Record-Setting Festival Brought Three Days of Esports Action, Stunning Cosplay, Bring-Your-Own-Computer Camaraderie, and More to Over 55,000 Fans
DALLAS, TX — June 2, 2024 – ESL FACEIT Group (EFG), the leading esports and video game entertainment company, and DreamHack, a leading global gaming lifestyle festival, today announced that DreamHack Dallas became the brand’s largest and most-attended festival of all time. Spanning the weekend of May 31-June 2, 2024, at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, the festival hosted over 55,000 fans from 50 states and 58 countries, as well as over 500 creators and competitors across 14 esports competitions.
“DreamHack Dallas proved that everything truly is bigger in Texas, from our attendance to our prize pools, expo floor, and programming,” said Guy Blomberg, Event Director, DreamHack Festivals, Americas. “After setting DreamHack North American records in Dallas last year, we’ve done so again, and we’re thrilled with the continued support of this community and our fans around the world.”
DreamHack Dallas featured the largest-ever festival floor for a DreamHack festival, with over 1,000,000 square feet of space hosting more than $1.2 million in esports tournaments, cosplay competitions, freeplay arcade areas, a host of indie developer showcases, DreamHack’s famous Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) area and much more.
DreamHack Dallas also celebrated its biggest-ever Artist Alley, welcomed dozens of indie developers to showcase their latest titles, offered virtual reality gameplay experiences, and brought some of gaming’s and streaming’s biggest stars to the Main Stage. From Dimension 20’s Brennan Lee Mulligan leading a Dungeons & Dragons one-shot with Anjali Bhimani, Erika Ishii, and more, to the first DreamHack Drag Show featuring Emmy-nominated artist Biqtch Puddin’, the three-day festival created an intersection for all parts of the gaming community to play, watch, connect, and be themselves.
The festivities don’t stop here, as the event returns to its home city of Jönköping, Sweden, on June 13-16 with DreamHack Summer, and back in the US on October 4-6 with DreamHack Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center. Three-day badges for DreamHack Summer are on sale starting from 210 SEK, and for Atlanta, at $99, with more information available at dreamhack.com.
Esports Highlights
G2 Esports Hoists 100th IEM Trophy in Front of Sold-Out Crowd
After a week of the world’s best Counter-Strike 2 squads going head to head on the world stage, G2 Esports triumphed over Team Vitality 2-1 to claim the Intel® Extreme Masters (IEM) title in front of a sold-out arena.
G2 fought its way through the bracket despite a roster change that led to stand-in player and crowd favorite North American star Jake “Stewie2K” Yip joining the squad. In-game leader Nikola “NiKo” Kovač and his roster got revenge on Team Vitality, which took down G2 earlier in the tournament, in a back-and-forth match featuring two overtime maps.
“I don’t think you could have a better storyline than what Jake had here,” said NiKo. “We won somehow. No one knows how, but we did it. We pushed through.”
“I don’t know what to say,” added Stewie2K, whose last U.S. Counter-Strike LAN wins came with Team Liquid at IEM Chicago and DreamHack Masters Dallas in 2019. “I’m back. I’m just shaking on the inside.”
Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov earned ESL Pro Tour DHL MVP honors for his performance in the grand final. The event is a major milestone for EFG’s longstanding partnership with Intel®. The duo has been operating events collaboratively for nearly two decades, with IEM marking the upper echelon of gameplay and fandom.
“Intel has believed in esports even before there was an Intel Extreme Masters,” said Michal “Carmac” Blicharz, VP of Product Development, EFG. “They stuck with us when this was small, they stuck with us when there were 150 people in the audience and 10,000 people watching online, and now it’s thousands of fans and millions online. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to be around as long as we have been.”
Imperial fe Extend Their Dynasty with Seventh ESL Impact Title
Season 5 of ESL Impact, the global all-women Counter-Strike circuit, came to a close with Imperial fe hoisting the trophy. Their triumph marks another significant milestone for the team, being their first ESL Impact victory after joining the new organization and the debut championship for their latest addition Zainab “zAAz” Turkie. After their flawless run through the League’s Season, Imperial fe continued their dominance during the Global Finals, eliminating teams like HSG, BIG EQUIPA, and Let Her Cook along the way to lift the coveted trophy for the seventh consecutive time.
“I’m finally here, I finally won thanks to this amazing team,” said zAAz. “I’ve been doing a lot of work. I’m just really happy.”
Overwatch® Champions Series Crowns First Major Champion
Team Falcons and Crazy Raccoon put on a show twice on Sunday in the fight to claim the first-ever OWCS Major victory. Falcons, which swept the OWCS Dallas Major competition until a tense 3-2 win over Crazy Raccoon in the upper bracket final, met back up with the Japanese organization in the grand final after Crazy Raccoon’s 3-0 sweep of Spacestation in the lower bracket final. Team Falcons and Crazy Racoon once again matched up evenly throughout their showdown, with Crazy Raccoon getting revenge in a 4-2 series win to claim the Dallas Major trophy.
Joona “Serral” Sotala Shines in ESL StarCraft® II Masters: 2024 Spring Finals
Following three intense days of pool play and knockouts, Team Vitality’s Cho “Maru” Seong-ju and BASILISK’s Joona “Serral” Sotala advanced to face off in the Finals. A close series ended with Serral on top, earning the Finland native his 10th international ESL Pro Tour title and the lion’s share of the event’s $100K prize pool. Serral, along with Maru and semifinalists Park “Dark” Ryung-woo (Talon Esports) and Li “Oliveira” Peinan (DKZ Gaming), will face off again at this summer’s Esports World Cup.
Players across Multiple Titles Qualify for Esports World Cup
DreamHack Dallas hosted several qualifiers for Esports World Cup, with players across TEKKEN 8, EA SPORTS FC™, Street Fighter 6, Fortnite, and more earning their spots for this summer’s event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Players who qualified for EWC, and the winners of the DreamHack Dallas competitions are below:
EA SPORTS FC™
- Emre “EmreYilmaz” Yilmaz (WINNER)
- Manuel “Manuel” Bachoore
EWC ft. Fortnite
- Team Falcons (WINNER)
- Agent Gaming
- Karmine Corp
- Heroic
- Fnatic
- BIG
TEKKEN 8:
- Nakayama “NOBI” Daichi (WINNER)
- Hyunho “Rangchu” Jung
- Jae Hyun “CBM” Kim
- Jaegyun “Mulgold” Han
- Arslan “Arslan Ash” Ash
- Alexandre “AK” Laverez
- Muhammad “Farzeen” Farzeen
- Arja “Sephiblack” Gamoori
Street Fighter 6
- Tsunehiro “gachikun” Kanamori (WINNER)
- Benjamin “Problem X” Simon
- Arman “Phenom” Hanjani
- Zhen “Zhen” Kuang
- Saul “MenaRD” Mena
- Yuk “Chris Wong” Cheung Wong
- Du “NuckleDu” Dang
- Li-Wei “Oil King” Lin
DreamHack Fighters Crown Local Champions Across Six Titles
DreamHack witnessed intense battles in the fighting game arena. As part of DreamHack’s fighters hub, six open tournaments unfolded, featuring a mix of modern favorites and classic titles. Attendees and aspiring competitors alike face off to claim their share of the $16,000 total prize pool. Titles included:
- UNDER NIGHT 2
- Prize Money: $2,500
- Platform: PS5
- Winner: Defiant
- GranBlue Fantasy Versus Rising
- Prize Money: $2,500
- Platform: PS5
- Winner: Oscar “Shinku” Jaimes
- Guilty Gear -Strive-
- Prize Money: $2,500
- Platform: PS5
- Winner: Matthew “TempestNYC” Tulloch
- Mortal Kombat 1
- Prize Money: $2,500
- Platform: PS5
- Winner: Joey “KingGambler” Cortez
- Super Smash Bros Ultimate Singles
- Prize Money: $5,000
- Platform: Nintendo Switch
- Winner: Ethan “SHADIC” San Miguel
- Super Smash Bros Ultimate Doubles
- Prize Money $1,000
- Platform: Nintendo Switch
- Winners: Varun “Varun5” Siva + Tarun “Beastly” Chemiti
$130K Magic: The Gathering Regional Championship Welcomes Nearly 1,300 Players
Over 1,280 players flocked to DreamHack’s tabletop area to participate in the Magic: The Gathering U.S. Regional Championship. Four players were undefeated going into the final day of the tournament, but none emerged unscathed by the end, with every member of the top eight suffering at least one match loss before the quarterfinals began. Adam Weiss, Chris Barone, Newton Cheng, and Kyle Moran, Jason Ye, Charles Eiler, Jack Doucet, and London Glenn made the cut, but it came down to Weiss and Barone following their wins over Cheng and Moran, respectively, in the semifinals.
Weiss, piloting a Gruul Aggro deck, took down Barone and his Boros Convoke deck to claim the top spot in the $130,000 tournament.
Expo Highlights
DreamHack Drag & Drop: A Cosplay & Gaming Drag Show Makes Festival Debut
DreamHack’s inaugural Drag Show brought the festival’s fiercest artists to the Main Stage with an assortment of gaming-inspired outfits. Hosted by Emmy-nominated artist Biqtch Puddin’, the performance featured the likes of Jax, Lawrie Bird, MARISOL, and more.
DreamHack Cosplay Showcases Best-Dressed Fans Across Gaming Fandoms
DreamHack’s best-dressed attendees showed off their craft on the Main Stage during the festival’s Cosplay Championship. The competition awarded over $3,000 in prizing across the following categories:
- Expert
- Judge’s Choice (Sparkle Stache): Kaylee Makes Crafts
- Judge’s Choice (Dark Lady Cosplay): Woelfengrad
- First: Zavage Cosplay ($1,000)
- Second: aeicos ($500)
- Third: The Geeky Seamstress ($300)
- Artisan
- Judge’s Choice (Heartless Aquarius): GoldStarEXP
- First: Harushuuuu ($500)
- Second: Thiccboi Creations ($200)
- Third: BlueFlavoredCosplay ($100)
- Novice
- First: celsius ($300)
- Second: Glowing Cosplay ($100)
- Third: aight_cosplay ($50)
- Youth
- First: Burnt Toast ($75)
- Second: Darth Akuma ($50)
DreamHack’s Main Stage Blends Fantasy, Trivia, Music, and More
The Main Stage at DreamHack Dallas featured a range of gaming fandoms and celebrity guests throughout the weekend, including:
- A streamer trivia show hosted by Eiya, with Tactical Gramma, Omareloff, and Benjammins facing off to flex their gaming knowledge.
- Boze put on her detective cap and hosted a Murder Mystery Party for a cast of star guests, including actress Anjali Bhimani, streamer Big Cheese, and voice actor Katy Bentz.
- OTK streaming titan Esfand made his DreamHack debut and accepted fan and celebrity challengers in Street Fighter 6 during his Texas Street Fight.
For more images and assets from DreamHack Dallas, click HERE and from IEM Dallas, click HERE. For more information on ESL FACEIT Group, visit eslfaceitgroup.com and follow EFG on LinkedIn.
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About ESL FACEIT Group
ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) is the leading esports and video game entertainment company dedicated to creating worlds beyond gameplay where players and fans become community. EFG is built on a legacy of world-renowned brands including ESL, FACEIT, and DreamHack, providing innovative ecosystems for global communities of players, fans and creators around the games they love. Working alongside leading partners, brands and global IPs, EFG operates an unmatched portfolio of live events, digital platforms and developer tools that reach and engage millions of gamers worldwide. For more information visit www.eslfaceitgroup.com.
About DreamHack
DreamHack creates a world where the gaming community comes to life. The festivals, featuring everything gaming under one roof, create an arena where you can come to connect, explore, win, play a part, and be yourself through a gaming lifestyle experience. Attendees meet their favorite creators, experience professional esports tournaments, amateur and varsity gaming tournaments, world-famous bring-your-own-computer (BYOC) LAN party, cosplay championships, panels, art, activities, expo, screenings, live music, and more. DreamHack is part of ESL FACEIT Group, the leading competitive games and esports company.
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