Feature Story: DreamHack

RETURNS TO ATLANTA IN 2022!

DreamHack is a virtual reality gaming experience that brings the community to life. A gaming event only comparable to the Olympics. Commonly it is known as the biggest gaming festival in the world. The 24-hour-a-day festival weekends bring together all aspects of gaming in one location. Professional esports events, amateur, and varsity gaming tournaments, and the worldfamous bring-your-own-computer (BYOC) event are all available to attendees LAN parties, cosplay competitions, speaker panels, art, activities, expo, films, and live music. DreamHack has millions of viewers through their broadcast each year. DreamHack was created in 1994 by a couple of friends in an elementary school cafeteria in Malung, Sweden and quickly has become a worldwide phenomenon.

After a respite due to COVID19, DreamHack is returning and it is returning with a punch! A world tour beginning in 2022, which will span from Anaheim, Dallas, Jönköping, Valencia, Rotterdam, Hyderabad, making their debut in Australian debut in Melbourne as well having their very first festival in Madrid, Spain. DreamHack will also find itself back in the city of Atlanta November 18-20, 2022 at the Georgia World Congress Center. Marcus Lindmark, President DreamHack SVP Project and Event Operations at ESL Gaming, “DreamHack creates an arena where you can come to connect, explore, win, play a part, and be yourself through a gaming lifestyle experience — so to postpone Atlanta 2020 was not an easy decision. Gaming brought, and kept, us together over the last year and a half and it will continue to do so until we return.” This decision was made over the growing cases of COVID-19 in America and all over the world. Bas Bruinekool Vice President of Festivals at DreamHack in a press release said, “All of us at DreamHack stay committed to providing our fans and followers with great experiences, even if it needs to continue in an alternate format for now. We know this decision is heartbreaking, but these are extraordinary times all over the world. The safety and health of everyone involved in these events has never been more important to us than now.”

The Fighting Games Championship is set to commence at DreamHack Atlanta 2022. The last time DreamHack was in Atlanta the Fighting Games Championship was featured in November 2019 which

was attended by 35,000 people. With multiple tournaments throughout the run of the festival. The winner of that tournament ended up being Captain Faceroll with the runner-up being Mew2King in Super Smash Bro. Melee. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate the winner was Marss and the runner-up was SamSora. In the doubles tournament for Super Smash Bros. Melee the winners were, Ryan Ford and Mew2King, and the runnerup were n0ne and S2J for a prize of $1,000. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate the American duo Cosmos and Light won with Marss and ScAtt being the runner-up.

The DreamHack Open had eight teams participating playing for a $100,000 prize pool. Hosted by Richard Campbell with professional commentary provided by Tombizz (Tom Bissmire), Rizc (Niels Topp), BLU (John Mullen), and boq (Mark Wilson). The open was a double-elimination format (GSL) with each Group having four teams. Opening & Winners' matches are Bo1 with the Elimination & Decider matches being Bo3 with the top two teams from each group advance to the Playoffs. The playoffs were single elimination and were in Bo3. First place went to the Danish team Heroic, second place going to the German team Sprout, Croatian team CR4ZY took third place. Fourth place winner was Russian team Virtus. pro. Fifth place was Illuminar Gaming from Poland and sixth going to INTZ from Brazil. Seventh and eighth going to Triumph and Chaos Esports Club both from the U.S respectively. The prize pool was divided among the winners with $50,000 for the first, $20,000 for the second, $10,000 for the third and fourth with $3,000 for the fifth & sixth, and finally $2,000 for the seventh and eighth.

The official return date will be November 18th, 2022, and will last until the 20th. So strap down as there will be plenty of time for contestants to sharpen their skills in anticipation of this momentous of returns.