About time we started talking about something else, because we’ve only talked about Intel Pack4DreamHack so far. Which is logical, by the way. Duh-Events organizes some other events as well. We’re not only responsible for the Dutch Barcraft events. No, we also organize the biggest gaming vacation in the world. A lot of Swedish people, some Belgian packers and even a Dutch packer or two asked us about CampZone during DreamHack Winter 2011, so let’s talk CampZone!

For me personally, CampZone is one of these things I’m looking forward to all year long. It’s basically a town that lives a little less than two weeks a year; a lot of people know each other and everyone is constantly doing fun stuff. Diving into our swimming pool, barbecuing with each other, sitting around the camp fire drinking a beer or two (or twelve) or attending one of the organized activities. The most common thing to do together is playing a nice multiplayer match. CampZone is a gaming vacation first and a lanparty second. From all types of tents people will connect their PC’s, gaming consoles or laptops to a kick-ass network to communicate digitally as well, and it’s exactly the thing that makes CampZone a different experience than a random summer camp. It’s listed as a gaming vacationbecause games are being played, but because most visitors do other cool things than playing games, it’s actually a vacation for people with a gaming interest. I sure hope you get what I mean by that.

So, let me tell you a bit about CampZone 11. At the opening at midnight, a lot of people entered the terrain after waiting the whole day. Luckily most CampZone visitors are used to being awake at night, because most of them had to build up their tents. I was watching from the table rental place, where people can get their hired tables by giving me a table coupon. It’s a fun job to do during the opening, because you get to see a lot of happy people, excited because their vacation just started. During the event everyone had a lot of fun, especially during the outside happy hardcore party on the first day and the foam party inside the Maintent on the last Saturday. The campfire nights were also a lot of fun. It’s fun to see a lot of people you know drunk, although a lot of people saw me as well. O well, let them have their laughs, I don’t care.

But to talk some more about the gaming part; their are a lot of competitions and activities organized as well. StarCraft II, Team Fortress 2, League of Legends, TrackMania, Call of Duty… there are enough games being played as a competition, but keep in mind that it’s organized for fun. You can win magnificent prizes with them, but we’re not trying to make it a competitive event like DreamHack partly is. Pro gamers attend the event most of the time as a “Beat Pro gamer X in Game X and win prizes”-activity, organized in our Maintent. The Maintent is a place with game consoles, a table football game, a pool table and a podium. Activities organized here are mostly console game competitions like FIFA and Guitar Hero, as well as our Bingo Night, which is our most popular activity actually. Outside activities that are being organized are things like stacking crates, live Cluedo and the popular soap soccer matches.

I could talk all day about CampZone, but you won’t really know what it is until you pay the event a visit yourself. CampZone 12 will be held in Oirschot from 27 July till 6 August 2012. Please check www.campzone.nl for more information. You can also comment below if you have a question.

Jeroen den Hartog

Be Social! Share with your friends!

•