The massive eSports tournament has been canceled due to location concerns
DreamHack, the Swedish eSports tournament organizer, has announced they’ve canceled DreamHack Anaheim 2022.
Scheduled to take place between the 11th and the 13th of February, it will no longer be held in Anaheim due to difficulties hosting the event due to local hosting restrictions in the ‘qualitative manner they’ve strived for’.
Covid has not been kind to the great DreamHack tournaments that have become a staple of the eSports world. Throughout the pandemic, there has only been one DreamHack event held. It was actually their annual Anaheim event, in 2020. Since then, everything has been reduced to being held online. They were also planning to collaborate with 343 Industries to host the yearly HCS (Halo Championship Series) North American Regional Championship. Now the Halo Tournament is expected to take place on its own, without the cooperation of DreamHack.
What does DreamHack have to say about the cancellations?
Krzysztof Pikiewicz (Senior Vice President of Festivals at ESL Gaming) spoke in detail about the thought that went into this big decision. “We were all really looking forward to our first in-person festival in the United States in two years, so canceling DreamHack Anaheim was not an easy decision.
“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.”
It’s not exactly clear to us at Strafe.com why this decision was made, but nonetheless, the Dallas event looks to be jam packed as compensation. If you purchased a ticket to DreamHack Anaheim, you don’t have to be completely disappointed. You’ll have your tickets fully refunded to you, and you’ll also get full, free access to the HCS North American Regional Championship.
It’s disappointing that something like this can happen, but we’re more understanding in today's day and age of sudden cancellations of large scale events. DreamHack also had to push back their DreamHack Atlanta event to later in 2022 due to the pandemic, and that’s completely understandable. The health and safety of all the eSports fans should be a priority, so taking the necessary precautions is the right decision to make.
You can check out the details of the HCS Championship, the ESL Insider and the many more events DreamHack have planned for 2022 on their website, dreamhack.com.
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