We can also now confirm the on-site catering arrangements for epic.ELEVEN which will be open from:

Thursday - 4pm-10pm
Friday & Saturday - 8am-10pm
Sunday - 8am-4pm

The catering for Kettering Conference Centre is an entirely in-house catering service, so they want your feedback during the event. The venue team is fully prepared to have to change things as the event goes on as long as you give your feedback at the time, they can't go back and fix things after! That said, a number of improvements have been made based on your feedback from the last event.

On the menu there are a number of core things that will always be available (the usual burgers, chips etc.), and as previously announced, breakfast items will now be available all day. Then for each day there's a couple of other main meal options to give some variety throughout. Obviously it's impossible to please everybody so if you have any feedback then please do make it constructive so we can make things better going forwards.

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If this heatwave keeps up, it's going to be a great LAN in a couple of weeks time, but it is going to be warm! The event does have air conditioning in all rooms we're using, however, those of you that have worked in server rooms/data centres will know that you need some serious aircon to cool a few hundred PCs, and that's not what the venue is designed for. So please bear in mind the following points to help us keep the LAN as cool as possible during the event:

• In most cases the aircon is for the room as a whole, so some of you may be located closer to the fans than others and you may get a bit chilly, please bear in mind that we'll have to make some decisions for the room as a whole to stop people and machines overheating.
• Be sensible with what you're wearing! If you're sitting in jeans and a jumper all weekend, then you're going to get toasty, time to get the shorts out!
• Drink plenty of water! Even though the bar is open even longer this event (until 2am), make sure you have plenty of non-alcoholic and non-energy drinks to keep you hydrated.
• Showers...(not saying anything more!)
• Desk Fans - This is a new venue for us and we're still finding our feet with the power. But if the weather continues like this, we will permit small desk fans on a one per table basis (not per person), but if we do suffer from any power issues, we may have to reverse this position. There is no limit on USB fans.
• Turn your machines off when not in use - It would help to bring down the residual temperature if you shut your machines down if they're not going to be in use for a long period of time, e.g. overnight when you go to bed.

The seating picker for epic.ELEVEN will be locked down from 6pm Thursday 18th July, from this point onwards, only new bookings will be able to select a seat, existing bookings will be locked in.

We do this to allow us to 'defrag' the seating plan and only put down the number of chairs and tables we need for the event as there is a cost to running empty rows, it also makes it more crowded for you if we have unnecessary rows taking up space.

If there are any urgent moves required after the lockdown, please contact us. We will only move people if we have to, but to ensure that you don't get broken up from your team/friends, please ensure that you all have the same clan tag set on your account.

We'd also suggest that you don't print out your booking (required for checkin) until just before the event in case you are moved.

Shogun Bros is a name that may be new to many of you, but their products are starting to make quite a splash, particularly the 8200dpi Ballista MK-1 gaming mouse (check out the review over on eTeknix). So naturally we were quite excited when they agreed to sponsor the epic.ELEVEN Starcraft 2 Tournament!

So not only will the top 3 players get a Ballista MK-1 each, but we're also going to accellerate to our 2nd prize tier straight away of £500 now guaranteed for the tournament!

For those not taking part in the main tournaments, we also have a few of the mice to give away for our fun tournaments too!

Oh and make sure you check out their Facebook Page and give them a like!

With just a few weeks left before the event now, we're building up our plans for tournaments and are seeking a few casters for the event.

This is not a paid position, so would suit people who are starting out looking to build up their experience. Obviously you would not be expected to pay for your LAN ticket, like our other volunteers, and you would need to bring your own hardware with you. 

We would ask that the streaming takes place using our twitch.tv channels and from the event itself, and we'll be building our various streams into our website during the event. The games we're looking for coverage on are:

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• League of Legends
• Call of Duty 4

If you are interested, please contact us as soon as possible providing details of your previous experience with links to current Twitch/YouTube channels.

As we get closer to the event, we have to finalise layouts and place orders for table hire, therefore we have decided that the rows already locked in the Portland & Pendeen rooms will now remain locked down and won't be available for the event.

That means there are just 11 spaces left in these halls.

Bookings for additional clan rooms are also now closed and once again these remaining rooms will be used as indoor sleeping for this event.

The cancellation deadline for epic11 has now passed and therefore from this point forwards we are unable to process any refunds for the event unless it entirely sells out and we are able to re-sell your space.

The reason for this deadline is that from the 28 day period before the LAN, our major expenditure all gets paid out, such as the venue hire, equipment rental, insurance etc. and therefore the ticket income has been committed to those items.

We've now finalised the epic.ELEVEN casual timetable to bring you regular big games through the event with a load of fun tournaments too! You can expect to find your favourites from Unreal Tournament 2004, to Trackmania to Dogfighter. For those eagle-eyed amongst you, yes, the epic.Quiz has been confirmed for Friday evening, ensuring we get chance to Boat Race!

The following fun tournaments are also confirmed:

• Minecraft create (build competition running the duration of epic.ELEVEN)
• L4D2 Survival (highest Survival score at the end of epic.ELEVEN)
• Half Life 2: Deathmatch Ladder
• F1 2012
• Wii Mario Kart

Rules for the tournaments as always will be shared at the start of the event.

The epic.ELEVEN timetable page has been updated and will continue to be so as the rest of the schedule is locked in.

The last few seats for epic.ELEVEN are selling fast; if you've not yet confirmed yours, do so now to avoid dissapointment for what will be another epic event! 

We've listened to your feedback from the last event, and the venue has agreed to open the bar later for all of you late night LAN gamers at epic.ELEVEN!

So this time, the bar will be open:

Thursday

2pm - 4pm - Downstairs bar open while you wait to check-in

4pm - 2am - Fair Isle Bar

Friday & Saturday

12noon - 2am - Fair Isle Bar

Of course we need to remind everybody that all alcohol must be purchased from the bar and you cannot bring your own on site.

News just in, regular supporters of epic.LAN, Roccat, will be sending along some great prizes to boost our new League of Legends tournament! The top teams in the tournament will get the chance to win:

• 5 x Roccat Isku
• 5 x Roccat Savu
• 5 x Roccat Sense Chrome Blue

Make sure you're signed up to our epic.ELEVEN League of Legends tournament to be in with a chance of winning!