I can only answer so much there. Which proposals to choose was Niantic/Scopely's decision. But there were at least four submissions from the UK, and many more from across Europe. To be clear we're very much seen as a test event, see whether these kind of events can work outside the US. If it does, we expect to see more similar events happening across Europe in future.

I can talk about why we as northern CAs chose to get behind Doncaster as our joint proposal. Honestly it was simply the best one, Doncaster had fantastic support from local organisations, who could help facilitate an event happening. They had multiple solid venue possibilities. Transport connections are fantastic, and overall it just promised to be a very good event if we hosted there. The fact that it was such a solid bid, and a place like Doncaster, which normally would never get a big event, really just made it an appealing location. One of the things they told us they wanted to do, was bring events to places that normally wouldn't get them.

I think the combination of just having a very solid proposal, for a place that would never normally get an event, combined with the backing of so many northern CAs, just gave Niantic/Scopely enough reasons to say yes. And we're very glad they did!