Multiplay Announces €12,000 Counter-Strike: Source Tournament

London, 1st October 2007: Multiplay - organisers of the largest UK gaming LAN events - have announced their guaranteed prize fund of 12,000 for the Counter-Strike: Source tournament being held at their i32 LAN party in November. With over 80 hours of non-stop gaming, social activities spread across multiple venues and with most of the attendees camping on site, the i-Series events are often described as the "Glastonbury of Gaming". It all takes place over 9th-12th November at Newbury Racecourse, Berkshire, UK.

The Counter-Strike: Source tournament headlines the i32 LAN festival which also sees the Activision sponsored Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Contamination Cup, featuring a 6,000 prize fund.

"This is yet another groundbreaking move for the i-Series" said Craig Fletcher, Managing Director of Multiplay. "The Counter-Strike: Source community have been supporters of the i-Series for a long time, we felt we should run something extra-special to promote Counter-Strike and e-sports in the UK and Europe. A prize fund like this attracts the best players and the most media attention, giving the European gaming scene a platform to showcase on."

The 5v5 Counter-Strike: Source tournament has consistently proven to be Multiplay's most popular tournament over the past five i-Series events, seeing up to 500 players taking part in each competition. The prize fund is guaranteed and is not linked to how many teams are entered. First prize is 6,000 and free entrance to i33 in spring 2008, second prize 3,000 and third prize of 1,500. The top eight teams in the tournament receive cash prizes, with 8th place taking home 250.

To read more about i32 and the Counter-Strike: Source tournament further information can be found at http://i32.multiplay.co.uk.

About Multiplay:

Established in 1997 as a games-orientated event management company, Multiplay pioneers the development of gaming festivals in the UK and hosts one of the World's largest online PC gaming services. With the synergy of real-life events and a large online presence, Multiplay is at the forefront of PC gaming in the UK and beyond.

Nicknamed the "Glastonbury of Gaming", Multiplay's "i-Series" gaming festivals are unique in the UK, seeing over 1,500 attendees who all bring their own computers to connect to a large temporary network for four days of entertainment. Having expanded in scope, the events now attract a much wider audience, who attend for the interactive exhibition, social activities or just to watch the action unfold in the finals arena. Regular attendance by leading games publishers and hardware manufacturers has built the i-Series into the must-attend event in the UK gaming calendar.

Multiplay spearheads the development of the professional gaming scene in the UK, working with big-name brands to stage world-class tournaments. These are stage-managed and video-streamed by Multiplay's in-house team onto the Internet, attracting a growing audience. Online viewing figures for individual game finals number in the tens of thousands.

Multiplay's online gaming service has gone from strength-to-strength from its inception in 2002 to the mammoth service of over 1,000 game services playing host to over 10,000 players concurrently each night. This makes it one of the largest services of its type in the World. As an ISP running its own network, from gaming-optimised broadband service to high-end hosting operations, Multiplay is able to ensure the quality of connectivity is second-to-none.

Contact Multiplay on +44 (0)845 868 1337 or by email on press@multiplay.co.uk