As the popularity of esports continues to grow year after year, DreamHack keeps on adding more and more events. The event series now runs multiple times through the year, with huge tournaments across every genre in esports.
In 2024, there are more games than ever at DreamHack events. They’re still going strong with their two main esports titles; Dota 2 and CS:GO. Things have gotten way bigger though. With the OWL shutting down, SG will now be home to the biggest events on the Overwatch Champion Series schedule. That’s along with 2024 continuing 2023’s work in growing DreamHack fighters and other events. The tournament now features much more expansive genres. There are shooters, fighting games, and even trading cards represented.
Over time, DH has kind of become the esports event. While every game has its circuit and Leagues, DreamHack is almost where everything comes together. We’ve got a packed 2024 schedule for the series too.
Source: DreamHack, YouTube
For 2024, there’s a lively schedule of events coming up. These are all the big DreamHack events still to come over 2024.
DreamHack 2024 events have expanded to cover an even wider range of games. There are still the headline events for titles like CS: GO, but increasingly diverse titles are a big part of DreamHack. These are some of the big events you’ll see at these tournaments.
The CSGO events at DH 2024 include quite a few dedicated events. Most notably might be the IEM Dallas tournament. This is taking place at Dreamhack Dallas.
Dota 2 is a smaller part of DreamHack 2024, but it’s still got quite a few events. There will be major events throughout the year with the DreamHack-run DreamLeague. Dota 2 esports tournaments will be happening at events throughout the year for the 22nd Season of the DreamLeague.
One of the oldest and most popular esports is here for DH 2024. The LGO will be present across DreamHack events for major tournaments, including the LCO Split 1 Grand Final in Melbourne.
Fortnite has become a major part of DreamHack in recent years. As this is a LAN event, it’s a rare chance to see the entire lobby playing together for Fortnite. The game normally operates with online events, so this is a nice departure. DramHack 2024 is going to feature tournaments on Zero Builds and Builds. The FNCS runs a LAN only once a year, DreamHack hosts most of the best Fortnite players a little earlier so we can get a glimpse at how they’re balanced in the new Chapter.
Another older title still getting major events is StarCraft II. The game will have a few events at DreamHack, with a major final at Dallas.
Magic the gathering will be featured At DH San Diego! This will be the DH Showdown Magic: the Gathering.
Source: FaceIt, Blizzard
The new year has brought a new competitive format for Overwatch. The OWS won’t be running its own majors and finals like the League. Instead, DreamHack will be the host for these finals.
DH has recently expanded further to be part of the fighting game community. This new sub-set of events is called DeersamHack fighters. There are events for loads of the top fighting games. These include Guilty Gear, Street Fighter, Smash Bros, and more. These events have varying prize pools but they’re looking to expand DH footprint across esports.
Last year’s events were definitely fun. With Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8 joining in 2024, there’s even more to watch. That’s with Brawlhalla remaining a part of the proceedings.
As the popularity of esports continues to grow year after year, DH keeps on adding more and more events.
© DreamHack
Even though they’ve recently given up on a couple of games, they’re still going strong with their two main esports titles; Dota 2 and CS:GO.
So far for 2020, a total of 13 events have been announced:
As was mentioned before, DreamHack renounced to several esports titles over the years, however, they’re becoming much more focused on CSGO. Out of 10 events that have been announced so far, DreamHack has dedicated 9 of those to Counter-Strike:Global Offensive.
© DreamHack
If we compare prize pool money for the Dota 2 tournaments hosted by DreamHack, we can see that things have balanced out.
So, let’s look at the numbers; a total of $1,050,000 has been added to the CSGO prize pool. The most popular DreamHack 2020 event related to CSGO is definitely DreamHack Masters Jönköping 2020. This event is also called DreamHack Summer and we believe that this event will be a blast. All of the top teams tend to attend this Swedish based tournament. We can expect teams like Astralis, NiP, Liquid, EG, Natus Vincere and mousesports to attend this event, so make sure you follow our esports news to find out more about this tournament.
As we already mentioned, Dota 2 is not represented so much once compared to CSGO. However, if you follow Dota 2 esports scene, then you probably know that DreamHack Leipzig or so-called DreamLeague is the most popular Dota 2 event (if we exclude The International).
© DreamHack
It is logical that DreamHack decided to invest a lot in this event. However, this means that their budget is depleted hence why there is a lack of other Dota 2 events.
Starting from January 18th, DreamHack 2020 Dota 2 Major will host a total of 16 teams that will battle it out in front of the sold-out Leipziger Messe venue. Alongside $1,000,000 in the prize pool, teams will fight for their chance to come one step closer to a spot at The International 2020 as DreamLeague Season 13 will also have 15,000 Pro Circuit points up for grabs.
Starting off as a small meeting between schoolmates and friends in the Swedish town of Malung in the early 1990s, DreamHack has gone on to become one of the largest events in the esports calendar. Having been held at the Elmia exhibition centre in Jönköping since 2001, DH has now introduced a whole host of other annual competitions, with the DH Summer taking place in June, along with DH Winter in November.
Back in 2011, DreamHack AB announced that they would be partnering with Major League Gaming and Electronic Sports League, in order to help to continue the growth and development of the European and North American esports markets.
DreamHack held several events throughout the years, including BYOC tournaments and exhibitions, with the Spring season ending with the season finals at DreamHack Summer, as well as the Fall season ending with the DreamHack winter.
DreamHack also hosts large esports tournaments at each of their LAN’s, including League of Legends, StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm and Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
In November 2015, Modern Times Group purchased DreamHack for a fee of 244 million SEK, roughly $28 million.
All events are now streamed live on the DH Twitch page, with millions following the action from around the world. DreamHack is much more than competitive gaming, with the events providing the platform for knowledge and creative competitions, music acts, lectures and internet and gaming culture.
DH was awarded with a Guinness World Record for “Number of computers in a LAN” back in 2007, with 10,455 connected devices, which has since been beaten on numerous occasions. DreamHack events are often staged 24 hours a day, with non-stop action for esports fans to enjoy.
The first ever DreamHack Summer event took place in Jönköping, Sweden back in 2002. DH had already been hosting both general and Winter events for almost ten years, before making the decision to host two large events per year, including the DH Summer every June. The first DreamHack Summer featured a Counter Strike tournament, the first of its kind.
The inaugural event saw 32 teams compete, with home favourites Ninjas in Pyjamas placing first, followed by Devine esports and Backstab. In fact, Ninjas in Pyjamas hold the individual record for most championships, with five to their name, in 2002, 2006, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Other successful teams over the years include Fnatic and SK Gaming, both of whom have two wins apiece.
DH undoubtedly took a huge risk in separating their events into a Summer and Winter Series, however, it has certainly paid off. DH Summer has become hugely popular, especially within the Counter Strike community.
With a prize pool of over $100,000, the DreamHack Summer 2017 was a big success. Two groups of four teams make up the event, before the playoff stage will determine who will take home the $50,000 first place prize pool. Teams like Cloud9, Fnatic, Gambit Esports, Immortals, mousesports, SK Gaming, Team Singularity and Counter Logic Gaming participated here.
Similarly to the DH Summer, the DH Winter takes place in Jonkoping, Sweden each year. Some of the biggest tournaments of the year from League of Legends, Counter Strike, Dota 2, Overwatch and Hearthstone. The 2017 DreamHack Winter took place between the 30th November- 2nd December.
The first winners of the competition back in 2010 came in the form of mousesports and Natus Vincere, with Gambit Esports having claimed the crown in 2016, ahead of the likes of Renegades and GODSENT. In 2018, we saw ENCE lift the trophy, while the latest edition of DreamHack Winter was won by the Russian CSGO team, forZe.
The DH Open was launched back in 2012, quickly making a name for itself as DreamHack’s premiere esports circuit, featuring no fewer than seven tour stops across Europe. Such titles include Counter Strike: Global Offensive, StarCraft II and Heart of the Swarm.
The competition offers a prize pool of $350,000 across all games, with the events open to both amateur and professional players. Ninjas in Pyjamas won the very first DreamHack Open in Valencia, with Bucharest also hosting events consistently over the following years.
The likes of Malmo, Montreal, Atlanta and London in the United Kingdom have all joined the list of cities hosting in recent times, with the DH Masters Las Vegas in 2017 undoubtedly the biggest to date. Russian team Virtus.Pro claimed the spoils ahead of SK Gaming, North and Astralis, taking home £250,000 in the process.
With Gambit Esports having already collected the DH Austin, the stage was set for DH Atlanta which was won by Envy. Cloud9 won the title in front of their home crowd in Denver while Liepzig event was won by FlipSid3 Tactics.
G2 won DH Malmo 2017, while North played out of their minds on DH Montreal.
Sweden has dominated proceedings when it comes to DreamHack CSGO, with Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic having ten wins between them to date.
Ninjas in Pyjamas have been victorious on six separate occasions, including at the DH Masters Malmo in 2016, as well as at the Astro Open in Valencia back in 2012. Meanwhile, compatriots Fnatic have come out on top six times, including victories at the DreamHack Tours in 2015 and DreamHack Bucharest in 2012 and DreamHack Summer 2015.
Elsewhere, France is Sweden’s closest rivals, having won DH CSGO events four times. Their last win came back in 2017, when G2 claimed glory at the DH Open Tours.
Having originally been known as the Dota All-Stars, before moving to DH, the DreamLeague is now perhaps the most prestigious Dota 2 event around, with teams from Europe and North America competing. Having kicked off in 2013, with Ukrainian team Natus Vincere taking home the spoils, the DreamLeague Season 7 took place in 2017, with a total prize pool of $175,000 up for grabs.
Teams like Liquid, Secret and Vega Squadron participated. Despite being dominated by Asian teams on a global scale, DH events provide European and North American teams with the opportunity to do battle for the biggest prizes.
Despite not featuring as heavily as some other esports titles, League of Legends still plays a significant part in the success of DH events. The summer 2011 staged the League of Legends Season 1 World Championship, which saw Fnatic come out on top.
The likes of Counter Logic Gaming, SK Gaming and Ninjas in Pyjamas have all claimed LoL victories at DreamHack, with We Are Doggsz the last team to do so at the Summer 2015, the last time in which League of Legends featured.
DH and Riot Games announced a new high tier competitive league for Nordic players, which featured as one of the main events at DreamHack Winter 2016. The winners also received a place in the Spring EU Challenger Series qualifiers.
As well as this, a whole host of BYOC style tournaments can be found at DreamHack Masters and DH Open events, perhaps the biggest of which coming at the DreamHack Masters Las Vegas at the beginning of 2017.
Despite having only been released in 2010, StarCraft 2 quickly became a big part of DH events, with Finland’s “Naama” winning the first ever competition at the DreamHack Winter in the very same year.
With a newly found popularity, StarCraft 2 was now a mainstay at both Summer and Winter DH events, as well as major DH Open tournaments. Asian players quickly began to dominate proceedings in terms of taking home major prize money, with South Korea’s Yun “TaeJa” Young Seo having five DreamHack wins to his name.
However, it was American player Alex “Neeb” Sunderhaft who won the most recent event, the 2017 World Championship Series Austin.
Heroes of the Storm features heroes from other Blizzard franchises including Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, The Lost Vikings and Overwatch. Having been released in 2015, Heroes of the Storm made its DH debut at Bucharest, with European’s Team Liquid winning the PGL Spring Champions of the Storm 2015.
The same team went on to win three separate titles in the same year. Earning themselves over $35,000 in prize money. The success of the game at DH is growing all the time. Like BeGeniuses ESC winning the DH Tours 2017, along with over $5,000 in prize money.
The Global Championship Mid-Season Brawl took place at the DreamHack Summer in June 2017. Teams like Team Dignitas, Fnatic and MVP Black battled it out for the $250,000 prize pool, the biggest in StarCraft 2 history.
Another Blizzard Entertainment title that has proven popular at DreamHack is Hearthstone, with the Hearthstone Grand Prix. The Grand Prix featured at 7 DH events, each of which hosted a majo open Swiss tournament, before 16 players move onto a single-elimination stage.
With a maximum of 200 slots available, along with a prize pool of $25,000, the DH Austin, Summer, Valencia, Atlanta, Montreal, Denver and Winter hosted these Hearthstone events. American player “Shoop” has already claimed victory in Austin back in April of 2017.
The final ever DreamHack Hearthstone event was won by DrJikininki, a popular American Hearthstone player.
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