ECL2 announced

It's been a while since ECL Liverpool opened its doors to the public
last summer. The long wait is now over and we're pleased to officially
announce ECL2 aka ECL Blackpool!

The Dates and Venue
The
next European Console League event will be held at the iconic Norbreck
Castle in Blackpool from the 22nd-24th April. The Norbreck Castle played
home to the R3PLAY Retro Event that the European Console League
supported in late 2010 and is a perfect location for the ECL circuit.
With great travel links and an on site hotel and bar, there is
everything a gamer could want from a weekend of eSports.

Hotel
ECL
Blackpool is going to be held in the Norbreck Castle hotel and of
course, this means there are hotel rooms available within the venue for
our participants. The hotel room will also include both Breakfast and an
Evening Meal. Unfortunately we do not have an exact price yet but this
information should be released in one of our next press releases.

Tickets
Tickets will go on sale within the next 10 days. Tickets will be priced as follows:

Team Player Ticket (Includes entry to 1x 4v4 and 1x FFA) will cost £60
FIFA Player Ticket (Includes entry to 1v1 and 2v2) will cost £30
Street Fighter Ticket prices will be announced soon


The Games
Like the last event, we are going to support the following five main titles:

• Halo: Reach (360)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (360 & PS3)
• Gears of War (360)
• FIFA 2011 (360)
• Super Street Fighter IV (360)

However,
we would like to welcome some new changes for our second event. For the
first time in Europe, a major console event will be supporting
Playstation 3 Call of Duty, as well as Xbox 360 Call of Duty. The
European Console League may also add further games to our circuit as
time goes on.


Prize Fund
The ECL2 prize fund and break down of our prize fund will be released within the coming weeks.


New To ECL
Although
ECL Liverpool was a huge success, we listened to what you, the
customer, wanted from our next event. Therefore we're pleased to bring
you details of what changes, improvements, and new additions you can
expect at ECL Blackpool to make your experience even better.

On Site Bar
Though
we will not allow alcoholic drinks in the main gaming room, there is a
bar in one of the nearby rooms that any over 18s can take advantage of.
Please drink responsibly.

Cheaper Drinks and Snacks
A
lot of people complained about the cost of drinks and snacks at ECL
Liverpool, but unfortunately the pricing was out of our control. We are
in a similar position at ECL Blackpool, however, there is a shop about
thirty seconds directly across the road that sells water, chocolate and
whatever snacks you're looking for at typical convenience store prices.
We will be in contact with the shop to ensure that they are carrying
sufficient stock to meet the demand of all ECL participants.

Scheduling
Scheduling
was something of an issue, with the Halo tournament over running on the
Saturday. This was caused by a combination of factors. The tournament
began two hours later than we had hoped and consequently had to run over
two hours on the Saturday to guarantee on-time completion of the
tournament. The delay caused at the start was mostly as a result of the
PAT testing and the simple solution is to resolve any problems in
advance so we can start on time. We will also aim to utilise all of our
stations more efficiently to ensure that the maximum number of games are
almost always taking place.

PAT Testing
As
covered above, the PAT testing of people's own equipment did create a
delay despite our specialists working extremely hard and efficiently to
get through everyone's equipment. Most of the delays were caused by none
British attendee's equipment during PAT testing, as well as the sheer
volume of attendees requiring PAT testing. We have learned lessons from
ECL Liverpool and should PAT testing be a future requirement, we will be
much better prepared to deal with the problems presented at Liverpool.
This will not be a problem again in the future.

Spectators
On
paper, the hall in Liverpool was exactly the right size. In reality our
estimates of the layout were slightly out and this meant that on some
occasions there was over-crowding around the stations, especially during
highly anticipated match ups. This will be addressed for the next event
and the layout of stations will be changed to give players more space
whilst ensuring spectators have a clear view of the action.

Better Coverage
ECL
Liverpool was our first event and we accept that the coverage could
have been better for the people viewing at home. For future events,
there will be more, clearer access to full brackets, team lists and
everything tournament related, as well as more of the interviews and
content we were already producing at ECL Liverpool.

Admin and Refs
The
ECL team fully appreciate the efforts of the admin and referee staff at
ECL Liverpool but there are undoubtedly a few things that we can do to
help make their job easier and for them to perform more efficiently. We
will be providing game specific admin stations, with a bracket system on
display for everyone to see and in order to monitor the progress of the
tournament. We will also be issuing copies of the rules to every
station.

Station Sign-age
As per the community feedback, we will have freestanding signs denoting the number of each station to prevent any confusion.

Travel Guide
We
have put together an extensive travel guide that should help anyone
looking to attend the event. Click the following link to view the Travel
Guide:

The European Console League's Guide to Attending ECL2

If you have any other queries, please feel free to contact me at chris.marsh@ecl.eu or Josh Nino at loco@ecl.eu.

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