With the news of Multiplay’s iSeries Winter LAN being cancelled, this means the UK LAN events come to a close early for 2017, and our next UK LAN event won’t take place until February next year with epic23. That’s right, back to back epic.LANs now until the first iSeries of next year, so you get to enjoy all the action in Kettering first.
A sell-out event, the first October event (since it was reintroduced) to sell out and with a higher capacity, this event will be incredibly lively. In Counter-Strike, twenty-two (at time of writing) teams will be heading to Kettering on Thursday, and it looks like it will be a very tightly contested LAN event, with several decent teams in attendance, quite a few mixes and a lot of talent on offer. Here is some of the information you will need throughout the weekend, to give you a glimpse of what to expect if you are either a participant or a spectator (through the streams).
Tables always a big part of LAN setup!! Joe “JoeShow” Styrka not quite showing he actually lifts at LAN yet. (Credit: epic.LAN Gallery)
The Teams
The Contenders
Team CeX.mix (smooya, Kray, onscreen, L1NK, Astroo)
Enclave Gaming (Sheekey, Shaney, Trials, Pickles, JT)
London Lynx (Trouble, Mrhui, nK, fearLess, cybah)
The Goose House (LukeJM, tamsteR, bmagic, AcEY, JackBlk3)
eDen esports (logzii, Pommey, Thomas, dOMM, Samwell)
The Outsiders
Madison Ivy (Rhaz, Debaser, ashhh, eddie, SuperboomLinden)
ProjectX (adamxoxo, halz, Ruleh, ShaunSki, LOLz)
mYinsanity (EMPERORR, GhosT, whisk, SDK, Jackdabes)
Cryptick (MontSta, Tobin, Kai, nox, Dm_God)
Rasta (Walter, 5haBo, xtR, CHAddY, Zachel)
CeX.mix (Revilo, resu, Cynic, samplify, LS)
Cardinals (logaN, neggies, Gobfi, WADDY, Gizmo)
The Rest
A Spliff in Coventry (Ryde, Nuclear, walkeRR, n0rris, EddieK2)
Enraged eSports (shoobie, Hammy, kpR, Zephyr, BeakZ)
Fragging 4 Artur (Jamw0w, lewisj, Tapole, Doddy, Biiddy)
Honestly Ridiculous (gito, KEHZUH, oakmerch, JohnnyV, Koagu)
Oblivion (Will, NFKiN, Znow, Veencs, Wasty)
OMEN eSports (steve0, HizY, Walli, KOGGGYYY, MrAtomicDuck)
Opulent (Reg, cnxx, Br0die, CNR97, PCAIL)
Spearmint Kodo (Benneh, Hailoh, Xsci, hundvalpp, Scooter)
Tainted (Wagle, Perky, iSeanPC, Wilbe, Shiftyyy)
Team Ghost (DyyLN, adax, Jakie2k, Finui, benzk1)
All the teams can be viewed in greater detail on the epic.LAN Tournament system.
The Casters
In the space of three days, the casting lineup went from two, to one, to four casters for epic.LAN, so with a lot riding on this event, there is some familiar talent in the lineup, and some new names to add to the list, whilst bringing in someone who hasn’t actively competed in Counter-Strike for a few years.
Jamie “SwitchBladeJay” Martin
Luke “KritikaL” Green
Harvey “Skriv” Rodgers
Rory “Dream” Redmond
Production
Ryan “Flakes” Oliver
Jordan “Misty” Johnson
Elliot “Sed” Brown
Jamie “SwitchBladeJay” Martin (centre) will be spearheading the casting team once again at epic22 (Credit: epic.LAN Gallery)
The Admins
Like last LAN, we see a brand new face brought in to help the revolving door of admins slow down a bit, and try and keep the entire CS:GO community happy. We also have some unheard of, big shot experienced admin drafted in late last minute, but we cannot tell you who she is as there is a 4pm Thursday embargo on that story currently which would breach several laws and some of our NDAs too. However you are welcome to guess who it is.
Umar “Maru” Aswat
Special Guest
The Format
We are always welcome changes to our LAN formats, and we have often changed it based on previous LAN feedback (from surveys or at the event), and this LAN will be no different to that. The format for this LAN is going to be much of the same from epic20 & epic21.
Group Stage
- Groups of 5/6
- Best-Of-One
- Top 4 go through
Elimination Stage
- 16 Teams
- Best-Of-Three
- Double Elimination
Please note, that this format is subject to change due to sign-ups on the day or dependent on admins. Make sure you attend the Team Leader briefing at 10:30am on Friday morning to find out how it all pans out.
The Schedule
Thursday
- 2pm – Downstairs Bar Open – Checkin commences
- 4pm – Event Opens
- 8pm – Opening Ceremony
- 10pm – Tournament Sign-ups CLOSE
Friday
- 10:30am – Team Leader Briefing
- 11am – CS:GO Group Stages Begin
- 5pm – CS:GO Group Stages Finish (expected, could change depending on sign-ups)
- 9pm – Round 1 Elimination Bracket commences
Saturday
- 10am – Elimination Stages kick off again
- 12noon – Intermediate Tournament kicks off
- 9pm – Upper Bracket & Lower Bracket Finals kick off
Sunday
- 9am – Lower Bracket Final (aka Third Placed Playoff/Consolidation Final)
- 12noon – Grand Final
- 4pm – Event Closed
Generic Information
epic.LAN Central Stream
epic.LAN Counter-Strike Stream
epic.LAN Twitch Hub (if you are into all your sports titles)
epic.LAN Twitter
epic.LAN Facebook
epic.LAN Instagram
epic.LAN Tournament Website
What is there to do at epic.LAN?
For those of you who maybe are less interested in the Counter-Strike tournament at epic.LAN, there is a whole host of extra activities at the LAN this weekend. Here are some of the plus points throughout the weekend.
Opening Ceremony (Thursday 8pm)
Always something you should get involved in, it’s filled with a bit of banter, some freebies, and a lovely speech from certain people at epic.LAN. It gives you the basic heads up of what to expect at the LAN over the weekend.
Pub Quiz (Friday 8pm)
Something that is quickly becoming a staple of the epic.LAN events, it has it’s share of “in jokes” between staff and dedicated community members, but it is a great chance to relax, chill out and get drunk.
Hallomeme Themed Night (Saturday evening)
Because the Beach party at epic21 was so successful and made the event a lot more lively, you may see some spooky decorations hoisted up around the event, and people getting into the mood for Halloween. That’s right, it is a Hallomeme themed night all on Saturday, with a big playlist in the Gallery, the fish bowls that will be cocktails that should be spooky, and of course, plenty of good activities around for Saturday evening. There will be activities like apple-bobbing, beer pong (with some kind of spooky twist), and a pumpkin hunt. For full details see this thread.
GTOmega Stand
GTOmega will be exhibiting at the event, showing off their latest chairs, and giving you guys lots of time to talk to them about what you would want to see from them, they may even have some goodies for those of you who like freebies!!
The Charity special, will it make a return? Organised by Neggies at epic21 helped kick off the party on the Saturday evening! (Credit: epic.LAN Gallery)
d20 Board Game Stall
d20 were hugely popular last year at our Summer event, and they are returning to show off some of their latest board games, with some enticing demos, and other products that you can buy and play with. They will be hosting a “Pandemic Tournament” which should last a few hours and provide lots of fun.
Board Games Area
Our hugely popular board games area is always full throughout the event, and we expect it to be no different. Where you can participate in games of Cards Against Humanity, or a wider variety of board games, there always seems to be something for everyone.
Fun Tournaments
Something that a lot of our regular casuals seem to fill out, but we do have smaller fun tournaments with prizes up for grabs, if you aren’t playing in Counter-Strike, there is always some fun to be had in games such as Rocket League, SMASH Bros, and League Of Legends.
We will be having more coverage, interviews, reactions and many other things over the coming weekend with a variety of teams, so make sure you keep in touch with UKCSGO in the run up and during epic22 through our Facebook & Twitter pages.
