A little more than five years ago I was a nineteen year old boy. It was then that I started organizing my first DreamHack trip. I went to the event a year before and wanted to go again. Since going alone is a bit weird, I decided to set up some forum posts along the internet and found 15 others that were also interested to go with me to DreamHack. After jumping through a lot of hoops (to rent a bus you need to be 23 in the Netherlands, and you need a drivers license for at least one year) we were set. For about 320 euros per person we could go to DreamHack Winter 2007.

During that time I got an E-mail from an advertising company whom wanted to contact me through phone about the trip I was going to undertake. Of course I gave them my phone number and not an hour later my phone was ringing. A Belgian number, strange since the company was Dutch, but whatever, let’s pick up.

“Hi, this is Kurt. I’m the Marketing Manager for Intel Benelux/Scandic,”, the voice on the other side said. I was confused. “Intel? Like, the Intel that does processors and stuff?”, “Yes, those guys”. The conversation went on. Thoughts ran through my mind: why would Intel of all companies want to contact me? The phone call explained the reason. Intel was sponsoring DreamHack and wanted to do something with bringing gamers from the Benelux to Sweden. In their searches on the Internet, my forum popped up and now I was contacted.

A meeting was set and not a week later I was sitting at a table in some coffee shop. Kurt ordered us some drinks and we talked the whole thing through. Basically, Intel wanted to pay the whole trip if we (me and the other fifteen people) wanted to fill a blog about our experiences. We also would get matching vests, t-shirts, sleeping bags and a whole heap of other goodies. Naturally my answer was “Yes, please”.

The trip itself went on to be one of my greatest road trips I ever undertook. DreamHack was amazing and we all made some friends for life. And Intel was pleased with the results, as we did it again the next year, although with a little less people.

By the time we started organizing the third trip from the Netherlands, it became apparent we needed to change the concept a little bit. Stefan, with Duh-Events, came in and proposed to fix a full tour bus instead of a little bus. For 99 euros anyone could sign up for the trip to go with us. It became a direct hit.

We were on our way to DreamHack Winter 2009 with 72 people. It was so successful that we decided to add the Summer trips as well, although a little smaller. So nowadays I have two DreamHack editions a year to visit.

Now, after exactly five years it is almost time for the next one. The craziest one. This year we are going with a total of 150 people from the Benelux. More than twice as much as 2009. It is going to be my eighth DreamHack edition. Through the years I have had many good experiences. The feeling of organizing this whole deal together with Intel, Duh-Events and everyone else involved is just great. It gives me a good feeling when I take a step back during the event to see that I have helped 150 gamers to a joyful experience. That’s truly wonderful.

And then there is this country called Sweden, and their inhabitants, and all the visitors of DreamHack. I just love going there! The people, the crazy gamers that stay up all night and the pure magnitude of the event. It’s like going to a music festival, but instead of listening to some bands, we play games. All night long, for four days.

It’s a lot of work to organize this, to make sure everyone is happy. It takes me 250 hours of work, half of it during the event. And then there are other people that work on this with me, so there is enough work to be done. But every minute of it is worth it.

I’m Rob ‘Soepkip’ Schins, original tour operator for Intel Pack4DreamHack. I make this event possible with the help of Kurt, Joan, Stefan, Jeroen and many others that have helped me and the event through the years. Thanks everyone!

Be Social! Share with your friends!

•