- Multiplay UK
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Multiplay UK hosts the largest LAN party in the United Kingdom, the I-Series. These events were hosted at Newbury Racecourse in the United Kingdom from i5 to i33 when the venue was relocated to Stoneleigh Park for i34, increasing the total amount of BYOC places to 2000[1], i38-42 returned the event to Newbury. The latest event, i43 has moved to Telford International Centre. Multiplay UK are also the largest Game Server Provider in Europe, hosting over 18000 online game servers. Additionally, Multiplay UK holds agreements with companies such as Electronic Arts and Vivendi in which they are allowed to host official "ranked" servers for certain games.
Contents
History
Multiplay (UK) Limited was incorporated in May 1997. After running a number of smaller 25-150 player LAN events, Multiplay hosted Insomnia99, a 300-player event.[2] At that point, it was the largest LAN party held in the United Kingdom. This spawned the I-Series events, and the success of these also resulted in Multiplay UK's other events and services, including the StratLan events, the short lived StratLan-based Manalan, and the company's game and web server hosting.
LAN Parties
Multiplay UK hosts the following LAN parties:
I-Series
Example of a Multiplay I-Series Lan
The I-Series events, which are the largest regular LAN party in the United Kingdom, were hosted at Newbury Racecourse from i5 to i33 where it was then relocated to Stoneleigh Park. I-Series LAN parties are generally three times per year.
Since the original Insomnia 99 event the number of attendees has increased considerably and lead to changes in venues over time. The location for the first 4 I-Series events was Swindon Town F.C.'s stadium in Swindon. For i5 the event had outgrown the stadium in Swindon, and therefore moved to Newbury Racecourse's Berkshire Stand. Later the Grandstand at the same location was used and then occupied both stands during events. For i34 the event moved to Stoneleigh Park near Coventry with space for 2,000 participants plus spectators. The i38 event moved back to Newbury Racecourse from the 13-16 November 2009, i38 announced that they would hold the first ever Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2 tournament. Furthermore, The first ever competitive match hosted by Activision at i38 was played between Element and Team Dignitas, but Element had a player under the age of 18 which disqualified the team from the tournement along with six other teams which included Epsilon(Finland) Empathy(UK) and Infused(UK).
Multiplay announced that they are hosting a 500-person event at Newbury Racecourse, titled "i-Lite" alongside three main i-series events in 2010.[3]
Multiplay recently announced a change in venue for Insomnia43 moving from Newbury Racecourse over to Telford International Centre due to tickets selling out so fast. Some users on the Multiplay forums were not happy with the decision to change from Newbury Racecourse - The spiritual home of the i-Series [4]
i-Series events generally have a number of both prize winning and non-prize winning tournaments as well as a variety of exhibitors. Both the number of prize tournaments and exhibitors have increased in recent events.
StratLAN
StratLAN, a smaller LAN party without large tournaments or exhibitors, is hosted in Stratford Racecourse.
World Cyber Games
Multiplay UK have also hosted the United Kingdom's national qualifiers for the World Cyber Games at their I-Series events for a number of years, working on behalf of Samsung Electronics UK for the 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008 games. For the 2009 games Multiplay have been confirmed as the strategic partner by global organiser International Cyber Marketing. The 2009 UK National Final is set to be held at M Festival, Multiplay's own video gaming festival over 7–10 August at Stoneleigh Park, near Coventry. M Festival also features the i37 LAN party event, which will see over 2000 PCs on the "Bring Your Own Computer" LAN, coming close to breaking the UK record held by Multiplay's i34 event at 2070. .
References
- ^ "Multiplay Changes Venue". Multiplay UK. http://i34.multiplay.co.uk/about/venue/. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
- ^ "BBC Website". BBC. 29 March 1999. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/306431.stm. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
- ^ http://forums.multiplay.co.uk/i-series/72633-i-series-2010-dates
- ^ http://iseries.multiplay.co.uk/2011/05/12/i43/insomnia-gaming-festival-moves-to-the-telford-international-centre/
External links
- Multiplay UK Company Website
Categories:- LAN parties
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