The Happenings of i49

Insomnia always comes with a flood of excitement and dread for the event. Excitement about meeting awesome people within the gaming community and hanging out with people who generally like the same things you do when it comes to gaming. Dread comes from the inevitable lack of sleep and when the end of the event hits, so does the infamous "LAN Death" which is essentially a sore throat and whatever mixes of illnesses the people around you have. Some manage to escape its grasp. I wasn't so lucky.

Day one, the Friday, of the event is always kind of relaxed and this was no different. The day was filled with many a start and delay when it came to tournaments and streams, nothing out of the ordinary for the most part and we also saw the start of the League of Legends, DotA 2, and Startcraft 2 tournaments and they started out quite awesome, albeit fairly delayed.

The exhibition hall this time around had a lot more on offer with various other companies and games coming around to flaunt their products to consumers in the hope that they would capture the hearts of the loyal PC Gamer. Team Dignitas also had their own booth as usual, with World of Warplanes and League of Legends being playable to anyone that came in. They were using Alienware's Aurora systems as well as their keyboards and mice. We also had some awesome Creative Evo headsets as well. You also had the Scan booth, showing off the best of the best graphics cards with the advent of the new GTX 700 series.

BYOC has always been one of the most fun experiences for a gamer to partake in with people coming from far and wide with the same interests as you, and even if you don't play the same game exclusively there is almost always a game you can find that you and someone else will like. Although due to various issues with the net starting with the early birds, gaming online had become somewhat of a chore in any case. This also held up a lot of the tournaments that were starting on day one with them starting around 2-4 hours late, after much work from the diligent multiplay staff the games ended up being played and continued as normal for the rest of the event. Minor hiccups here and there but all went well in the end. Overall the games went well with the Dignitas UK League of Legends team doing well in all of their games as well as Bling winning the WCG tournament and a trip to China.

The weather was especially hot and the BYOC area felt the heat with around 3000 PCs and consoles heating the place up as well as the outside, things were getting a little bit heated in here, and not just with the players either.

Day 2 was as eventful as the first. With tournaments now leaving the group stage and entering into the brackets it was getting close to the end where the best teams would fight it out for the first place prize. Team Dignitas was coming out strong with the UK LoL squad not dropping a game and the Starcraft players doing similarly well, Bling placing 2nd and DreAm achieving 5th in the ESET masters tournament also. The exhibition hall was a buzz with people coming back for another round of gaming and exploring the world of PC and console gaming on a competitive level. There were various demonstrations being shown on the main stage from developers showcasing games, with games like the new PvP spin off of Magicka: Wizard Wars and Natural Selection 2 making their games more known in order to potentially grow a scene within the UK competitive scene here at Insomnia 49.

Day 3 was the big one, most of the smaller tournaments had come to a close with the Team Dignitas mix DotA 2 team winning the intermediate tournament securing 5 tickets to the next LAN. Now it was down to the Starcraft 2 finals and the League of Legends finals that would be happening later on in the day and the build up to them. Overall Team Dignitas' UK LoL team placed third, getting beaten by Millenium 2-1 in the winners bracket finals and then losing to Reason Gaming 2-0 in the loser's bracket finals, placing 3rd overall. BlinG managed to secure second place in the ESET UK Masters, losing to Fnatic's Harstem 3-2. The whole event had been as awesome as ever, and even though we had the ddos attack, as well as the other internet issues that come with this kind of event, everyone still managed to enjoy their time at Insomnia and the event was still a great success.

LAN for me has always been a must-go event, regardless of size, activities and even if there are no competitive elements. The community and people there always make the event the most fun you will have within the world of PC gaming and anyone with a PC, that sees themselves as avid gamers, should definitely look into their local area for LAN events such as Insomnia.