Been little over a year since our last trip to Telford International Centre and much fun was had - now it is time to return.
Nov 29th to 2nd Dec are the dates, early access will get you in on the evening of the 28th.
Link
Currently prices are at 65 quid for a Bring Your Own Computer ticket, this gives you full access to all the halls for the duration and lets you bring your own rig down to play. It also allows you camping access should you be foolhardy enough to camp in winter.
An extra 15 quid on top of that gets you early access, this allows you access to the halls on the Thursday evening - good for getting everything set up and working. The caveat around this is that services such at network connectivity and even power are not guaranteed (though I have never seen, or even heard of, these going down for any significant amount of time) Getting in on the Thursday also gets you the best parking.
As it is winter I am going to be hotelling for the duration, current quotes from Holiday Inn are at 80 quid a night for a two double bed room, with an extra 25 quid per additional person starting with the 3rd - so 80 quid for 2, 105 for 3 etc. Multiplay are normally able to negotiate reduced rates for attendees though - I need to check the forums out for more info.
For those of you who have never been I can't emphasise enough just how enjoyable these weekends are. More than anything else the atmosphere in the halls is something that everyone should experience at least once, I guarantee you will want to go back.
For the competitive there are tournaments run throughout the weekend, Friday night is a gamers version of karaoke on the main stage (it's rock band) and Sat night is the pub quiz followed by the punters v staff boat race if anyone has a handy talent for making pints disappear in a few seconds.
During the day time there are various stands open from people like Overclockers, Asus, PCWorld (eurgh) Razer and other gaming related folks - often they have playable demos for upcoming games and freebies to give away.
One big surprise for me from last year was how entertaining it was to sit and watch some of the tournaments on the main stage,
even I could appreciate some of what was going on in the Counter Strike final - though Prof did have to explain some stuff - I intend to do a bit more of that this time around.