PLAY Expo is returning to Manchester for the seventh time on May 4th and 5th and will once again have some community esports tournaments taking place.
The event – which will be held at Manchester Central Exhibition Centre and is set to draw 25,000 gaming fans – is focusing on fighting games for 2019.
There will be Tekken 7, MK11 and Soul Calibur 6 tournaments on Saturday, followed by competitions in Street Fighter V, Dragonball Fighter Z and Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator 2 on the Sunday.
All of the tournaments are bring your own controller and double elimination; signups are open here.
Tekken 7 and Mortal Kombat 11 have a £10 entry fee each and are qualifers for the Celtic Throwdown. Winners will receive free entry and travel to this event in Dublin. Extra prizes also provided by GT Omega racing as well as cash prizes will be available.
All over games have a £5 entry fee, with cash prizes up for grabs as well as other goodies to be revealed. All money from the entry fees will go towards the tournaments’ prize pools.
PLAY Expo Manchester will also feature indie games, cosplay, escape rooms, The Dark Room, Knightmare Live, YouTuber meet and greets and more. It will have a Minecraft zone, Fortnite zone and VR area too.
Twitch channel ‘Streamers Connected’ will also be broadcasting live from the show across both days.
Andy Brown, MD of Replay Events, said: “We are super excited to be bringing PLAY Expo back to Manchester at an even bigger arena. The PLAY Expo community is incredible, we know that 80% of our visitors do not visit any other gaming event in the UK. Our attendees love the mix of new and old games, stage talks, special events, cosplay and competitions.”
Industry trade body UKIE, will be hosting ’30 Years Of Play’ at this year’s show including a retro gaming championship featuring classic British games from years gone by.
Tickets cost £20 for adults, £14 for children or £96 for a family weekend ticket.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
