Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is returning to the Insomnia Gaming Festival this summer.
Valve’s classic team shooter has enjoyed the love of the community at summer Insomnia LANs over the years, with Team Fortress 2 pulling in 12k+ Twitch viewers at i63.
Now Insomnia69 (i69) marks TF2’s return to the festival for the first time in three years, following Insomnia65 in August 2019 and the pandemic.
EssentialsTF will be teaming up with Insomnia’s events team Player1 Events to host the Team Fortress 2 6v6 Open Tournament, featuring a £5,000 prize pool provided by Insomnia.
This open BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) tournament will offer the EU Team Fortress 2 community one of the first chances it’s had to compete offline in the last three years.
Insomnia69 is due to take place at the Birmingham NEC from Friday August 26th to Monday August 29th 2022, during the bank holiday weekend.
Organisers will be broadcasting coverage of the tournament live from the event, as well as producing extra content and organising meet-ups for anyone interested in TF2 and attending the event, regardless of whether they’re playing in the tournament or not.
It’s also possible there will be an invite bracket and qualifiers, dependent on the number of sign-ups.
EssentialsTF owner Jonathan Shaw said:
“TF2 returning to Insomnia will be a welcome relief for so many players and fans. It’s one of the few TF2 events that brings people together from across the world. To reawaken that atmosphere we’ve missed will be amazing to see again.”
Jonathan Shaw, EssentialsTF
EssentialsTF tournament lead Charlie ‘DrHappiness’ Smith added: “Insomnia has always been one of the largest events on the TF2 esports calendar. Having the opportunity to bring it back following the pandemic is going to have a great impact on the community, with a world-class tournament, high-quality production and the chance to see friends again – old and new. I’m very excited!”
The most recent Insomnia TF2 event at i65 saw Se7en win the tournament.
More info on the TF2 i69 tournament will be released nearer the time on the EssentialsTF i69 page. And tickets for Insomnia69 are now on sale at InsomniaGamingFestival.com.
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.
