GSCon, a gaming convention featuring streamer meet-and-greets, awards and esports, has revealed more of its tournament plans and announced some mental health charity partners.
The event has teamed up with four charities focused on mental health and social anxiety in the gaming industry, and announced them during Mental Health Awareness Month. Those attending will include:
- Mind UK Manchester branch (mental health charity)
- Everyone Can (charity focused on tech that improves the lives of disabled people)
- Directions for Men (provides mental health support groups for men)
- Become (charity for children in care and care leavers)
The charities will have stands and discuss their initiatives at the show.
Matt Bowen, founder of GSCon, told Esports News UK: “As a not-for-profit event aiming to change the stigma on mental health, we are donating prizes for the charities to raffle off and raise cash for their causes.”
GSCon is also running some esports tournaments.
Scott from gaming community and tournament hub We Three Kings will be arranging a few small tournaments and competitions at the event, which takes place on August 6th and 7th 2022 at Manchester Metropolitan University.
There are plans for Apex Legends esports at the event and perhaps some Fortnite. It’s not been confirmed whether there will be a prize pool or not just yet, but it’s likely there will be non-cash prizes, with a focus on community tournaments. Sign-ups are expected to be on the day.
Scott said: “We hope to encourage some competition (perhaps if I do an Apex kill race), as well as have an area for people into competitive gaming to discuss.
“I’m also running my own charity tournament a few weeks before GSCon via PlayApex, with some small esports representation in attendance. It’s more of a friendly competition as we are testing new production software and brushing up on our casting for a more frequent thing.
“My long term goal with W3K, the brand I run, is to have more amateur/pro style esports, with a view of bridging the gap between casual and pro, and helping people make the business to business discussions that might not be as well versed in that world.”
Some of GSCon’s partners include Streamlabs, Hover, Dixper and Ebuyer.
Esports News UK previously covered GSCon’s 2022 event announcement back in February. There’s more info including ticketing on the GSCon website.
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.
