I was asked to come along with three of my classmates to work on audio and video projects on an event called DreamHack. When I asked them what DreamHack was, they told me it was one of the biggest Lanparties on the planet. I have been to Lanparties before where we played counter-strike 1.6 with seven to ten people. With this background I packed my bags and headed to Jönköping, Sweden.

Arriving in hall B of DreamHack was a once in a lifetime experience. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry to get every piece of equipment they brought hooked up to start playing. There were people dragging in 44 inch flat screen TV’s and lounge chairs. Amazed as I was with the sheer size of the hall and the amount of people gathered to play games, this was only the tip of an epic iceberg. After setting up some equipment, I walked over to Hall D, which was even bigger than hall B. A huge podium was built in the center of the hall. During the opening of the event every light in the hall went out and only screens were left on, an impressive sight. The promotion stands are awesome. You can play new games, watch games being played and look at what I presume is new gaming equipment. You can even shoot a virtual cannon, which I obviously did.

After a couple of hours being in this circus people call DreamHack, I noticed that a lot of people dressed very eccentric. People with huge Mohawks and I saw all imaginable colors of hair. I guess this is the Swedish version of carnival. During the night games go on, in the morning gamers sleep an hour or two on their keyboard… Talking about dedication.

I’ve been here for almost three full days now and besides the lack of sleep and the crappy pre-heated, pre-packed and cold food, this event is awesome in every sense of the word. Haven’t regret coming here one second. O, and the ladies aren’t too shabby either…

Tim

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