Multiplay announces i31 - Glastonbury of Gaming

Posted at: 12:00am 23rd July 2007 by Ben Hardwidge

Girls Aloud to attend i31, and you'll get a look at Crysis and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars too

Top game server provider Multiplay has released details of the UK’s most expansive LAN event, i31, which it’s referring to as ‘Glastonbury of Gaming.’ According to Multiplay, the Glasto reference comes from the fact that there’s ‘80 hours of non-stop gaming and social activities spread across multiple venues,’ plus most of the attendees camp on site.

We’re guessing that you won’t have to bring your military-grade wellies for a mud-filled stomp back to your computer every morning, although we’ve been told that there will be a bit of a musical (after a fashion) link, as Cheryl Cole and Sarah Harding from bombastic girl band Girls Aloud will be making an appearance too. The girls will be playing some exhibition matches against some lucky winners, as well as crowning the UK's National Team for the World Cyber Games 2007 in the on-stage presentations.

The official headliner is Samsung, which is offering a ‘turn-up-and-play’ area for the World Cyber Games. Anyone is free to enter the World Cyber Games and potentially be part of the UK team at the World Finals held in Seattle in October.

As well as this, Activision will also be giving a live demo of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, EA will be demoing Crysis and Multiplay is apparently in talks with Vivendi to see if it can persuade the company to bring along World in Conflict as well.

Plenty of big names in the PC gaming business will be lining the halls with their stands too, including Asus, Intel, Scan, Crucial and Antec. Plus, a few of the guys from Custom PC will be heading down as well, so if you’re lucky you may get to run into one of us if you’re heading to the event.

If you’re interested in attending i31, then click here.