Staff at Player1 Events, the UK-based organiser of Insomnia Gaming Festival, have been made redundant.
Several sources close to the situation have been in contact with Esports News UK to say that all staff have been let go today.
The company is owned by Supernova Capital, which bought Insomnia and Player1 Events from UK retailer GAME in 2021.
In August 2022, Neil Gaisford was announced as Player1 Events CEO, and we were told that Insomnia founder Craig ‘Wizzo’ Fletcher left in November 2023. Craig is now COO of Gameye, chairman of Futwiz and Pikawiz, and also focuses on investment and other work.
Supernova Capital has several subsidiaries and listings on Companies House. Group financial controller Nicole Avery and group CFO Christopher Sharp have both resigned from these, while co-founder and CEO Paul Wedgwood is the only director currently listed on the Supernova Events and Esports Limited listing on Companies House.
It’s not clear which direction management at Supernova will take in the future. We’ve reached out to several official Player1/Supernova channels for comment and will update this article if we hear back.
Community and former staff comment on Player1 Events redundancies, some contractors left unpaid
Former staff at Player1 Events have posted on social media about the news.
Phil Crawford, former marketing and brand manager, said: “I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the greatest people, partners and brands over the years and will look back at my time at P1E fondly.”
Unfortunately, after 6 years my time at Player1 Events has come to an end by way of redundancy. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/dQ3Eiii3ce
— PhrendlyPhil (@PhrendlyPhil) May 14, 2024
Tashnarr, former partnerships coordinator at the company, added:
— tashnarr/Natasha ➡️ R6 BLAST Manchester Major (@tashnarr) May 14, 2024Unfortunately my role at Player1 Events, working on Insomnia @IGFestUK and other events has been made redundant.
I loved working on making amazing experiences for all attendees and I'm very sorry to go!
Rachel Dickinson, former events coordinator, said:
— Rach (@RachelDickinso4) May 14, 2024My turn next I guess.
Sadly today was my last day with Player1 Events as I've been made redundant.
This job was my big life goal when I decided to go into events and I cannot thank the people that gave me a chance enough.
I loved my team 💙 pic.twitter.com/1P6QqEUBLf
Jesse Raen, who worked at Insomnia for several years in the past, said in this thread:
— Jesse Raen (@JesseRaen) May 14, 2024My heart goes out to everyone at Player1 today.
It was always characterised by a group of incredibly committed people working under impossible conditions to make miracles happen, and time and again the business let those people down. They deserved better than this.
“That work took so much from so many people but it always felt worth it to be building something that brought people together (staff, volunteers and attendees). At every turn that work was undercut by clueless, uncaring decision makers.
“I’m sad to see this happen to good people who stayed committed to it, and I’m furious at the people who shepherded it to this point.
“Everyone involved deserves better, and I hope you all land on your feet somewhere that values you.
Others who worked with Insomnia in the past, including Nik ‘Lustriga’ Topham and Charlie Tizard, said:
I want to echo this sentiment.
— Nik 👾 (@Lustriga) May 14, 2024
Multiplay/Player1Events was a great bunch of people always fighting an uphill battle. https://t.co/OrjESeJtHW
Esports News UK also understands that several freelance staff/contractors for the recent Insomnia 72 event have not been paid, including Nathy B and others who wished to remain anonymous.
— 🏴Nathy B 🇰🇳 (@DJNathyB) May 8, 2024It’s been 2 weeks @IGFestUK
The founder of UK esports organisation Into the Breach, Sam Cook, also said he’s owed money from an esports tournament:
— Sam (@SlayTheMinotaur) May 14, 2024Already paid deposits for our booths and @TheGooseHouse owed 10k for tournament win – shall be interesting to see if we get anything back.
Real rough situation, man. Insomnia was the event of the year for UK gamers. @EPICLAN now the last one standing? https://t.co/cjeUBEhDot
And Josh Strife Hayes said ‘many performers, including myself and the Session Zero team, have still not been paid for the last Insomnia’.
— Josh Strife Hayes (@JoshStrifeHayes) May 14, 2024Insomnia Gaming Festival is one of the best UK gaming events.
To see the brilliant staff, my friends, be unexlectedly let go is concerning.
Many performers, including myself and the @SessionZeroSZ team, have still not been paid for the last one.
The news comes after other Insomnia esports staff at Player1 Events were let go in October 2023 – Matt ‘Kharne‘ Macdonald and Michael ‘Geosnipe‘ Lambert.
The remaining esports coordinator, Deanish, was also let go today, as was event project manager Simon Dowdall and many others.
Thanks for all the kind messages about my redundancy. I loved working with the people at Player1, the contractors and all volunteers we had with us. Hopefully I keep in touch with you all. I'll be esportsing again very soon, I have no doubt!
— Deanish (@Deaniish) May 14, 2024
Player1 Events former Head of Sales and Content,Chris Duggan, said:
Thoughts on the week pic.twitter.com/4CATiwa4g5
— Christopher Duggan (@McDuggan33) May 17, 2024
What will happen to Insomnia Gaming Festival given the redundancies at Player1 Events?
It’s not clear what the future holds for Insomnia Gaming Festival. A public announcement from Player1/Supernova is expected later this week.
RuneFest 2024 and a SuperDome esports event are scheduled to take place in Birmingham this September, alongside Insomnia 73.
RuneFest has since posted an update saying the sale of RuneFest tickets has been postponed ‘due to unforeseen circ*mstances’ and that organisers are ‘working to explore every opportunity possible’.
Due to unforeseen circ*mstances we are postponing the sale of RuneFest tickets tomorrow (Wednesday, May 15th). We understand this is disappointing, and we'd like to apologise for the inconvenience. We'll update you as soon as we have more information to share with you.
— RuneFest (@RuneFest) May 14, 2024
We’ve just emailed ticketholders to share a brief update on RuneFest. You can read that same notice here. We’ll update you as and when we have more news to share. Thank you for your patience. pic.twitter.com/zBe05a6K5R
— RuneFest (@RuneFest) May 23, 2024
EssentialsTF, organisers of the TF2 LANs at Insomnia, has published a statement following the news.
“Despite this latest news we have been planning on suspending TF2 events at Insomnia for the near future,” they said. “This is so we could explore options more suitable for the changing attitudes and approaches to LAN we have seen post-COVID and have been making progress on these ideas.
“It is likely that we will be looking at our next major LAN sometime in 2025.”
— EssentialsTF (@TF2Essentials) May 19, 2024Given the future of Insomnia Gaming Festival is unclear, we've have been looking to hold TF2 events elsewhere. While our plans move to 2025, we're hopeful about the future and focused on creating something sustainable.
Read more in our statement:https://t.co/Dtue3kaIhu
Following the news of the redundancies, two former Insomnia managers have set up their own LANcraft Events venture. And emails sent to content creators have confirmed Player1 Events is no more, plus an unofficial community Discord has been set up.
Content creator Ash Valmont has also messaged Supernova CEO Paul Wedgwood to offer to buy Insomnia and pay everyone what they’re owed:
Right, @PaulWedgwood, I will buy @IGFestUK for 1p and take on all of it’s debts. I will ensure every creator from i72 is paid and work with the actual team who did all of the work on insomnia to make it amazing again. I’ll also ensure they’re paid fairly. DM me.
— Ash Valmont (@AshValmont) May 22, 2024
It was previously announced that Insomnia 73 would take place at the Birmingham NEC once again from September 4th to 8th 2024, with the LAN running on those dates and the festival/expo from September 6th to 8th.
Given today’s news, it’s not clear what will happen regarding Insomnia and these additional events.
However, this internal message sent to volunteers at Insomnia doesn’t bode well.
Lewis Collins, a consultant for Player1 Events, said:
Tridd, partner marketing manager at Fnatic, also commented:
— Tom (@_Tridd) May 14, 2024Insomnia was a right of passage for the UK esports industry, and it would be terrible loss to see it disappear.
Can't help but feel what we all enjoyed was the esports and the BYOC, but that was never profitable at the scale they operated at.
At least from the outside anyway
This is a developing situation. We’ll aim to update it with more comments and information as they become available.
The Player1 Events redundancies are the latest in a line of layoffs and consolidation in the games and esports industries, dubbed by some ‘the esports winter’.
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Dom Sacco
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
