WiFi Wars
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 Steve Rob WiFiWars.png | |
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| ISIN | 🆔 |
|---|---|
| Founded 📆 | Became active: 2015 Incorporated: 3 July 2015 |
| Founders 👔 |
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| Headquarters 🏙️ | London, United Kingdom |
Area served 🗺️ | |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | wifiwars |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
WiFi Wars is a British live, interactive comedy gameshow where you are encouraged to log in with your smartphone or tablet device and compete in a range of games, quizzes and challenges to win the show, along with prizes. The show is hosted and created by comedian Steve McNeil and the show's technical director, "King" Rob Sedgebeer.
Background: 2015-present[edit]
WiFi Wars first came to life as McNeil & Pamphilon’s live show, McNeil & Pamphilon Go 8-Bit! during the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013. It was during that show where Steve met Rob, who loaned an early version of what would become the show's regularly used technology. Rob's technology was also used in Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit, which was created by Steve and his comedy double-act partner, Sam Pamphilon, both of whom were team captains on the show.
In 2016, during a performance at the Royal Institution, the show broke the Guinness World Record for the "Most Amount of People Playing a Single Game of Pong" with 286 playing, breaking the previous held record of 251.[1]
Late 2019 saw Steve & Rob partner with Captain Morgan for a series of WiFi Wars shows with a Captain Morgan twist. These shows were branded as "The Multi-Multiplayer Games Game” and were trial broadcast to selected pubs across the UK.[2]
However, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the shows were then broadcast online fortnightly in September-October 2020 on YouTube, hosted by Steve while Rob worked the tech and renamed as "Who's The Captain Now?". Players were able to watch and play along from their homes, while Steve & Rob broadcast the shows live from the ESL Studios in Leicester.
The first show featured players logging into the show in teams for their selected region (e.g. The North, The South, Midlands, Scotland and Wales), the second and third shows featured guests as team captains, including The Inbetweeners' star James Buckley as teams battled it out head-to-head on several games and quizzes using WiFi Wars' tech. The first place winner of each show won a golden bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, while second and third place each received a Captain Morgan branded tankard[3]
May 2020 saw Steve & Rob running the tech behind Mark Watson's 24-hour "Watsonathon",[4] broadcast live on Twitch. While Rob worked behind the scenes including helping dial-in guests, Steve was essentially a co-host, occasionally popping in by letting Mark know who and/or what was coming up next in the show. A second Twitch-based "Watsonathon" happened on October 30, 2020, with only Rob running the show [5]
Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (2015/2019/2021/2022)[edit]
Along with their regular residency at London's Royal Institution, Steve & Rob have been invited to be a part of their annual Christmas Lectures thrice in 2015, 2019 and 2021.
2015's segment sees Steve & Rob demonstrating a virtual reality experience involving a member of the audience holding a tray of glasses, while being guided by Steve & Rob to complete the course without dropping the tray.
2019's segment saw Steve & Rob demonstrating an AAI Simulator, similar to their game Boom, where the player must navigate their way through a maze. A demo of this is still available on WiFi Wars' website.[6]
2021's segment involved Steve & Rob demonstrating how quickly a virus can spread from person to person by using members of the audience, which is represented by different colours.
2022 saw Steve & Rob make their fourth appearance at the Christmas Lectures. This time around, Rob had created a “Super Recogniser” which could recognise faces of potential subjects in a forensic lineup.
Royal Institution residency & online shows[edit]
WiFi Wars occasionally tours around the UK, but tends to have live shows at the Royal Institution in London, where they have their residency, and weekly online shows on the streaming platform, Twitch.[7]
Steve & Rob started streaming WiFi Wars online in late 2017 on Twitch, along with YouTube and the now defunct streaming platform Mixer, weekly alongside the TV premiere of the second and third series of Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit to try and draw in a larger audience. Some shows were streamed live from the Royal Institution with a guest, while the audience at home watching could play along with classic WiFi Wars games and quizzes, usually themed around the games and guests featured in the TV show that week.
The shows used to have overlays on-screen which displayed Steve & Rob, along with the stream chat and the show. Nowadays, we see the duo live from a virtual studio (created by Rob) which features flashing lights (blue or red) for the winning team in each round of games/quizzes. Variations of the virtual studio exist for different WiFi Wars shows, while an entirely different one exists only for the Patreon streams.
Currently, Steve & Rob host a weekly half-hour WiFi Wars show on Twitch most Tuesday evenings on Twitch at 7:30pm (United Kingdom time).
Fans can support the show via Twitch with bits and subscriptions, or on Patreon[8] where Steve & Rob do a monthly hour-long show featuring a brand-new game.
Charity Streams[edit]
On 31 December 2020, Steve & Rob hosted a New Year's Eve edition of WiFi Wars called "#FU2020"[9] to welcome in the new year with a variety of guests from comedy and gaming - in support of the Miscarriage Association and Alzhemier's Society, two charities which are very close to Steve & Rob's hearts and Deaf Rainbow UK, a charity whose BSL sign interpreters were seen throughout the show. The final amount raised was £3,225.33 (including gift aid).[10]
On 30 May 2022, Steve & Rob hosted a special edition of WiFi Wars named WiFi War Child in aid of War Child UK, raising funds for the ongoing war in Ukraine. The show included guests such as James Acaster, Scroobius Pip, Stuart Ashen (Ashens) and Mark Watson which lasted four hours and raised £4,479.31.[11]
WiFi Wars: Shows[edit]
- WiFi Wars (2015-present): The live, interactive, comedy gameshow where you play along! Log in with your smartphone or tablet and compete in a range of games, quizzes and challenges to win the show, and prizes!
- The Video Game Game Show Show (2018-2021, currently on hiatus: Steve goes head-to-head with a guest on several games such as Mario Kart, Sonic, Overcooked and Rocket League. The audience gets to vote on who they think will win each round, and some WiFi Wars games are thrown in for good measure. Steve 'jokes' that VGGSS is just like Go 8 Bit, "only if he (and Sam) hadn't given up the rights to get it made for TV".
- Quiz Night (2020-2021, currently on hiatus): Viewers can join in with the show by creating their own team with friends, or playing solo. (formally Pub Quiz)
- Game Over Board (2020-present, currently on hiatus): Steve originally played digital board games with guests, such as Risk, Carcassonne and Monopoly. GOB now consists of him playing a co-op campaign with Ashens & BoardgameYogi.
- Co-operagequit (2021-present, currently on hiatus): Steve playing co-op games, preferably Fortnite with longtime chum, Chris Slight.
- Word Out Wars (2022): Originally known as Wordle Wars, Word Out Wars is WiFi Wars' version of Wordle, the word guessing game. In Steve & Rob's version, players get 20 attempts at solving a 5, 6 or 9-letter word during a round which can last from either 60 seconds, 90 seconds or two minutes. The game also has a catchphrase (which Steve says won't catch on) from Rob of "Let's Get the Word Out!" However, Steve calls the 9-letter round "Super Mega Ultra Word Plus".
WOW also introduced us to a number version called Numble (or Numble Out), it's slightly controversial with the community for how mean it can be with answers. A harder version uses BODMAS, which throws multiplication and division into the mix. Halfway through a round, Steve might tease Rob into giving a clue for the word or number.
- YogOff! (2022): Steve co-hosts an interactive, monthly gameshow with Alex Lolies (aka BoardgameYogi) featuring members of The Yogscast playing along as guests. Rob's WiFi Wars tech is used for the interactive elements of the show.
WiFi Wars: Games[edit]
As of June 5 2022, the most games (excluding quizzes) played during a WiFi Wars show or livestream currently stands at 21.
- 2048
- Alien Blast
- Arkanoid
- Asteroids
- Boom
- Bottle Drop
- Bubble Blast
- Circle Path
- Commando
- Cowboy Shootout
- Crush My Jewels
- Dara's Buttery Spuds (originally created for Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit)
- Deck Heads (previously known as Play Your Cards Right)
- Defender
- Drag N Match
- Eliminate
- Enduro
- Enigma
- Flappy Birds
- Frogger
- Galaxian
- Memory Match
- Missile Command
- Ms. Pac-Man
- Number Out (aka Numble, Numble Plus)
- One Jump
- Out Run
- Pac-Man
- Pass the Bomb
- Penalty Shootout
- Pong
- Puzzle Slide
- Quiz Night
- Race Chase
- Robotron
- Ski HD
- Snake
- Space Invaders
- Space Quest
- Track and Field
- Tempest
- Tetris
- Tower Topper
- Whack-a-Mole
- Wood Block Chop
- Word Out (aka Word Out Plus)
- Worthless (previously known as Pointless)
External Links[edit]
- Official website
- WiFi Wars on Twitch.tv
- WiFi Wars on TwitterLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 23: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- WiFi Wars on YouTube
- WiFi Wars on Patreon
- WiFi Wars Technologies - Corporate Shows
References[edit]
- ↑ "WiFi Wars - Official Website". Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ↑ "Steve McNeil - Production/Consultancy".
- ↑ "Who's the Captain Now?". Retrieved 2022-09-12.
- ↑ "Watsonathon #1 - (WatsonComedy) Twitch". Retrieved 2022-07-23.
- ↑ "Watsonathon #2 - (WatsonComedy) Twitch". Retrieved 2022-09-12.
- ↑ "WiFi Wars - AAI Simulator (from the 2019 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures)". Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ↑ "WiFi Wars - Twitch". Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ↑ "WiFi Wars - Patreon". Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ↑ "WiFi Wars - #FU2020 on Twitch". Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ↑ "WiFi Wars New Year Comedy Spectacluar". Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ↑ "WiFi War Child (Tiltify)". Retrieved 2022-05-30.
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