Lately a lot of narratives have been filled with doom and gloom, mostly reflecting on negative aspects of UK CS and esports as a whole. A shining light is that EPIC.LAN 43 has matched its previous record attendance. Funnily enough, there will be 43 CS2 teams at EPIC.LAN 43.
We have seen a clear trend in the last year of more teams attending EPIC.LAN. In February 34 teams travelled to Kettering, marking the biggest LAN since COVID. And now with 10 more teams, the record has been matched as the biggest LAN since EPIC.LAN 26 in 2019.
Not only are there going to be a lot of CS2 teams, but EPIC.LAN 43 has sold over 600 BYOC tickets, subsequently selling out the entire LAN. CS2 doesn’t even cover half of that. The major growth and the influx of new faces attending could be linked to people previously going to Insomnia Gaming Festival, which closed down earlier this year.
A lot has changed since 2019. Max “MIGHTYMAX” Heath and Kia “Surreal” Man were still going to EPIC.LANs and CeX still had a team. EPIC.LAN 26 saw mix ‘LDN SLAYERS’ featuring the likes of Owen “smooya” Butterfield, MIGHTYMAX, and Thomas “Thomas” Utting win the event and beat out London Esports in the Grand Final.
Verdant will be looking to win back to back EPIC.LANs
Now as we journey back to our beloved town of Kettering, not only do we have a lot of teams, but we have the majority of the current best teams in the UK attending. Five out of the ten teams in UKIC Divison 1 will be in attendance, missing out on Royals, Radiance, and TRAXXXMANIA. Furthermore, the mix teams are looking super sharp with former BLEED star Cai “CYPHER” Watson looking to bring a super team with him. Jack “Gizmy” von Spreckleson and Rory “cryths” Ursell are confirmed so far, and that mix will look to tangle with the domestic best.
Make sure to keep an eye out for UKCSGO’s official EPIC.LAN 43 preview, alongside that we will be coming out in full force to cover all the action next week. You do not want to miss anything, stay tuned to our socials as I think we can all agree this will be an epic LAN.
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