreland to the mix. Of course, our focuses today is on Insomnia Scotland, so with that all said, let’s take a look at the venue, the Edinburgh International Conference Center.
Outside of the EICC, Credit to Multiplay for the photo.
The venue Multiplay selected for the event certainly fits the bill for picturesque as it has certainly provided some lovely internal and external photos. Unfortunately although they have the massive venue to back, they have only managed to secure around 80 BYOC attendees. On the other hand, it seems success may be had with the expo this time around, with Multiplay taking full use of the 1100 seat auditorium for a variety of things, ranging from casual cups to live shows featuring a variety of YouTubers ‘n such.
BYOC – Credit to Multiplay for the photo.
Moving on, let’s dive deeper into the BYOC attractions. One thing we know for certain is Multiplay have offered up £3000 split between two games, Counter Strike & League of Legends. Generous prize pool’s for what is primarily a smaller event, a sign that prize pool are only set to grow in the UK in terms of the bigger scale events now. Aside from the core two competitive events there is also an array of casual events available to the BYOC attendees. With £200 being put up for grabs in Dota 2, while also £150 being put down on the common casual title, Rocket League. It’s worth not forgetting though that they haven’t forgotten about Starcraft or Hearthstone as both have £100 prize pools up for grabs. Lastly, in the expo halls, there are, of course, console events, primarily aimed at Fifa players or Street Fighter players, with £200 up for grabs each day on those titles.
The Counter-Strike tournament is setting itself up today, being spearheaded by our resident UK LAN Admin, Jon ‘Vicious’ Kelly. The event is currently set to have 7 teams compete, hopefully, we can see some competitive CS and overall enjoyable games. A list of the competing teams can be found below.
- What Are Those
- #TeamHive
- Keyboard’s On Fire
- Playtime Gaming
- Team-Evil.mix
- Some Age Happy
- ThatWasExpected
Multiplay do actually have a shout casting team at LAN consisting of known name, Tom “Weefreeman“Â Pickering, a figure within the UK known for creating JGL before passing the baton on to UKCSGO, backed also by the support of John Allen, a caster heavily involved in Nuel. I managed to have a brief chat with both Tom and John this morning as they made their way to the venue to begin final preparations. Tom had this to say… (Paraphrased)
We’re up an awake now, all fueled up. Its been a pretty interesting day, we’re just on our way to the venue itself again currently. Travel for both of us was long but painless, everything working out in the end. We’re expecting a long day of around 10am – 10pm, more than likely a round robin format. Eitherway we’re both stoked to be here and its set to be a great event, with a great venue to back it.
And with that said, onwards and upwards as Day 1 is soon to begin for iScotland. As usual, UKCSGO will be checking in throughout the event to provide you with all the coverage needed to keep you updating with the goings on.
