Multiplay team up with Packard Bell to bring iPower Games to i33

Southampton, 25th January 2008: Multiplay, organisers of the largest UK gaming events, have announced that Packard Bell will be bringing the iPower games to their i33 gaming festival taking place 21st - 24th March in Newbury, UK.

The 2007 iPower games featured at Multiplay's previous Easter event, i30 in April last year.

The tournament is based around the high-spec iPower range of PCs produced by Packard Bell specifically for gaming. The competition is split into two disciplines - Real Time Strategy and First Person Shooter. Teams will compete over multiple games of their chosen discipline.

The winning FPS team will join with the winning RTS team to make the UK team who will travel to Paris in the summer to represent Britain in the grand final.

"It's exciting to see such an innovative tournament format returning for another year" said Craig Fletcher, Managing Director of Multiplay, "Packard Bell did a great job last year and we're looking forward to working with them once again. There is no better platform to launch a tournament like this than at i33 - it's the UK's biggest LAN party and all eyes are on Newbury for that one weekend."

There are qualifiers both online and at i33 itself, with qualifying online bringing the added benefit of free entry to i33 for the successful teams. It also provides a second chance to qualify - should a team be knocked out online, they can re-enter via the event qualifiers.

For those who want to come to play but cannot bring a PC, Multiplay and Packard Bell have teamed up to provide "Turn Up and Play" machines for the iPower games. TUP tickets allow gamers to turn up and use provided machines for their tournament matches, without having to bring their own.

With a whole host of other social activities and thousands of gamers in one place, i33 is set to break Multiplay's own record for the largest UK LAN party.

To find out more about i33 and the Packard Bell iPower games 2008 go to http://i33.multiplay.co.uk/tournaments/ipower/

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.