Insomnia esports coverage powered by AGON by AOC
Insomnia Gaming Festival is returning to the Birmingham NEC from this Friday (April 15th 2022) for a long weekend celebration of all things games and esports, but who is attending?
We’ve rounded up some of the esports casters, streamers/content creators and companies in attendance, as well as the stage schedules, so you know what to expect.
Insomnia 68 esports caster line-up
First up, the casters for the official Insomnia esports open tournaments in Valorant, League of Legends, CSGO and Overwatch, which have a combined prize pool of £14,000.
There’s a host of UK talent on board, including Matt Richards as stage host, Samantha Fry as observer, Twiggy on Valorant, Legday on Overwatch, Gottmoxi on both of those games, GreyHart and DocDa on League of Legends, and Veracity and Neokai on CSGO:
Then, looking at the NSE’s British University Esports Championship (BUEC) finals, there’s also a host of talent on board, including Giniro, Temporal, HazzaJC and many more:
There are also other esports tournaments at Insomnia including the Belong Arena Clash finals. These are taking place in their own dedicated space, not on the main stage.
For this, there are the following casters on board:
- Tekken – Eternal Dragon and PunLife
- Overwatch – JacePT and Unchanged
- League of Legends – GreyHart and Saga
- Valorant – Gottmoxi and Roooc
In terms of observers, there’s Cinzya handling Overwatch and Valorant, and Readhd working on League of Legends.
Insomnia 68 content creators attending
As usual, Insomnia will have a range of content creators/streamers attending to get involved in different activities and arrange meet and greets with their fans.
At the new Creator Tavern, guests can meet influencers, some of which will be taking part in ‘Britical Role’ – a Dungeons & Dragons themed show akin to the hit online series Critical Role. There will also be a Creator Trading Post, where creators will be selling merch.
There are tons of creators attending. Just some posted on the Insomnia website include Fnatic Gabby, SeaPeeKay, NitroLukeDX, C9 Emz, B0aty, The Spiffing Brit, Cadaea, Warsz, Callum Upton, Two Angry Gamers, Wolfe3y, Rage Darling, Maizy Marzipan, Lionheart, eLSD, BexBomb, The Caramel Gamer, Peeceful and HelpingHans (the latter two are with UK esports organisation Endpoint) and more.
Others include Josh Strife Hayes, and John Robertson’s The Dark Room experience will be returning too.
You can check out the full list of creators on the Insomnia website here.
Which esports/gaming companies will have a presence at Insomnia 68?
There are a range of companies that will have a presence at Insomnia 68, including UK esports organisations Excel Esports and Endpoint (with their own stands).
Beef jerky snack company Jack Link’s will be in the marketplace within i68, allowing attendees to partake in a sweepstake, win a selection of Jack Link’s and Fnatic-branded prizes, take pictures in front of back drops and win free samples.
The British Esports Association will also have an area, as will UKSM – the latter will be streaming some speedrunning action (see the schedule here) and raising money for UK-based charity SpecialEffect.
Brands in the expo will include ASUS Republic of Gamers (which will have a 2v2 tournament stage), EPOS (to showcase its range of gaming headsets, which will be supplied for use in the Call of Duty Gaming Zone and Daily Tournament Zone) and lots more – expect plenty of system builders/PC sellers as usual.
Hado will also have a presence – the 3v3 augmented reality battler lets participants take part in a physical form of VR esports.
There are many other companies that will have a presence at Insomnia. If you’re one of them (specifically in esports/gaming) and would like to be added to this article, please DM us.
What about the stage schedule at i68?
Here you go:
In terms of the NSE’s British University Esports Championship (BUEC) tournament finals, here’s the schedule for that (with more info on the NSE schedule here).
And then, for the Belong Arena Clash finals, these are the times (subject to change):
- Friday 11am – Overwatch
- Friday 2pm – League of Legends
- Saturday 11am – Valorant
- Saturday 2pm – Tekken
What else is on at Insomnia 68?
As well as the usual exhibition hall and BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer)/esports hall, there will be a host of areas, including Gaming Zones, a NewGen Zone, Retro Zone, VR Zone, Esports Zone and a Cosplay Zone (with a community masquerade at 2pm BST on Friday April 15th, and the Cosplay Championship at the same time on Saturday April 16th, with a £1,000 top prize). There’s more on the cosplay i68 schedule here.
There’s also the Community VS Zone, which allows guest to face-off against one another in a range of games, and the Marketplace.
In addition to that, Insomnia Gaming Festival will be putting on its fringe shows and content like the well-known Insomnia Pub Quiz.
On the show floor, attendees will be able to get hands-on gaming sessions on the latest Playstation 5 and Xbox One X consoles and titles in the New Gen Zone.
Finally, the Covid Policy for Insomnia 68 is available here. There’s plenty more info on the official Insomnia Gaming Festival website.
Insomnia esports coverage powered by AGON by AOC – see the AGON League of Legends monitor & our latest i68 coverage
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.
