I Malmö kommer E-sport SM att arrangera tävlingar i samtliga officiella SM-spel för säsongen 2011/2012. Inför tävlingarna kommer det även att arrangeras onlinekvalifikationer i spelen StarCraft II, Counter-Strike 1.6 och Heroes Of Newerth, anmälan till dessa samt tävlingarna i FIFA12, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition öppnar inom de närmaste veckorna.

Joystick 4.0 är Malmö Symfoniorkesters fjärde symfoniska resa in i dataspelens förtrollade värld. Det blir världspremiär för ASSASSINS CREED- Revelations Live in Concert samt musik från bland annat Final Fantasy, Uncharted, Sonic the Hedgehog och mycket mer! Spel och filmjournalisten Orvar Säfström som 2011 fick utmärkelsen årets spelare av Sverok är konferencier och Charles Hazlewood är dirigent. Biljettpriset till konserten Joystick 4.0 kostar 330:- per person medans samtliga kringaktiviteter och att delta i tävlingarna på EsportSM är helt gratis.

- SM-tävlingen i Malmö kommer vara en av vårens större kvalificeringar till SM-finalen senare i sommar. I samband med Joystick 4.0 lockar vi inte bara etablerade esportspelare men når också ut till den breda skara gamers som finns i Malmö-regionen, säger Fredrik Nyström, pressansvarig på DreamHack.

Malmö Konserthus ligger centralt, mitt i Malmö, med flera lokala och regionala busslinjer samt direktbussen till Sturups flygplats strax intill huset. Dessutom är det gångavstånd till bl a centralstationen, gågatan och stora köpcentrum som Triangeln och Hansacompagniet..

Precis som tidigare kommer de bästa matcherna från EsportSM att livesändas, perfekt om du inte kan vara på plats och se matcherna och spelarna live på Malmö Konserthus.
- Tusentals gamers har deltagit i EsportSM och tiotusentals gamers runtom i Sverige har följt sändnignarna. Allt tidigare livesändningar kan man se i repris på www.esportsm.se., säger Fredrik Nyström, pressansvarig på DreamHack.

Länkar:
Joystick 4.0
Malmö Konserthus
Malmö SymfoniOrkester på Facebook

When we release the tickets we will also open the special site for DreamHack Summer 2012 where all specific information on the festival will be available.

See you all soon!

Festival: DreamHack Summer 2012
Dates: 16-19 June 2012
Ticket release: 1 February 2012
Venue: Elmia
City: Jönköping
Country: Sweden

DreamHack and Twitch.TV Announce Record-Breaking Online Viewership

1,7 Million Unique Viewers tuned in for DreamHack Winter 2011 on TwitchTV, the world’s largest video game broadcasting community.

December 6, 2011 – San Francisco, CA and Stockholm, Sweden – DreamHack, the world’s largest computer festival, and TwitchTV, the world’s largest video game broadcasting community, today announced record-breaking viewer statistics for DreamHack Winter 2011.

“It’s been a event of records. DreamHack broke three earlier records (attendance, network capacity and usage) and now we break our fourth record when presenting 1,7 million unique viewers on our livestreams” said Fredrik Nyström, press officer at DreamHack. “Thanks to TwitchTV we can offer 21 channels in HD for free which is necessary when you want to be the leading event when it comes to reach, fan appreciation and production quality.”

Between November 24-27, DreamHack hosted their Winter 2011 event. 20,984 visitors and millions of fans followed the event online thanks to hundreds of community journalists, HD live-streams provided by TwitchTV, mainstream coverage by Swedish National Television, Internet forums and social media.

“Dreamhack is one of the preeminent gaming events in the world and we are proud to be their video streaming partner,” said Emmett Shear, CEO of TwitchTV. “It’s been amazing to watch the growth of competitive video gaming over the last year. This winter’s Dreamhack shattered records, and I’m sure the coming summer event will do the same. The Dreamhack viewership is starting to rival major television broadcast audiences. That’s very exciting.”

DreamHack offered over 21 high definition competitive video gaming channels including StarCraft II, Quake Live, and Counter-Strike 1.6, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, Dota 2, Heroes Of Newerth and Bloodline Champions in addition to stage channels from DreamArena Extreme, DreamArena AMD Sapphire and the main DreamHack stage.

Statistics
Total views: 6,755,728
Unique viewers: 1,673,270
Peak concurrent viewers: 94,932

Please be advised that numbers from Swedish National Television is not included in these statistics.

About DreamHack
DreamHack is the World’s Largest Computer Festival. DreamHack’s roots and core is the LAN party, with the major events DreamHack Summer and Winter, where participants bring their own computers and connect to the Internet in a large local area network which basically BECOMES the Internet by sheer scale. DreamHack is also Sweden’s first consumer-oriented trade show / event / festival for computer games, game consoles and computers. The events are a platform for tournaments in eSports, knowledge and creative competitions, concerts by famous music artists, lectures by game developers and much more. Learn more at http://www.dreamhack.se.

About TwitchTV
TwitchTV is the world’s largest video game broadcasting and chat community. TwitchTV features the top gaming personalities, players, tournaments and commentary, in addition to the most active and interesting discussions around video games. TwitchTV provides publishers and advertisers a platform to create long term engagement and commitment from gamers. Learn more at http://twitch.tv.

Thank you all for a great event, hope to see you again for the DreamHack Summer 2012.

If you missed anything you can always relive it on our flickr or Youtube-channel.
A bunch of new photos is uploaded every day so visit flickr now if you missed someting!

Det tidigare DreamHack-rekordet på 20 gigabits i kapacitetsutnyttjande slogs kort efter invigningen av DreamHack på Elmia i Jönköping som hölls den 24-27 november. Årets festival drog också en rekordpublik – 20 984 deltagare vilket befäster DreamHacks position som världens största datorfestival.

– Vi är enormt glada att återigen kunna konstatera att intresset för DreamHack växer. Att vi lyckas ta alla tidigare rekord är ett fantastiskt kvitto för alla inblandade och det är otroligt inspirerande att gå in i planeringsfasen för kommande år med detta i ryggen, säger Robert Ohlén, VD på DreamHack.

Cisco och Telia har i år utrustat DreamHack med världens snabbaste Internetuppkoppling med en hastighet på 120 gigabits per sekund mellan Stockholm och Jönköping. En så snabb uppkoppling med ett avstånd på över 30 mil har sannolikt aldrig upprättats tidigare. 120 gigabits per sekund innebär till exempel att 750 000 människor kan streama musik samtidigt.

– Med gemensamma krafter har vi byggt världens snabbaste Internetuppkoppling och det har gett eko över hela världen. Jag är stolt över att vi tillsammans med deltagarna på DreamHack kan visa på styrkan och möjligheterna med höga näthastigheter, säger Jonas Malmgren, försäljningschef på Cisco.

Stefan Trampus, chef för Bredbandstjänster på Telia:
- Det är glädjande att ha levererat en internetuppkoppling som har gett deltagarna en upplevelse i världsklass. Genom detta har vi möjliggjort att deltagarna på Dreamhack kan nyttja internet och dess möjligheter maximalt. Nu förbereder vi oss för att vi fortsätta att ligga i användarnas och teknikens framkant, säger Stefan Trampus.

Kort om världens snabbaste Internetuppkoppling
En arbetsgrupp på ett 50-tal personer från DreamHack, Cisco och Telia har arbetat i flera månader med att få tekniken på plats. Uppkopplingen bygger på flera nya tekniker från Cisco och Telia. Telia står för fibernätet medan Cisco bidrar med hårdvaran, däribland två CRS-3-routrar som är världens mest kraftfulla router med en överföringskapacitet på 322 terabits per sekund. Det totala värdet på Ciscos utrustning som används under DreamHack är cirka 45 miljoner kronor. Härtill kommer Telias utrustning i nätet.

Check out the video’s on YouTube

Follow Intel Pack4DreamHack on Facebook & Twitter:
http://facebook.com/pack4dreamhack
http://twitter.com/pack4dreamhack

Relive DreamHack with IntelTV

DreamHack Winter 2011 is over but our strategic partner Intel have made some very nice Youtube-movies from DreamHack. Thanks to Intel for supporting DreamHack and our festival.

The finals of DreamArena Extreme

During the DreamHack Winter 2011 a lot of records have been broken and for the eSport of DreamHack it was another amazing record in attention, player numbers and prize money. All the tournament finished during Saturday and we have a bunch of new DreamHack Champions

DreamHack Zotac Championship – Quake Live TDM

First out of all the Grand Finals where the DreamHack Zotac Championship in Quake Live. Through the first two days group games and playoff had been played and only the final and 3rd place decider where left. In the Grand final where the favorites colwn (stermy, toxic, linkin, winz) and 300 (draven, dem0n, krysa, Spart1e) faced off. It finished in two straight but close maps giving colwn the win. Thanks to our sponsors Zotac, Plantronics and Twitch.tv.

1. colwn – 35 000 SEK
2. 300 – 15 000 SEK
3. tRainspotting – 10 000 SEK

DreamHack MSI Beat It – Heroes of NewErth

Probably the most stacked HoN tournament ever happen during the DreamHack Winter 2011 in the MSI Beat It tournament. The best team from around the world had qualified to the tournament and it was time to compete for the amazing 300 000 SEK. In the Grand Final taking place in front of a completely filled DreamArena Extreme with seats the audience was shown a battle between Fnatic and Frenetic Array. The final ended with the reigning champions Fnatic defending their titel and bringing down Frenetic Array with 2-1 in games. Thanks to our sponsor MSI and the MSI Beat It administration.

1. Fnatic – 100 000 SEK + 5x MSI GT780 Laptops
2. Frenetic Array – 50 000 SEK + 5x MSI Motherboards
3. Lions – 30 000 SEK + 5x MSI Graphic cards
4. Trademark Esports – 20 000 SEK

DreamHack Corsair Vengeance Championship – Dota 2

Thanks to Corsair and Valve DreamHack could be the first ones to organize an open competition in Dota 2 although the game is still in the beta-phase. The interest for the tournament is not comparable to anything DreamHack has experienced before, 624 teams had registered. The BYOC tournament only had 64 slots which shows that Dota 2 already has a huge fan base and the DreamHackers wants to try the game out. In the final DreamArena Extreme one of the invited teams Fnatic faced off against WHB who had fought through the whole BYOC and the group stage to reach the finals. WHB came out victorious with 2-1 in games. Thanks Corsair and Valve for the sponsorship of this tournament.
1. WHB – 50 000 SEK
2. Fnatic – 25 000 SEK
3. SK-Gaming – 15 000 SEK
4. TeamShakiras – 10 000 SEK

DreamHack MSI Beat It – Counter-Strike 1.6

The end show of DreamArena Extreme for DreamHack Winter 2011 was the grand final of the DreamHack MSI Beat It in Counter-Strike 1.6. With a stacked arena with 1100 people the two Swedish teams Fnatic and Lions faced off. Both had gone through a hard group stage and playoff but shown they were worthy to fight for the championship in the final. Fnatic put up their best game and could claim the title after 2-1 in maps. Thanks to our sponsor MSI and the Beat It administration for making this tournament happen.
1. Fnatic – 100 000 SEK + 5x MSI GT780 Laptops
2. Lions – 50 000 SEK + 5x MSI Motherboards
3. Na`Vi – 30 000 SEK + 5x MSI Graphic cards
4. Mousesports – 20 000 SEK

DreamArena AMD SAPPHIRE

The coolest news at DreamHack Winter 2011 was without a doubt the DreamArena AMD SAPPHIRE in Kinnarps Arena. During the festival the DreamHack crew built the final arena with 4000 seats. The DreamArena AMD SAPPHIRE was completely sold out and we all got treated by a show no one will ever forget.

DreamHack Energizer Championship – Super Street Fighter Arcade Edition

The first final of the evening was the DreamHack Energizer Championship. The tournament had been played out through the Saturday and in the final with had the muli-DreamHack Champion Ryan Hart vs Infiltration. Infiltration came from the loser bracket and therefore had to win two best of fives to become the DreamHack Champion. The final could not have become more exciting as Infiltration took the first best of five and it all came down to the last round of the last set. The DreamArena crowd got totally in love with Street Fighter and when Infiltration won the last round the crowd exploded. Thanks to Energizer, Capcom and Madcatz for sponsoring this tournament.

DreamHack Plantronics Championship – Quake Live Duel

The classic eSport title Quake had of course its final at DreamArena AMD SAPPHIRE. The tournament had attracted all the big stars and the best players from around the world. In the final was Cypher and Rapha in yet another epic final. Cypher came out big and did not give Rapha many chances. Cypher could claim another title with 3-0 in maps and is the DreamHack Champion of DreamHack Winter 2011. Thanks to our sponsors Plantronics, Zotac and Twitch.tv.
1. Cypher – 30 000 SEK
2. Rapha – 15 000 SEK
3. av3k – 10 000 SEK

DreamHack SAPPHIRE AMD Championship – StarCraft II

The final tournament of DreamHack Winter 2011 and the final event of the DreamHack SAPPHIRE AMD Championship was the final of StarCraft II. With 64 players and a record breaking 400 000 SEK it generated more attention than before. The crowd was super excited when the semi finals took place. With the final introduction the DreamArena AMD SAPPHIRE totally went crazy as the finalists PuMa and HerO entered the stage. 4000 people stood up, shouted and applauded the two Koreans. The final was even more nerve wracking than the previous finals and it all came down to the final map. HerO could eventually go out of the booth and face the crowd that were about the collapse as it had been such a night to remember. Thanks to our sponsors SAPPHIRE, AMD, Eizo and SteelSeries.
1. Liquid`HerO – 200 000 SEK
2. Team EG PuMa – 90 000 SEK
3-4. Fnatic NightEnd, Liquid Ret – 35 000 SEK
5-8. eSahara Naama, coL.MVP DongRaeGu, AI Seiplo, Team Acer Nerchio – 10 000 SEK

This was DreamHack Winter 2011 and all the eSport tournaments. See you at DreamHack 2012!

The Final of DreamArena SAPPHIRE AMD Championship in StarCraft II

Right now, LiquidHerO and EGPuMa are duking it out against one another in the DreamHack SAPPHIRE AMD Championship Starcraft II final. Read the full recap, game by game.

Game One

The first game was on metalopolis, with PuMa going 4 Barracks into expand, and HerO went 2 Gateway Robotics facility. HerO managed to kill off a few marines with some excellent stalker micro, but PuMa answered by making a strong push for HerO’s main with concussive shells finished. With the help off some nice scans, PuMa killed off a lot of HerO’s forces, including one immortal. It looked like PuMa would kill off HerO’s expansion, but one heroic collosi managed to kill off a ton of marines and break the contain.

HerO then made a strong push for PuMa’s main, but thanks to a very nice sandwich, PuMa killed of HerO’s army, and pushed back HerO, killing off his expansion and forcing the GG.

Game Two

Played on Daybreak, both players went for a fast expansion. HerO managed to send in some zealots after PuMa took down the destructible rocks to take control of a Xel’naga tower and killed off PuMa’s expansion, containing PuMa and doing TONS of damage. PuMa then decided that he couldn’t win unless he did an all-in, pulled all his SCV’s and moved out when stim was finished. However, as PuMa’s SCV’s neared HerO’s expansion HerO laid down some HUGE forcefields, cutting off nearly all of the SCV’s, and now we’re tied 1-1.

Game Three

Game #3 was played on GSL Dual Sight, a map where PuMa did a very successful 1-1-1  against NightEnD. PuMa managed to wall his base off JUST as HerO’s probe came to his base. PuMa did the 1 barracks, 1 factory and 1 starport (the 1-1-1), but HerO built a Phoenix to counter it, however the banshee snuck past the phoenixes, who proceeded to lift up MULE’s as PuMa called them down, but another phoenix just finished warping in as the banshee came up to HerO’s base, as well as the detection available to kill it off if it cloaked.

After that, HerO managed to destroy a supply depot at PuMa’s base wall-in, moved into the main of PuMa, and then proceeded to win the game. 2-1 to HerO now.

Game Four

HerO and PuMa spawned cross-map on Tal’Darim Altar, with PuMa expanding quickly behind a bunker. HerO scouted this out and went for some 3-Gate pressure. He used a stalker to get vision of the high ground to warp in some zealots, and with the help of those, dealing lots of damage to PuMa’s expansion.

PuMa was forced to lift off his Command Center, and eventually managed to stop HerO’s push. However, he was very behind on the worker front, and needed to even things out badly soon. PuMa then attempted to attack HerO’s expansion, but HerO easily repelled it with the help of some force fields. When HerO did the counter-push, PuMa couldn’t hold him back, and lost game four, and now the standings are 3-1 in the favor of HerO.

Game Five

This game was played on Shakuras Plateau. The players both spawned on the bottom half of the map, with PuMa walling in to expand fast once again. HerO went for a fast expansion of his own. HerO managed to sneak past PuMa’s initial marine and spotted the expansion. seeing this, he decided to go for one gateway and a quick robotics facility, while PuMa went 3 barracks, two with tech labs and one with a reactor.

PuMa then built a ghost academy, but HerO scouted it out with an observer, and responded by putting down a robotics bay. PuMa made his way to HerO’s expansion, but after seeing HerO’s spread, he decided to pull back. As the thermal lance upgrade finished up, HerO decided to move out and attacked PuMa’s natural, but PuMa flanked his army, and killed off all of his army. However, HerO warped in an additional round of zealots, and pushed PuMa back to his main. PuMa managed to kill off the zealots here.

Noticing that PuMa had vikings out, HerO decided to stop building collosi and focus on immortals. PuMa then pushed out for HerO’s third and managed to reach it just as HerO did a probe transfer, and as HerO’s army arrived there, he did another sandwich killing it off. HerO the sent out some DT’s, with one of them disturbing PuMa’s mining at his third.

HerO then managed to build his army up again and then attacked PuMa, and killed off a lot of units. However, PuMa came out on top, and kept pushing for HerO’s third, forcing HerO to surrender. And after this awesome game, it’s now 3-2, advantage HerO.

Game Six

The two faced off once again on Terminus SE, the biggest map in the professional Starcraft II scene. HerO expanded quick once again, but PuMa, spotting this, placed four barracks down instead of building a command center and expanding. HerO built three more gateways, but they couldn’t finish on time, and HerO lost his base as well as the game, and we’re going to have us a deciding game number seven!

Game Seven

The last game, deciding who would win the DreamHack winter 2011 Starcraft II tournament finals and 200,000 Swedish kronor (roughly 30,000 dollars), was played on Antiga Shipyard. The players spawns were across the map and both players, maybe a bit wary of early pushes since games before, didn’t expand especially fast. PuMa walled himself in once again, and expanded behind that, just as during the Metalopolis game. HerO placed down an expansion himself and went for 3 gateways and a robotics facility.

PuMa scouted out the three gateways, but not the robo. He then placed down two forges to get some early upgrades. HerO then placed down a photon cannon after seeing some ghosts from PuMa just to be certain. when PuMa pushed out against HerO’s third, HerO managed to trap PuMa’s ghosts, and although losing the expansion, he killed off a lot of PuMa’s army, and catching some of the medivacs in a trap as they retreated to the main of PuMa.

HerO then attacked PuMa’s planetary fortress with the help of some force fields, but PuMa managed to shoot some very nice EMP’s on the high templars, as well as sniping some of them as they were attempting to morph into archons. PuMa then did a drop on HerO’s fourth, but that did very little damage. PuMa attacked HerO’s third, and landed some great EMP’s, but HerO held it off and gained a huge lead.

Hero then attacked PuMa’s expansion at the middle of the map, taking it out, and went after the planetary fortress at PuMa’s third, killing it off, setting PuMa back to two bases, with only one of them mining. He then proceeded to build three nexii near PuMa’s main ramp, perhaps as payback for the MULE PuMa called down at the end of the first game, to show his dominance. After this, PuMa couldn’t hold out any longer, and called the GG.

HerO the Champion of DreamHack SAPPHIRE AMD Championship

Finally we have the champion of the grand final event of the year of DreamHack SAPPHIRE AMD Championship at DreamHack Winter 2011 in StarCraft II. Liquid HerO could walk out on the catwalk celebrated as the super star he has become during the tournament. HerO takes home the grand prize of 200 000 SEK where as PuMa got second bringing home 90 000 SEK.

Final standing

1. Liquid`HerO – 200 000 SEK
2. Team EG PuMa – 90 000 SEK
3-4. Fnatic NightEnd, Liquid Ret – 35 000 SEK
5-8. eSahara Naama, coL.MVP DongRaeGu, AI Seiplo, Team Acer Nerchio – 10 000 SEK

The Tournament Director of DreamHack and Head Admin of StarCraft II Christian “Hellspawn” Lord had some final words to say:

“We at DreamHack would like to thank all of our sponsors that made this StarCraft II season possible SAPPHIRE, AMD, Eizo and SteelSeries. And of course many kisses and hugs to all the fans, players and especially all the people/crew that have been involved with this production throughout the year. Thank you all for all the hard work, passion and love for eSports, we hope that 2012 will be even better, bigger and more exciting than 2011.”