DreamHack On Tour 2009

Autumn season

Upcoming events:
Porto, DreamHack Portugal Qualifier, TBA
TBA, Denmark Nordic Qualifier, TBA
TBA, DreamHack Romania Qualifier, October
Kuala Lumpur, DreamHack Malaysian Qualifier, October 14-18
Pancevo, DreamHack Serbia Qualifier, October 17-18
Amsterdam, Dreamhack Benelux Qualifier, October 17-18
Skellefteå, DreamHack Skellefteå IV October 23-25
Singapore, DreamHack Singapore qualifier, October 24-25
Berlin, Dreamhack German Qualifier, October 24
Stockholm, DH at Skolforum, October 26-28
Helsinki, Finland Nordic Qualifier, October 30 - November 1
Tallin, Dreamhack Baltic Qualifier, October 30 - November 1
Oslo, Norway Nordic Qualifier, November 7
Jönköping, DreamHack Winter, November 26-29

Previous events:
Johannesburg, DreamHack South African Qualifier, October 2-4
Chengdu, DreamHack China Qualifier, October 4-7
Umeå, DH at Nolia-mässan, 1-9 aug
Stockholm, DreamHack Stockholm, 13-15 aug

= DreamHack festival
= DreamHack on Tour - Exhibition
= DreamHack on Tour - Qualifier

Spring season

Previous events:
Stockholm, Tekniska Museét, 21 feb - 1 mar
Skellefteå, DreamHack Skellefteå IIII, 6 - 9 mar
Göteborg, DreamHack Göteborg I, 10 - 12 apr
Helsingfors, On Tour-qualifier, 16 maj
Köpenhamn, On Tour-qualifer, 23 maj
Paris, On Tour-qualifier, 23 Maj
Pancevo, On Tour-qualifier, 23 maj
Oslo, On Tour-qualifier, 30 maj
Stockholm, On Tour-qualifier, 6 maj
Jönköping, DreamHack Summer, 13-16 maj

About On Tour 2009

DreamHack Summer and DreamHack Winter are well established events and are our “Mega Events”. This is in other words our big Arena format. A gigantic event of over more than 40.000 square meters, which makes larger than Gröna Lund, the amusement park in Stockholm, Sweden.

By taking DreamHack on a tour of Sweden, we’re trying to achieve several goals. One of them is trying to find a different format. A smaller, and perhaps as a result of this, more intimate and personal event. If DreamHack Winter is Arena Rock then DreamHack On Tour is more of a Club tour. We do not wish to exceed more than 1.000 seats. This is the whole point. The Tour is a complement and gives the visitor a different experience then the regular events. This is also an excellent platform for us to experiment and try out new ideas. We have always been driven by the will to evolve and change. We see this as important and we naturally hope that this will make our events better and more fun in the end. It would not be fun to be the same event year in and year out.

DreamHack also see a general need of more having more eSports tournaments held in Sweden. The core of the DreamHack tour isn’t the size of the prize purse at each stop, but giving the teams/players more experience of competition and foremost to qualify directly to the play-offs at the huge DreamHack finals (by winning Wild Cards) and win a smaller sum that the team can use for travel expenses to other tournaments, for example. Each stop on the Autumn Season, rolling right now, is thus Qualifiers for the big Season Finals at DreamHack Winter 2009. Our aim is, thru this format, to try and stimulate the so called “semi-elite”, enabling Sweden to develop even more successful eSports organizations and players.

Today we organize a form of “Pro-Am” format where, in the Play-offs, the elite compete against lesser known teams who have succeeded to fight their way to the Play-offs. We think this works really well. For our eSport tournaments we are right now planning 20 different qualifiers around the world for our Finals at DreamHack Winter 2009. This will also make DreamHack into a more international event in the future, of which we are very excited!

We have an ambitious plan and aim to reach more than 200.000 individuals thru our events and activities during 2009. But the biggest reason for us doing this is that we love what we’re doing and that we’re passionate about digital culture and producing events!


David Garpenståhl, CEO DreamHack