An Update On The LAN

Good afternoon!

Its no secret that we have been looking into LAN events. And we did promise an update on Monday or Tuesday. So here it is...

A LAN event is something we are really interested to do and we know that you guys are really keen to see one happen! Especially those under 18. After making several enquiries into the legalities and after several meetings (and explaining what eSports is to several people) we've seem to draw a conclusion on where the law is on the 18+ situation. This is a slightly grey area, eSports is relatively new and the law is yet to catch up as to what is going on, this is only the information we acquired and could be wrong. This law may not apply in your country!

It seems that within the United Kingdom, there is no law prohibiting a LAN event for under 18s (to an extent). Where difficulties arise is with the Developer, who is subject to different laws from the consumer (you or I) and they own the intellectual property rights to any game they create. In other words, streaming, show-casing, having members of the public viewing their game, is their territory. And we must abide by their rules. We could stir up a fuss and try get around this, but this could mean no streams, penalties or worse and we certainly do not want to hamper our reputation by being on the wrong side of things. At the same time, we do not want to have a second tier LAN.

So where does this leave us? In a bit of a tight spot. The difficulty with hosting a LAN at 18+ is simply the attendance drops dramatically. This is evident from other LAN providers who have ten teams show up or who simply just miss out the COD title altogether.

Our current position is to dig further into hosting a LAN. Many of you know, that we are not a company dedicated to make millions of dollars but rather we just want to create a community and an environment where people share a passion, this is evident in our giveaways and free-entry league. We are therefore looking into the possibility of a free-entry LAN. We know that this eats away at profit margins dramatically however we can hopefully engage more amateur teams and increase attendance because, we can say with emphasise, that we will not host a LAN with minimal attendance.

In addition to this we are looking at bringing in Counter-Strike & Halo stations. With being as transparent as possible, we are aware this is our first LAN attempt and we do not want to bite off more than we can chew. Unlike other LAN competitors who started years ago with a small prize pool and no-age restriction and have built from the ground up, we are jumping into the deep end. Depending on the course of things, it could be possible that a LAN event could be in 2017 but we are aiming for 2016.

All in all, we are dedicated to hosting a LAN. However we will not rush the process nor provide a tier 2 LAN. When we manage to launch a LAN, we can guarantee you that we will not simply follow in footsteps but make our own way and provide the best experience, socially & competitively.

You can conclude that the 18+ rule is not a rule, but law. You can conclude that a LAN is most undoubtedly going to be taking place. You can conclude there is a high possibility it will be free entry. You can conclude that it will not be some school seats in a cold hall.

Please note nothing is confirmed, this is simply an update.