This evening we saw the official Welcome Part of the Multiplay i31 Event! As ever the atmosphere at the event was great, with only stage lighting and special effects lights letting you see, as Paul Chaloner, ReDeYe, from quadV introduced the event. Like previous years the show started with the crown hearing the World Cyber Games theme tune pumped into the marquee, along with a video showing everything from highlights from in-game matches, players playing to commentators covering, after which ReDeye started the show.

Craig "wizzo" Fletcher, CEO of Multiplay, introduced 6 people to the stage who all represented one of the exhibitors here at i31, the 6 representing THQ, title sponsors of this event's Finals Arena, Asis. running the WGT competitions at this event, Scan, Intel, and Packard Bell.

We learnt that Intel and Scan want to impress you, Asus want to give away as much free stuff as they can, and that, in general, if you find yourself in the Ehibitioners area of i31, it could take a while to get yourself out!

After a short introduction of the events coming up over the weekend in the Finals Arena (such as a special THQ demonstration, and a showcase match between Dignitas' new ET:Quake Wars team and a team of developers who are making ET:QW...), we went into what is now a traditional past-time of Wizzo's at any I-Series events - chucking out the sponsors blow-up toys!!

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A video of the show should be appearing on the multiplay site soon, until then you can check out the i31 homepage here!