Multiplay have entered a joint venture with The UK Drone Show, Europe’s largest consumer drone exhibition, to launch The Drone Racing iSeries at August’s Insomnia58, the UKs largest gaming festival.
Adding to the festival’s eSports roster and opening up the potential for a new RCSports category, The Drone Racing iSeries will appear at all Insomnia events for the next three years and offer attendees the chance to witness the world’s best drone pilots battle it out in adrenaline fuelled displays. The Drone “Insomnia Championship” will have a prize pool of at least £5,000, but potentially will reach £10,000 (tbc), making it the richest indoor drone event ever to be held in the UK.
With the UK boasting some of the best drone pilots in the world, drone racing is now one of the UKs fastest growing new sports. Interest has skyrocketed over the last year with broadcaster ESPN announcing that it will televise drone racing in the USA.
Drones will be able to reach speeds of up to 60mph on Insomnia’s indoor track, with pilots needing lightning reflexes to deal with direction changes at high speed, while avoiding obstacles and other drones.
Craig Fletcher, CEO and Founder of Multiplay said: “The Drone Racing iSeries at this year’s Insomnia will add an extra dimension to the festival. The UK is home to some of the best drone racing teams in the world and they will be battling it out at i58, presenting a real spectacle for the Insomnia community. It demonstrates that the festival is branching out to different areas of eSports, with this representing a new category we’re dubbing RCSports. We can’t wait to see the response from our community once this debuts in August.”
Andy Smith, Insomnia Events Director at Multiplay also added: “With interest in Drone racing really picking up now all over the world, Insomnia will be the perfect opportunity for our community to check out what the fuss is all about. We’ve got a great line up of drone racing stars all taking to the course which will make the Insomnia Championship a great addition.”
Simon Newton, a director of the UK Drone Show said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Multiplay to launch the UK’s first competitive drone racing series and bring this amazing sport to a huge new audience. There is a natural synergy between the worlds of gaming, technology and drones, which makes the Insomnia Festivals the perfect platform to showcase not only the Drone Racing iSeries but also other exciting RCSports that the UK Drone Show team will be introducing during the joint venture.”
In December 2015, The UK Drone show held the largest ever UK indoor drone racing event, in front of 6,500 people. The event saw 15 year old Luke Bannister leave victorious, and he went on to win the World Drone Prix in Dubai 2016 earning $250,000. His winning final race has been viewed over 600K times on YouTube in 3 months.
Along with drone racing, eSports enthusiasts will be afforded 4 days of the biggest LAN in the UK at i58, with over 4,000 people playing simultaneously in the event’s dedicated BYOC area. Insomnia58 will also be stage to the biggest gaming quiz in the UK, a separate event that will have a prize pot of £2,500.
Gamers can now also rent PCs for the event.
Insomnia58 will be taking place at The NEC, Birmingham, 26th-29th August, 2016 with tickets available online from £30, with BYOC tickets costing £99.
Tickets are available at: https://insomniagamingfestival.com/tickets/.
