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Insomnia Opening Ceremony At Multiplay i49

Insomnia i49: Its day two at Multiplay’s i49, the UK’s biggest gaming festival and following the opening of the grand exhibition hall to the public, there is only one real way to really kick start the event and that is the grand opening ceremony.

Multiplay’s stage where the ceremony is held – along with all the professional gaming tournament finals – has come a long way since its early days with a bed sheet hung on a wall with a single projector. Now we see a comprehensive sound and light set-up with a mass of screens and projectors as well as a well fitted stage team to give the best action possible, both to attendees of the event, but also to those who are watching the action back at home on the internet.

When it comes to the stage events, the opening ceremony is one of the bigger fixtures that people will see across the weekend, along with the Saturday night “World Famous” pub quiz, live bands, the tournament finals and more.

A_Spec kicks off the opening ceremony with a new addition to the team, Julia Hardy who, as a self confessed n00bie, wants to show that she has got what it takes to keep the crowd buzzing as a selection of vendors come to stage to introduce themselves, give some amazing prizes away, but also [of-course] throw some swag out the the eagerly awaiting audience – including the odd box or two.

First up to the stage saw Lee and Nick from Game, who are keen to show that they are here in allegiance with the gamers, offering games at less than web-only prices, and if that was not enough, one lucky person won a special edition copy of Starcraft 2.

Next up came Mark Purdy and his team from Overclockers UK, who as we all know by now are regular attendees to the Insomnia festival, with their unique delivery to your desk service, a huge stand with systems on show, Haribo, a giraffe and of course one massive box of freebies and a box or two for the eagerly awaiting.

In a chest full of Haribo, one lucky pack had an OcUK sticker placed on it, this particular pack was worthy of winning a GTX 780 courtesy of Gigabyte.

Cooler Master are also regular attendees to the opening ceremony, with Chris and his team putting a twist on how people could get their hands on the UKs first Mech keyboard. After building up the Skorpion cable holder, the twist came by the contestants jumping into a box for an “if I sit, I fit” contest. With a bit of comradeship the winning gamer, put out that the other contestant, a day visitor who was only a young lad. Its goes to show that not all gamers are in it for themselves!

InWin were next as Enrico gave a run down on the competitions that they have running over the weekend with a different tournament each day as well as a barebones system up for grabs in the grand raffle at the end of the weekend.

EseT were last up to the stage, with a huge bag of free licence keys to give out as the crowd chanted “Less LAG, more FRAG!”

Stay tuned as we bring you more action from across the weekend, including a closer look at each of the stands in the exhibition hall as well as a look around the event. Also be sure to head over to our i49 live gallery where you can keep up to date with all the action as we see it: http://www.eteknix.com/insomnia-i49-summer-2013-live-gallery/