When we started discussing this event with the caterers, we were hoping it would be all summery, so we were looking for something appropriate on the catering menu!

Despite the rain, we're going to do it anyway, so on Friday night, as a change from the usual burgers, you'll also have the opportunity to grab some chicken fajitas, with the usually trimmings (obviously the burgers will still be there if you want!).

To help the catering guys out, you'll need to pre-order with them any time from Thursday up until Friday afternoon and it will be on a first-come-first-served basis.

Please help us to speed up the check-in process and keep the queues down by doing the following:

• Ensure any voucher codes have been allocated to the correct participant
• Select your seat 
• Print your barcode booking pass (yes it's fine to bring it on a phone/tablet device etc.)
• If you are in the CSS or COD4 tournaments, ensure that your team has signed up in full to the tournament system by 8pm Thursday.

If you are planning on spectating the event, paying for a participant place on the door (if there are spaces remaining) or you have visitors coming to see you, please create a spectator booking on the system in advance, it's still fine to pay on the door, but will save time on the day.

Remember, the doors open at 4pm, if you arrive any earlier we'll have to ask you to wait outside or in the Railway Bar sleeping area.

On another note, please make sure you update your games before you attend to help us save bandwidth at the event.

See you in a few days! And don't forget to go through our handy checklist while you're packing to make sure you don't forget anything!

A very familiar face in the hardware market has joined the epic.NINE sponsorship lineup. Staffordshire-based Overclockers UK have just confirmed that they will be sponsoring the epic.NINE Counter-Strike Source Tournament!

So in addition to the cash prizes for the tournament, the winning team will take home 5x NZXT Switch 810 Gun Metal Cases, worth a total of £800 added to their winnings! They'll also have a few "LAN bags" to give away throughout the weekend for various other activities.

In addition, epic.NINE participants can get free shipping from Overclockers UK for 2 weeks beginning 19/7/12, simply use the code 'epic9' at the checkout!

Thanks to the Overclockers UK team!

It's taken a little while longer for the teams to emerge, but the team signups for the epic.NINE Counter-Strike: Source Tournament (sponsored by Overclockers UK) have now hit the 2nd prize trigger, guaranteeing a £1000 prize for the event.

With over 250 people now confirmed for epic.NINE, it's looking to be a great event for the competitive and casual communities.

Make sure you grab your seat now!

Great news! The fifth prize trigger for the epic.NINE Tt eSports Call of Duty 4 tournament has been reached giving the next guaranteed prize of a whopping £2000!

With 22 paid or part-paid teams for COD4 and still a few more interested, and confirmed QuadV coverage it looks like we'll be hosting one of the biggest UK COD4 tournaments of 2012 at epic.NINE!

What are you waiting for? Go and, get your ticket now!

Fresh from our own trip to the Silverstone mudbath, we just need to make you aware of a possible change to camping arrangements, nothing serious...don't worry!

The racecourse has been hit by quite a lot of rain recently, and thankfully we've had a few nice days in Staffordshire to dry things out, but certainly last week, the centre-course area that we use for camping was extremely wet.

We continue to monitor the situation with the venue and will make our final assessment on Thursday morning, but it may be necessary to move the camping location if the centre-course is still waterlogged. If that is the case, the camping area will move to the grass bank behind the Railway Bar (indoor sleeping hall, far end of the main car park).

We also need to remind you all not to drive across to the centre course area, please park on the main car park and carry your camping gear across the track to the camping area.

The seating plan for epic.NINE will be locked down at 6pm Monday 16th July.

From this point you won't be able to move seats, but if you buy a new ticket you will be able to pick your initial seat.

This is to allow us to "defrag" the seating plan where needed to finalise the event layout ready to start our setting up.

Please make sure you've allocated any vouchers and picked your seat before you arrive at the event.

You've read all about our fun and competitive tournaments so far, and just to make sure there's plenty to keep you busy throughout the epic.NINE LAN Party, here's our full timetable!

Obviously some things will always be subject to change, but it gives you an idea of some of the big games and activities we'll be running through the event.

Just because a game isn't listed, doesn't mean it won't be played either! These are just the big games we organise to get as many people as possible in each server, you can play whatever you want, whenever you want during the event, and if you want to get more players, you can either post on the forums, send a message to our big screen through the "Tweetwall" or ask a member of the epic.LAN team to put an announcement out for you.

Mere days, see you at epic.NINE!

Well after the last F1 2011 tournament with one of the highest numbers of signups of the whole event, it would be silly not to do it again!

So F1 2011 is back for epic.NINE as one of our fun tournaments. Let us know what tracks, rules you'd like us to run and we'll get everything ready for the LAN!

Tt eSports and Thermaltake have today confirmed their sponsorship of the epic.NINE Call of Duty 4 tournament.

As regular supporters of epic.LAN, we are very pleased to be welcoming these companies back as tournament sponsors, and they will be boosting the COD4 tournament prize with some of their excellent gaming hardware. So in addition to the cash prizes already available, the teams can also get their hands on:

• 1st Place - 5x Shock One Headsets
• 2nd Place - 5x Theron Mice
• 3rd Place - 5x Challenger Keyboards

There will also be a few other goodies, including 2x Level 10 GTS Cases being given away during the weekend!