Epic.Lan 38 Esport tournament

As it’s now a few years since I last took a look at esport and gaming tournaments, I decided that it might be worth another look, so headed up to Kettering for Epic.Lan 38, one of three LAN tournaments held a year by the group.

For those who haven’t attended one of these events before, it’s quite a shock when you first enter the main arena to find a sports hall lit only with the glow of screens and illuminated fans and keyboards, the background hum of so many gaming computers interupted by sporadic testosterone-fuelled obsceneties yelled across the room as a clan defeats a rival team.

Like every aspect of modern life, social media plays a huge part, with streaming your own play or commentating on others potentially gaining huge audiences. Across the hall, ringlights hovered over gaming stations and glowing microphones sat next to keyboards as broadcasts continued on the latest developments in the rankings.

For four days, competitors can live and breathe the tournament as they camp onsite, with sleeping bags stuffed underneath their desks, and food containers stacked in the bins at the end of every row. A small desk at the entrance sells the necessities of toothpaste, deoderant, energy drinks, snacks, ear plugs and PC power leads.

With esport now a well-established profit-earning business, teams adopt their own kit, with some looking like they’re ready to play at Wembley, while others are a little more tongue-in-cheek. This tournaments “Bin Men” clan’s high-vis waste collection kit took the crown for most self-effacing.

The huge majority of those attending were young, white men in their late teens, twenties and thirties, with women spread throughout the room but very much in the minority. While some came to compete, others spectated as their friends and partners competed against rival teams, and attempted to take home some of the £3750 prize fund.

Attempting to catch those moments of celebration is a real challenge with expletive-laden bursts of victory coming from random areas in the room at any time. Even when spectators have gathered to watch an important round, player’s faces are often entirely neutral, with no encouragement or words from those looking on until an eventual cry of victory, or a furious slap of the desk tells the story of how the game went.

My thanks to Epic.Lan for allowing me to spend the day covering part of 38.