Home News Creditors decline offer from Insomnia organisers Player1 Events as liquidation looms, and community bids farewell to gaming festival during what would’ve been i73

Creditors decline offer from Insomnia organisers Player1 Events as liquidation looms, and community bids farewell to gaming festival during what would’ve been i73

Some of the major creditors owed money by Insomnia Gaming Festival have declined an offer from organisers Player1 Events.

While some smaller creditors (including content creators and freelancers) started receiving what they were owed by Insomnia back in June 2024, several larger entities are still owed money.

Insomnia/Player1 Events parent company Supernova Capital had hoped to offer creditors a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), which, in theory, would’ve provided a greater return to creditors than the previously planned Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL).

However, several major creditors declined an offer from Player1 Events, which Esports News UK understands was for around just 10% of what they are owed.

These creditors included HMRC, Jagex, Protec European Events Limited, UV&S Event Services Ltd, Fragers, Fie Star Crew Co Ltd, West Berkshire Council and High Viz Media Group Ltd.

Jagex and HMRC are owed the most – some £163,000 and £155,000 respectively.

Just under £4.7m is also owed to intercompany creditors, meaning other Supernova companies, including Supernova Capital LLP, Supernova Capital Two Limited and Supernova Management Limited. These, of course, did not vote against the CVA proposal.

This all came about after Supernova Capital co-founder Paul Wedgwood set aside his own rights as a creditor in a bid to try and get more money to others. According to an email sent to creditors by Novacorp Management Limited, and shared by some sources to Esports News UK, he made donations to ensure smaller creditors were paid outside of the proposed CVA process, and personally injected additional funds after selling personal assets not connected to Player1 Events.

Novacorp Management Limited, a company owned by Paul Wedgwood, also apologised to creditors for the situation, saying they negotiated with HMRC (including offering to share profits with all creditors over several years), but that HMRC refused to reverse its decision.   

A virtual meeting will now take place on September 17th 2024 to proceed with the liquidation of Player1 Events.

The news of course comes after mass redundancies were made at Player1 Events back in May, and the Insomnia Gaming Festival company started the liquidation process, with some £8m owed overall.

Community laments loss of Insomnia Gaming Festival during what would’ve been i73

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Insomnia73 (aka i73) was previously due to take place this weekend, from September 5th to 8th 2024.

With Player1 Events now entering liquidation and all staff having been made redundant, Insomnia is officially no more.

RuneFest was also supposed to take place alongside i73, and that has now been postponed to next year, with the RuneFest 2025 dates, venue and ticket info being announced a few months ago.

Here’s a selection of tweets made from the UK esports, streaming and gaming community over the past week or so thinking about what would have been i73.

https://twitter.com/Ginny776/status/1832327647533142399
https://twitter.com/TheOGBlitzy/status/1832036536331718682
https://twitter.com/ItsActuallyAlan/status/1832554217807958174
https://twitter.com/EPICLAN/status/1832134197496123392
https://twitter.com/RedArcherLive/status/1832788701694267572
https://twitter.com/HannahDeTagger/status/1832015903451484302
https://twitter.com/TtvSoul_Render/status/1832053155091148961
https://twitter.com/MiniKill89/status/1831439101364728186
https://twitter.com/oTYL3R/status/1832503893617516663
https://twitter.com/chambourine/status/1830990435642196037
https://twitter.com/PhrendlyPhil/status/1832071448644538502
https://twitter.com/imandywelsh/status/1832875241028387263
https://twitter.com/MrJamigaming/status/1832426065383321719
https://twitter.com/DatedRhyme/status/1832842244933702021
https://twitter.com/_ItsJoJoy/status/1832821700955643991

So long and thanks for all the memories, Insomnia. You might be gone, but you certainly won’t be forgotten.

Related article: Esports winners roundup from i72, the last ever Insomnia Gaming Festival

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