DreamHack Anaheim 2022 Canceled Due To Hosting Difficulties
| Tags: Dreamhack
| Author Matt Pryor
DreamHack cancels its Anaheim 2022 event schedule for February.
Swedish production company DreamHack — known for its gaming festivals and tournament organizing — announced today the cancellation of DreamHack Anaheim 2022. This news comes as a shock, considering the company just hosted a gaming event in Sweden two weeks ago. It seems a combination of factors contributed to the decision.
DreamHack ultimately felt that February’s Anaheim would not live up to its expectations and would not go on. Instead, DreamHack will shift its focus to future events in Dallas, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia, next year.
DreamHack Cancels Anaheim 2022 Festival
After much deliberation we've ended up at the hard decision of cancelling DreamHack Anaheim 2022 due to the increased difficulties in hosting the event in the qualitative manner we strived for.
For more info please read the full statement:https://t.co/gMCGAFUJ1J
Thank you!
🧡— DreamHack (@DreamHack) December 14, 2021
It seems like it’s been an eternity since video game LAN events occurred regularly. The ongoing global pandemic is responsible for the lack of in-person tournaments and gatherings. COVID-19 has taken millions of lives worldwide, and its effects resulted in travel bans and general uncertainty in the gaming space.
DreamHack hosted just one event in 2020, which coincidentally was its annual Anaheim festival. Since then, all but one has occurred in an online setting. While the company recently provided a roadmap for 2022, those plans have already changed.
ESL Gaming’s SVP of Festivals — Krzysztof Pikiewicz — commented on ESL and DreamHack’s difficult decision to scrap the Anaheim 2022:
“…DreamHack creates a space for our community to connect, explore, win, play, and be themselves through an interactive, gaming lifestyle experience and we simply didn’t feel like Anaheim would be able to live up to that in February. We are now focusing on DreamHack Dallas and DreamHack Summer in June and can’t wait to welcome our community back at those festivals.”
While that may not paint a clear picture, DreamHack’s press release states the decision came about due to “increased difficulties in hosting the festival in a qualitative way.” All prospective attendees will have their ticket purchase refunded entirely. Additionally, ticket holders will receive free entry into DreamHack’s planned standalone Halo Championship Series (HCS) event on the same weekend.
The outcome is unfortunate for anyone hoping to attend Anaheim 2022 or watch the individual tournaments unfold from the comfort of their home. However, it’s novel of DreamHack to cancel an event that they believed might not deliver on expectations. We’ll have to wait and hope the company’s plans remain intact through next year.
Source: DreamHack
Matt is a graduate of Southern New Hampshire University. He appreciates all esports titles but primarily focuses on Fortnite and Call of Duty. Matt continuously analyzes gameplay and plays the games himself to better understand in-game decisions by the best players in the world.