LANding On Its Feet - Gumpster On How The UK Gaming Industry Reacted To COVID-19

Quotations are not verbatim, and have been edited by GGRecon for brevity and clarity.

Epic.LAN. Two words that conjure up fond memories of monstrous gaming sessions, vivid celebrations, and good friends. Family, even. A UK institution whose success is built on unyielding devotion to its community, Epic.LAN has gone from strength to strength over the years. From humble beginnings as a small-scale LAN event in Bagnell Town Hall (a leafy midlands village halfway between Manchester and Birmingham), to growing and expanding to Uttoxeter Racecourse, and finally graduating to Kettering Conference Centre, Epic.LAN has earned its place amongst the royalty of UK LAN events, and despite the odds has continued to operate during COVID-19.

Naturally, the restrictions imposed by the government have made in-person LAN events impossible. From the rule of six to the 3-tier system, a large-scale LAN of the proportions that Epic.LAN boasts was rendered impossible a long, long time ago.

Following the success of epic.29, the year began rather normally for the management team. Gumpster, with the remainder of the family at Epic.LAN, harboured dreams and plans to expand the event – with Gumpster even quoting "a 1500 kind of capacity". Bigger, better – the plans were there. However, on January 31, the first UK cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in York. From there, events need no detailing. February brought yet more cases but not much concern; then March saw the beginning of what for many people has been a difficult and trying time. In late March, the United Kingdom entered a period of tightened restrictions on freedom of movement, with non-essential businesses closing, and all public gatherings being prohibited.

Naturally, this presented a problem, since a LAN event was, by definition, a public gathering, with LAN events being notorious for close-contact, and the communal usage of devices and facilities. Epic.29, fortunately, wrapped in February with no known COVID-19 transmission amongst any of its participants or staff. Recognising this, Gumpster says "we were very lucky to avoid any COVID-19 transmissions or incidents back at epic.29". Whilst the team was hopeful, the hopes of the management and talent were dashed when it became apparent that a July event was not going to be feasible.

Honesty is the best policy, I felt that an online-only event would be pointless to some degree.

           - Tom 'Gumpster' Gumbleton

Being a LAN event, the decision to push for an online event was not one taken lightly. With the Epic.LAN experience, the Epic.LAN identity being built around the concept of communal gaming, the transition from a LAN event to an online event was one that would give the staff their most strenuous test in the organisation’s history. Whilst some were unconvinced, the decision was made to push for online delivery, putting together and making good on an event, in the hopes that fairer winds were ahead. Fortunately, the sceptics were proven wrong.

Whilst never primarily an esports event, Epic.LAN had always incorporated tournaments and competitive play into its lineup of entertainment. The amount of engagement, it was theorised, was built on the appeal of LAN, live gameplay – and with many other tournaments offering free entry and a prize pool, a competition that offered the opposite would not garner any engagement through online delivery. However, this is where the community, familial connections that this tight-knit event fostered shone through. 

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Epic.LAN had always been a ticketed event, with a flat rate of £15 per ticket that did not change with the onset of COVID-19. Refunds were made available upon the cancellation of live events at Kettering Conference Centre, but most of the community made the decision, for July’s epic.30, to transfer their tickets to the online event. The model at Epic.LAN allowed for eventgoers to ‘top-up’ their tickets for little extras and pre-payment for future events. With most ticket holders transferring their ticket upon the news that the event was transforming into an online-delivered sequence of events and streams, it showed the staff that the community was investing in the event, that they wanted Epic.LAN to survive and outlive the pandemic.

Epic.30, the first online-only event was a tremendous success. Whilst it had been a completely new avenue of delivery for the event, the LAN is staffed by esports and gaming industry veterans who were able to translate their experience into a compelling array of online experiences for viewers and competitors. Starcraft 2 had 40 competitors sign up for the online tournament, with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive also achieving 31 teams signing up for the online format. Whilst tournaments in Rainbow Six: Siege (R6:S) were unable to attract enough signups to warrant the event, the overall event was a success, and so the planning began for a new, live event in October. However, with restrictions on public gatherings not loosening enough, hopes for a triumphant return to live events were decimated.

Events like this bring people together from all areas of life. Everyone that has an interest in gaming, and you want to be a part of that. That’s the beauty of it all. I live for LAN events.

           - Tom 'Gumpster' Gumbleton

Epic.31, then, went on to be planned for online delivery as well. Rebranded now as Epic.WAN, the industry seemed to have shifted alongside GGRecon’s reported growth in grassroots tournaments to adapt to COVID-19. An even more unprecedented success than Epic.30, 31 went on to integrate the esports side of the event with the wider esports scene – perhaps most notably with R6:S. The Siege tourney had a notable prize pool of £600, but the altogether more desirable prize of a spot in Division 2 of the UKIN. A further example of how the esports industry has pulled together and grown in the wake of COVID-19, integration of this established, prestigious online tournament helped attract a wealth of talent to the event, with the Siege bracket expanding to 15 teams.

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‘Moving into a post-pandemic landscape, it will be nice to see Epic.LAN take this growth in stride and I genuinely think that our first LAN after the pandemic will be the biggest and best we’ve ever done.’ said Gumpster, as our interview moved on to the future. Where would the industry go and was there a limit to growth during the pandemic? Gumpster was pleasantly optimistic about this: "There is certainly the capacity to go forwards and for esports to keep growing" – pointing to the fact that celebrities, during the pandemic, have taken up streaming.

If that trend were to continue, sites such as twitch could potentially transition into much more mainstream internet usage patterns. F1 is a notable sport in which its famous competitors moved heavily into streaming esports during the pandemic, with the F1 virtual racing bringing together F1 stars such as Lando Norris and renowned content creators such as @ZFCyanide.

Translating this increased attention to streaming into increased viewership and participation in esports may not be the easiest task, but with this mainstream attention incoming, and a potential spike of attention coming with the release of the two big next-gen consoles, the industry looks set to be getting stronger and stronger. Additionally, larger tournaments such as Worlds 2020 in League of Legends attracted over 1 million concurrent viewers for more than five of its opening matches, with Team Liquid vs MAD Lions peaking at 1.168 million viewers. Even the average viewership was shockingly impressive, with sportspromedia listing the number as 714,000 viewers on average.

Gaming is possibly a form of escapism, which is something people may need in the days to come.

           - Tom 'Gumpster' Gumbleton

As our chat came to an end, Gumpster seemed positive, and he had every reason to be. Epic.31 had been a resounding success, the industry as a whole seemed healthy and growing in an economy that had shrunk by 22.1% in Q2 this year, according to the Office for National Statistics. New consoles were releasing soon, hopefully re-engaging current enthusiasts and helping to welcome new people into the world of gaming and by extension, esports.  Whilst there are also factors that could be contrary to this growth and expansion, people could be getting bored of lockdown and gaming, and start heading outside or enjoying other things, the statistics from GGRecon’s article on grassroots Rainbow Six: Siege esports suggest that the lockdowns across Europe have not been a huge detriment to esports and have perhaps even fed into the growth of the scene.

It’s interesting to see how a LAN event was adapted to online delivery, into a WAN. By temporarily rebranding in its own emblematically fun way, Epic.LAN demonstrated a way to survive the pandemic. Whilst nothing is ever certain in the industry, especially during the pandemic, the ability of the organisation to survive through what should have been the death knell for the industry is both admirable and inspiring. The UK LAN scene may never look the same again. It may never again be viable for gamers to congregate to play games, watch esports, shout and cheer their heart out in close proximity which is a sad thought. But through the efforts of the team at Epic.LAN, and their commitment to doing right by the community they have cultivated over years and years of hosting events, they have endured.

It would only be right to sign off this article in the same way that Tom ‘Gumpster’ Gumbleton himself did. As an example for the industry, and a wider beacon of hope that our industry will endure this pandemic, we will make it through to the other side.

"Long may Epic.LAN continue!"

Images via UKIN.gg | Epic.LAN