Over the weekend, Dreamhack Winter 2011 — the largest LAN party in the world — went down in Sweden. Here’s what it looked like.
To give you an idea of the scale of the event, over 12,000 people turned up with PCs in tow, to not only play the LAN games of their choosing but also take part in e-sports competitions for titles like StarCraft II and Counter-Strike.
There was also live music, stores, parties, the works. Looks like the best, if not also the stinkiest, weekend a PC gamer could wish for.
Lucas
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 7:56 AMThink of the smell…
TvZ
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:13 AMNNNoooooooooo!
MrBS
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:26 AMI’m really hoping the haze seen in the picture is smoke but something tells me it isn’t……
WiseHacker
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:10 AMI think there is something there. Let me light a match and find out…
*And I am never heard from again.*
Effluvium Boy
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:28 AMI like to think the haze is cheese-dust from Cheetos/Doritos/etc.
Andrew
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:42 AMOhman. I run a LAN in Melbourne, and our top figure is 50 people.. it’s for charity, so imagine if we ever got to 12,000..!
The LAN is called ReliefLANs by the way, you should totally check us out #ShamelessSelfPromotion
Vrox
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:03 AMTeenage boy stank! You could cut it with a knife…
Steve
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:42 PMMy favourite people at LANs are the uber-nerds who bring dark sheets or heavy coats to throw over their monitor and head and play underneath like a pillow fort to prevent screening.
Pioneer
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:52 AMWoah it looks like the LANs I used to run – 50% setting up, 40% sharing files and 10% playing a game.
Bryce
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:26 AMWelcome to every problem Lans. Not to mention the friggin clean up. Oh sure, they’d tell you to clean your mess up, but there’d always be a few guys who’d just bail.
But hey, back in the days before decent internet connections, you had to do what you had to do, I guess.
noko
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:18 AMI wish I can attend these events. Melbourne is such a boring place for gamers.
Rob
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:45 AMTry living in Tasmania ;)
UberRoxor
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 2:31 PMBut you have the internet…
Morkai
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:07 AMLook up Respawn LAN, a whole bunch of my friends from Sydney car pool to travel down to melbourne for it.
Harli
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:49 AMzomg!
lemonmule
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 12:59 PMsuppperr stanky.
James Mac
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 1:02 PMHoly mother of Johesphat!
Sylver
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 3:07 PMZomg, he’s touching her boob!
Chris
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 5:33 PMHoly crap! Imagine the power draw!
How do they play games like Starcraft 2, bf3 etc, where you need Internet to play… Surely they wouldn’t have a good enough bandwidth connected to that shed to share with 12000 people? Perhaps a temp wifi repeater or something is set up?
Jason
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 12:59 AMits Sweden they have 10gbit internet connections
Steve
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:43 PMI can’t even begin to imagine the heat in that place with all those PCs running at full bore with heat being pushed out by fans, along with 12,000 unwashed nerds. The smell.
InformedGamer
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 12:05 PM“PC gaming is dead”
lol