Every Saturday Until September: Sapphire Summer Games Is Open
Setimedia designed and operated the Sapphire Summer Games for Sapphire Technology: weekly Saturday LAN parties across Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara from June through August, with a finals tournament in September.
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The first Sapphire Summer Games LAN went until midnight at Adeks Internet Cafe in Istanbul on June 28, and the energy in the room made it clear nobody was in a hurry to leave.
Sapphire Technology, the leading brand in ATI-based graphics cards, came to Setimedia with a clear brief: build a summer event series that actually reflects how Turkish gamers spend the season. Not a one-day showcase. Not a press event. A real, recurring LAN culture moment. Setimedia designed and ran the full programme from the ground up.
Three cities. Weekly LAN parties every Saturday from June 28 through August 30. A final championship tournament running September 6 to 13, with the top three teams taking the biggest prizes. Istanbul at Adeks, Izmir at Hisarnet, Ankara at Chatlak. The new Sapphire Summer Games website went live the same day as the Istanbul kickoff, giving the community a place to follow standings and stay connected between Saturdays.
The format was deliberately built for reach, not just competition. Main tournament brackets ran alongside hardware mini-events and side activities, so players outside the competitive bracket had real reasons to show up. That decision matters. A LAN event that only serves the top 16 players in the room is a much smaller event than it needs to be.
A summer-long series with a consistent weekly rhythm is a different kind of challenge than a single production day. There's no big finale where everything resolves and everyone goes home. You're managing venues across three cities simultaneously, keeping the energy up week after week, and making sure the right moments land at the right time. Fourteen Saturdays still to go. Setimedia will be there for every one of them.
