DreamHack Hannover 2023 – Vi er så tilbage

Vi tog til DreamHack Hannover og kan trygt sige, at store spilbegivenheder i Tyskland er tilbage og bedre end nogensinde.

Please allow me to be self-indulgent with this one on a matter that’s close to my heart. As someone who came up in the various gaming and nerd-culture scenes in and around Hannover, Germany it made me very happy to see those scenes alive and thriving under the banner of an official DreamHack event.

If you think of gaming events in Germany, the one that’ll always come to mind is Gamescom. Here is where you’ll find the latest announcements in games and the event was always the middle child between the now defunct E3 which is now the Summer Games Fest I guess (thank you, Geoff), and Tokyo Gameshow which focuses more on the eastern market.

But what about the gaming events outside of that? Germany is still a titan in esports but there is a lack of open tournaments and grassroots events that could give smaller players and teams a stage to show what they’re really about.

What better place than Hannover to reignite those passions once again? After all Hannover’s now defunct CEBIT, formally the largest computer expo in the world, was once a prime destination for competitors from around the world to show off their games and talent. Enter DreamHack Hannover 2023.

DreamHack Hannover 2023-oplevelsen

Fra den 14. til den 17. december 2023 åbnede DreamHack Hannover sine døre for over 24.000 spilleentusiaster, ikke dårlige tal for en begivenhed, der kun er i det andet år af sin levetid. Programmeringen i år bød på finalerne i det (indtil videre) sidste tyske ESL Counter-Strike mesterskab samt den første officielle Escape from Tarkov Arena Invitational-turnering.

Hovedattraktionen var dog LAN-festen i ryggen, som indeholdt 11 åbne turneringer spillet af næsten 1000 deltagere på tværs af dem alle, og deres respektive finaler blev spillet ud på hovedscenen.

Visiting the event was a bewildering experience for me, being very out of tune with German gaming culture I can only imagine that is what it must’ve been like for my parents all those years ago.

Det, der overraskede mig og gjorde mig meget glad, var mængden af ​​plads dedikeret til kunstnere, der sælger deres varer og uafhængige lokale bordpladeskabere. Og det var det tema, jeg fornemmede omkring DreamHack Hannover, der var en indsats for at repræsentere lokale virksomheder, talenter og skabere sammen med Escape from Tarkov, big Esport og TCGs.

If there was one complaint I would levy against the event, it’s that if you’re there to just stalk the halls and catch some of the live programming here and there there isn’t much to do outside of it. Workshops for Cosplayers and Artists, an effort to get non-TTRPG folk into the hobby, or just a space to sit around and hang out with people.

Et kig bag kulisserne og fremad

On Sunday I also got to sit down and chat with German esports presenter and co-organizer Matthias ‘Knochen’ Remmert about the vision of the event and its imminent future. Knochen is a veteran of the scene and just like me has a fondness for Hannover, dating back to those halcyon CEBIT days.

Da jeg spurgte ham om visionen for begivenheden, fortalte han mig, at der simpelthen ikke var noget som DreamHack i Tyskland. Selvfølgelig er der konventioner og LAN'er og e-sport, men sjældent noget, der fungerer i den skala under banneret af en international festival. DreamHack-mærket tilbød arrangøren Freaks4U en mulighed for at samle alle deres partnere til en begivenhed, i modsætning til noget, Tyskland nogensinde har set i den skala.

In the wake of the German games industry having a really bad year, I also asked if they’d consider letting German studios show off their games. Knochen told me that if they were to do it, they would be open to anyone who’d want to be part of their event, they would love to focus on the Indies instead of only platforming big titles that’d draw all the attention.

Another question that was close to my heart was if they’d consider running open tournaments for Fighting Games such as Tekken, Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, and so on. He seemed very excited about the prospect of running proper FGC events at their venue and even asked me if knew anyone who’d want to organize such a thing. So for my sake, fellow German Fighting Game enthusiasts, please make it happen.

Til sidst spurgte jeg om deres forhåbninger for næste år, og Knochen indrømmede, at de var meget tilfredse med, hvor stablet begivenheden var i år, og de håber at bringe et yngre publikum med ind i lokalet næste gang.

På grund af tysk lov var arrangementet forbudt for alle under 16 år på grund af nogle af titlerne, der blev spillet på den store scene. Men han fortalte mig, at det ville elske at skabe et rum, hvor forældre og deres børn kunne udforske disse hobbyer sammen og uddanne hinanden om dem.

Those are pretty amazing goals to have and I’m looking forward to checking in with them next year to see the next step in realizing that vision.

And that’s everything we got on my DreamHack Hannover adventures. For more on the weekend, check out our impressions of Tarkov Arena’s Esport Debut samt hvad vi lærte fra vores interview med Tarkov-chef Nikita om Flugten fra Tarkovs fremtid.