By: Favour Bamijoko

The conveners of Comic Con Ibadan held a press conference on Saturday, 31st May, 2025. The event took place at the SRC Chambers, Kunle Adepeju Building, focusing on the plans and build-up to the third edition of the Comic con Ibadan scheduled to hold at Trenchard Hall.

Themed “Synergy 2025”, this year’s comic con event features a partnership between Comic Con Ibadan, Nexal Gaming Company and the UI Ibadan Student Union (Clutch Engy tournament, featuring an esports, the electronic parallel to the SEALS cup).

According to the organisers, the idea behind this year’s theme and overall event is to show how comics, animation, and culture can be combined with games. In his own words, Adedayo said that “it is a collaboration of games, comics, animations and a whole lot of things. This edition, our focus is to blend games with a whole lot of things.”

Addressing journalists present at the conference were Adedayo ERIVIC, founder Comic Con Ibadan, Williams Owoeye, Lead, Comic Con Media & Publicity, Rofik Fehintola, representative, Nexal Gaming Company and the Sports Secretary, UI SU, VK.

According to the sports secretary of the Union, the esports is the electronic version of ongoing the SEALS Cup. This electronic sport will feature five game titles; efootball, Call of Duty, Echess (Lichess), EAFC (a console-based game), and Free Fire. While the consoles needed for the EAFC will be provided by the organisers, the participants are to come with their internet-connected mobiles for the other games. He further added that the electronic game aspect is open to UItes who register to be participants.

To register, students can register, individually, by reaching out to their departmental sports secretary or by scanning the code on any of the many flyers of the event pasted around the school. Divided into two parts, qualifiers and the finale, the qualifiers will be held between June 10 – 11, 2025 while the finale will happen on the 14th of the same month, with a total cash prize of 750 thousand Naira up for the individual winners.

Explaining the structure of the esports contest, they noted that there is no limit to the number of students that can register per faculty. Participants from each department will take on each other, until finalists for each category per faculty are selected ahead of the final.

According to the founder, Erivic, apart from being a creative event, Comic Con Ibadan also seeks to be an exporter of “the Oyo State cultural heritage.” The event will feature competitions, takentr exhibitions, such as spoken words, singing amongst others. Towards making the event a remarkable experience for attendees, the team explained that they will modify the venue for this year’s edition – Trenchard Hall – to suit their taste and demands of the event.

With regards to accessibility for students, they explained that while the ticket fee to gain entrance to the event costs #1,500. However, provisions have been made for specifically students of the University to gain free entrance into the venue. SOme of the available provisions include interacting with partners of the event, registering as a participant in the qualifiers, registering during the rally (June 7), and using the coupon code provided for the students community.

Addressing the fear of overcrowding, Williams Owoeye and ERIVIC said that the proposed venue is one with multiple exits, and there will equally be protocols to usher people’s movements all through the event.

Present at the event will be media houses and some of NIGERIA’S “biggest comic authors and publishers.” They also pointed out that there are provisions for gifts, cash prizes as well as a three-month residency opportunity, provided by UX Animations, to two students to learn more about animation. This year’s event, according to the organizers, is to serve as a launchpad for African creatives as it is focused on spotlighting indigenous talent and on providing opportunities for them.

Speaking in relation to future editions, ERIVIC stated that “in 2 years, they have done so much,” and that for other editions, the team “will push bigger for subsequent events. He added that future events promise to be bigger, featuring notable people and agencies in the comic industry from all over the globe.

This year’s event will feature partnerships with several Oyo State Government agencies such as the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism and Oyo State agency for Youth and Development.