Gemma Atkinson will be on our panel of judges and extra points are awarded for style, showmanship, band name and so on.

There are only 16 team spaces so if you’re interested make sure you read all about it and get registered.

This coming weekend we’ll be at the Coventry West Orchards Shopping Centre, on both the 26th and 27th of July. There’ll be some free-play games machines there for you to get into the M Festival mood! Bring your friends along, give us five minutes to tell them about the event and have them chomping at the bit to come!

The weekend after (which is August 2nd-3rd) we’ll be at the Bullring in Birmingham with the World Cyber Games. You can qualify for PGR4 (2 slots, fastest lap time each day), FIFA 08 (2 slots, winner of a tournament each day), Need For Speed: ProStreet (2 slots, fastest lap time each day) and Guitar Hero 3 (2 slots, highest score from each day).

PGR4, NFS: ProStreet and Guitar Hero 3 will run all day but if you would like to play in the FIFA 08 tournament then you need to have registered by 1pm and be ready to play in the tournament from 1pm to 2:30pm.

There will be free-play machines at Birmingham too so if you don’t fancy competing then you can just play for fun! Once again bring along friends and we’ll entice them to come to the M Festival. Muahahahahhaha.

Gemma’s first acting role playing Lisa Hunter on Hollyoaks placed her in the public eye and she has been firmly there ever since. She was a popular character in Hollyoaks, playing Lisa for five years and proving her credentials as an actress covering topics of self-harm and bereavement. Due to her characters popularity Gemma continued with late night Hollyoaks show, Hollyoaks: in the City.

Gemma also has a part in Brit-Flick ‘Boogie Woogie’ out in August, her 2009 calendar is out in September and she’ll be playing ‘Peter Pan’ at the Royal Manchester Opera House in December.

Gemma is also an avid gamer in her spare time and is thrilled to be opening such an important milestone for the European gaming scene.

We’ve had a quick note from Paul at Quiet PC to let us know what to expect from them this event:

We’re bringing along 3D Gaming - play games like, Need for Speed, CoD4 and Guitar Hero III in glorious 3D. If you have never played games in 3D before you will want to see this!!

We’re also showcasing Zalman’s latest products, 24″ Widescreen 3D monitor, GS1000 Gaming Case, LQ1000 Hybrid Watercooling Solution, CNPS9900-LED CPU Cooler, FPS Gun and new Zalman PSUs!

We will also have available for purchase a range of Zalman’s most popular products at discounted rates.

If you missed the 3D monitor at our i33 even earlier this year, be sure to check it out this time round - you won’t believe your eyes!

In addition, the following maps are going to be used in the CoD4 Tournament at i34.

mp_backlot
mp_crash
mp_crossfire
mp_vacant*
mp_citystreets
mp_strike

* We do know that vacant was voted out of some LANs this summer, however due to the nature of of i34 and the range of teams vacant will be used, however only in the group stages. We believe this is a suitable and fair solution for all involved.

If you have not yet signed up to the i34 CoD4 tournament yet, you can do so via this signup link. Please note for a team to be accepted it must have at least 5 paid up attendees of i34 signed up to it.

There has been a modification to the Overtime rules - A knife round decider will now take place if there is no decisive champion after THREE overtimes, extended from two advertised in the rules previously. Please make sure all members of your team are aware of this change. The reason for a deciding knife round after three overtimes is to prevent the stage finals from overrunning, and to maintain a single set of rules between the qualifiers, i34 matches and final.

Air Soft

Each Air Soft game has up to 16 players (8 per team) competing in a variety of different game styles.

Individual tickets are available for £12 per person which is good for an hour and a half session, at a time specified by you. Clan tickets are available for £80 which is a whole team of eight people (this works out at only £10 per person - a bargain!).

Sessions are available from 10:30am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Paintball

There are only forty spaces available for paintball. A half-day session beginning at 1:30pm on Friday and ending at 4:30pm costs £40 per person. This includes 500 pellets and transportation to the paintball area (Stoneleigh Park is a big place!).

Booking

To book either of these activities simply go to the additional services page and add them to your booking. Please note that your service is not confirmed until you have paid for it.

It’s possible we can get prizes for some of these competitions, so stay tuned for updates in the coming weeks.

Confirmed tournaments

Team Fortress 2 - 6v6
Unreal Tournament 3 - 1v1
World in Conflict - 4v4
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance - 2v2
Company of Heroes - 2v2
Quake 3 Arena - 1v1
Audiosurf

We’ll be opening signups and posting rules next week so check back for more info.

For those not “in the know”, the elite zone will offer four teams (two CoD4 and two CS:Source) a chance to get to i34 in style. We’ll provide top of the range Packard Bell iPower gaming PCs each day for them to play in the tournaments and to use in-between their matches to enjoy the LAN.

Only the best of the best deserve that kind of treatment!

New team registrations are also extended and players have until Friday 4th July to register full teams of five. Any teams of less than five will not be included in the tournament.

Matches will then begin Monday 7th July.