Having previously taken place in destinations such as Anaheim, Valencia, Rotterdam, and Atlanta, e-sports festival DreamHack had its inaugural debut in the Southern Hemisphere recently.
For the event, Australia’s Melbourne & Olympic Parks saw 21,000 delegates attend the three days of DreamHack’s gaming experiences and exhibition.
Spread across Melbourne and Olympic Parks’ Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena, and CENTREPIECE venues, the precinct held DreamHack’s famous LAN party as well as e-sports matches, cosplay competitions, live music, gaming screenings, alongside the expo.
The DreamHack tournament saw CENTREPIECE (part of Melbourne & Olympic Parks) host its first public ticketed event, wherein the events and conference spaces were turned into an exhibition hall. The exhibition showcased more 20 booths featuring new technology and gaming products, and food and beverages.
Technology
Despite the exhibition’s size, DreamHack had previously achieved a world record for the fastest internet speed at the 2018 Jönköping event in Sweden. To meet the gaming event’s technology requirements, Melbourne & Olympic Parks established a network infrastructure to support thousands of computers.
The gaming event incorporated virtual elements, primarily through a livestream. According to organisers, over 116,000 remote attendees tuned in to watch Brazilian teams Imperial and Entropic in the first semi-final of the tournament.
Meanwhile, social media posts for the tournament generated more than 16 million impressions.
International interest
DreamHack attracted both local and international attendees, as demonstrated by the range of the eight teams taking part in the ‘ESL Challenger Melbourne Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’ tournament – which had a total prize pool of US$100,000.
Melbourne & Olympic Parks director of venues, Danielle Bleazby, said: “Working with ESL events, our teams were able to successfully harness the capabilities of our venues and showcase what the Melbourne & Olympic Parks precinct can do.”
Nick Vanzetti, SVP and managing director of ESL Asia-Pacific Japan, commented: “After a few challenging years without in-person events, DreamHack Melbourne has demonstrated that the appetite for live gaming and esports content is now higher than ever.”
