This weekend 8 students from Holsby and one staff member travelled to Jonkoping and attended the nerdiest thing known to man. DreamHack. DreamHack is the largest digital gaming festival in the world and set three new world records this weekend. It runs from thursday to Sunday and is the biggest LAN party in the world.
We woke up early Saturday morning and left for Jonkoping by 8am. We arrived when the doors opened at 10am. This is not to say that people hadnt been gaming all night. We walked in, bought our daypasses and walked into the first of three giant gaming rooms. We were all shocked at what we saw. Several thousand desktop computers, complete with either gaming humans or humans completely out on their keyboards. There were rows with table that held all the computers and it was a mess to say the least. Two days worth of empty coke cans and energy drinks, stacks of empty fast food cartons and blankets, pillows, and cabels all over the place. We proceeded from that room to the main one where there was a stage set up and some kind of techno pumping out for the gamers to stay awake on. It was quite the sight to see several thousand glowing monitors in a dim room with zombies walking around in the one piece fleece suits they were selling there. There was also something with displays by various gaming companies giving away free stuff and demoing their games. There was also tournaments for professional gamers that took place in a large thingy with lots of seats and a big screen. It was ridiculous, being gave standing ovations for somebody getting shot on a video game. The prizes were fairly large, the biggest being about 100 000 dollars for the winner of StarCraft 2.
I have never seen so much gaming and I felt sick after only one day just looking, not even playing in there. Some people were literally at their computers three days straight. This isnt to say that it wasnt a good experience. Ive never seen something like that. They set the record at somewhere above 13 000 joined computers at a single event. The internet was 120 gbit/s. Apparently that is stupid fast, but I wouldnt know. I got a few free shirts out of the deal and came out feeling really good about the fact that
I have friends and dont spend all day gaming.
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| Sleeping! |
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| sleeping stuff |
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| Enough Coke? |
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| Counter Strike Finals. Prize, 150 000kr |
Wow, that's intense! And somewhat creepy... and unhealthy. Unreal.
ReplyDeleteLove the line: "I got a few free shirts out of the deal and came out feeling really good about the fact that I have friends and dont spend all day gaming." A great quote.