British event organiser epic.LAN has extended its partnership with hardware retailer Overclockers UK to as remain the headline sponsor for its 2021 events.
The partnership will focus on content and live shows featuring members of the Overclock UK team during the online epic.WAN events. Once it is deemed safe to hold live events, Overclock UK will return to having a physical presence at the LAN hall.
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The partnership also brings the return of gaming chair brand noblechairs as the official chair partner for epic.LAN.
Overclockers UK became the main sponsor for epic.LAN’s epic29 event in February 2020, however, the event pivoted to an online format due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, the transition to epic.WAN failed to deter the partnership as it continues into 2021 ‘regardless of whether the events are online or offline’, according to the press release.
Jon Winkle, epic.LAN Managing Director, commented: “2020 certainly did not go as planned, but by working with our partners at Overclockers UK we adapted our events and continued to provide some much-needed social gaming and dedicated content.
“As my local retailer and as an Overclockers UK customer for around 20 years, I am really excited to be continuing to work together in 2021, whatever gaming events look like for the foreseeable future.”
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Andy Welsh, Overclockers UK’s Events & Partnerships Manager, added: “Whilst events may look different right now, community is still at our core, and we couldn’t be happier to support epic.LAN during these times. We’re all still waiting until we can hang out together (and throw bags and bags of Haribo at you) – so until that time, we’ll be joining in the fun online & hopefully bringing some goodies too!”
One of the partnership’s main aims is to keep people gaming together in a social environment during a time when many people have struggled in isolation. Then, in the end, bring people back together face-to-face to celebrate at a time when it is safe to do so.
The next event is planned to take place online from February 25th-28th with a core esports line-up of VALORANT, CS:GO, Rainbow Six Siege, and Starcraft 2.
Esports Insider says: This is a fun story and one that has become more commonplace. We keep hearing from brands how partnerships grew stronger during the challenging pandemic. Overclock UK signed up for one event in 2020, but the unexpected only helped to deepen the relationship with epic.LAN.