No Outpost on Fire this summer - No more OOF

That’s right, this sad news is the opener for this article and unfortunately the likelihood that this is true is quite high. No more sweating away in the midst of summer in a hot, steamy basement below Outpost Antwerp. Sadly, this is the situation we are in right now and it doesn’t look like that is going to change.

The reason behind this is quite simple and already known by some within the community: we want to go for another Antwerp eSports Festival concept – albeit a little bit altered and tweaked to the current economical climate. The previous Antwerp eSports Festival was quite sponsor dependant and thus high risk, though at the time we were able to cope due to the increased commitment of some high tier sponsors. That had to change a little bit so the prize money has taken a small bite, though we are still aiming to provide you with an extremely healthy prize purse for both Call of Duty 4 and Counter-Strike Source, working with a similar trigger system as CIC7. Ranging from the guaranteed minimum of €4,000 this could easily go up to €10,000 per game or possibly even more if we can get some extra sponsors behind it. The minimum amount of teams I can see Call of Duty 4 getting for instance is 32 which by our calculations would yield them at minimum an €8,000 prize purse. Besides doing a Call of Duty 4 event and a Counter-Strike Source event, we are also looking into doing more games this time around, with the possible additions of Enemy Territory (upon community request) and Quake Live.

Still set in the very heart of Antwerp, we will move to another location however as the Hilton hotel was no longer an option. We have found what we think is a unique and exciting location with the best possible options available to us as event organizers. It comes at a price but one we are willing to pay for what we can offer in return. The new event location will be Stuurboord, a renovated old harbour hangar that has been converted to a multifunctional event room with a stunning bar as the centrepiece and a wonderful view over the city of Antwerp and the river flowing through it, the Schelde. Access to this venue is even easier then reaching Outpost or the Hilton and the centre of Antwerp is within walking distance. You will be all set to stay in a hotel nearby and not only enjoy the gaming event itself but the famous Antwerp shopping street “De Meir”, the numerous bars and world class clubs Antwerp has to offer or take a visit to the Zoo, diamond district or historical city centre.



The new location also gives us some options to play around with as event organizers and we will try to guarantee the best possible experience for gamers attending as we separate them from the noise with soundproof walls between the spectator/sponsor booth area and the competition area yet offer those gamers who have nothing to do a chance to watch all the games on a big screen with live commentary.  For those of you who cannot make it, livestreaming and high quality coverage will be a big priority for us throughout the event.

With the recent buzz flowing within the community I couldn’t hold my breath any longer and had to tease you all a little bit with the next event we have been working so hard on to make reality. I’m extremely excited about what we have planned and I’m confident that we can continue to improve our events to become even more successful and smoothly run. For this it is needless to say we have already started our talks with the lovely people behind Vita Nova to guarantee their full support for this event.

As most people expect from our Gamevibes events, the last weekend of July is when all the action is set to take place with the event being scheduled in for the 30th and 31st of July and the 1st of August as well. So mark your calendars  boys and girls, it’s party time in Antwerp this summer!