DreamHack is the world’s largest LAN party. It attracts more tens of thousands of visitors every year. It has expanded to more locations throughout Sweden during the last few years, but the main event is still where it all began, in Jönköping. But all is not well in DreamHack land.
A couple of years back the ownership and overall focus of the event changed. This was about the same time we decided to pull out. Instead of being a great fun party it became a sort of event where companies exhibit semi-fresh hardware and the LAN party became secondary.
The people we worked directly with and everyone we came in contact with on the floor was still pretty much the same, but the overall ambiance had changed from being a festivity to a commercial event. This came as a direct result of the change in ownership and decision to profit as much as possible from the DreamHack brand.
We can’t blame them for wanting to make more money, but when you lose the ambiance you need to take a step back and reconsider. DreamHack is still sold out at every event, the event is huge among young gamers that sill enjoy the LAN part, but in all honesty probably could do without the exhibit.
Behind the scenes there is a power struggle. The profiteering side of DreamHack and the original crew doesn’t quite get along. The former wants to push the enormous potential of the DreamHack brand to the limit, but the latter wants to focus on the key element of the organization: the LAN party. And this is a pretty ordinary scenario, it’s just that they haven’t been able to resolve it in a very grown-up manner.
The latest move was to remove the VP of DreamHack AB and one of the original crew David Garpenståhl from his position and later on he even decided to leave the board. Garpenståhl still owns 50% of the company, while his antagonist Bernt Ohlén owns the other half, who was also the person to remove Garpenståhl.
After being removed from his post Garpenståhl filed a complaint to the police. Claiming Ohlén violated corporation laws. Ohlén decided to remove Garpenståhl after investigating the company finances and concluding things weren’t quite what they should be.
Garpenståhl claimed to have done what he could, but that the company is nearing bankruptcy. Ohlén denies any such thing, just says that things weren’t handled the way they were supposed to. The summer event looks to become one of the most important in the history of the company. I’m afraid we might be losing DreamHack.
The incident with David Garpenståhl was a benefit for dreamhack, dreamhack will be stronger and better again i my opinion /Twelve "-)reamhack Crew"
Never a good sign when the owners are arguing like this. It’s beneath them.
Many of the users prefer to have Dreamhack rather than any other similar item.