eSports: DreamHack 2019 starts in Rio de Janeiro

Today the DreamHack 2019 starts in the Olympic Park of Rio de Janeiro. The renowned eSports tournament series brings for two days some of the best eSportsmen of the world to Brazil, who will compete for prize money of more than 100.000 US dollars (approx. 89.000 Euro).

Although the DreamHack is considered to be the longest and most successful eSports event series in the world, the latest news about the cancellation of the Rainbow Six Tournament has not put the event in Rio under a good star.
As the organizer confirmed in a press release, the event had to be canceled due to problems with the location. However, the organization of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Tournament and the eagerly awaited League of Legends Showmatch between the Flamengo eSports and INTZ eSports teams will remain unchanged.

Critics are less inclined to believe this explanation. They suspect financial mismanagement of the Brazilian organizers behind the cancellation of the event.

What is DreamHack?

The DreamHack is the oldest and largest eSports tournament series in the world. It was held for the first time in 1994 in Jönköping, Sweden, and was created as a computer festival in which players competed against each other in LAN mode.
While the prize pools of the DreamHack events were still well below 1,000 US dollars (approx. 890 euros) in 2002, they are now as high as 100,000 US dollars (approx. 89,000 euros).

The DreamHack tour currently has more than 20 stops worldwide, with venues such as Atlanta, London, Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm, and Leipzig. Among the considerable sponsors of the meeting belong among other things the laptop manufacturer Lenovo and the beverage enterprise Monster Energy.

What is behind the cancellation of the Rainbow Six event?

By hosting the DreamHack in the Olympic Park of Rio de Janeiro, the organizing committee pursued the goal of having as many spectators as possible participate live in the eSports tournaments.

According to the sports news portal ESPN, a lack of sponsors could be the reason why individual events in the series could not take place. Several suppliers allegedly turned to ESPN Esports Brasil to complain about a lack of cost recovery.
The feasibility of the ambitious project had also been discussed behind closed doors for some time.
For fans of the game Rainbow-Six, one of the most popular video games in Brazil, the cancellation might be as painful as for the teams that qualified for the final round in the run-up to the tournament.

These included well-known names such as Team Liquid, FaZe Clan, Immortals, and Black Dragons e-Sports. The Rainbow Six women’s competition, for which Brazilian Crusaders e-Sports and Resilience e-Sports had qualified, was also affected by the cancellation.
In total, the Rainbow Six tournaments alone were expected to involve prize money of 50,000 Brazilian real (approx. 11,000 euros).

Counter-Strike to save the day

Meanwhile the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) tournament of the DreamHack is expected with high tension. The competition, for which a total prize pool of 100,000 US dollars (approx. 89,000 euros) will be available, will be broadcast on Twitch as well as on YouTube Stream.
After the cancellation of the Rainbow-Six-Tournament CS:GO is considered as the lifeline of this year’s DreamHack Rio de Janeiro. Teams such as eUnited and INTZ will guarantee eSports for top-class action.

Things are going better globally

While it remains to be seen whether the DreamHack Rio will be a success despite all the circumstances, the umbrella organization of the eSport tournament series had every reason to celebrate last week.
Only on Friday it became known that DreamHack will be a partner of the US fast-food chain Chipotle with immediate effect. According to the deal, advertising for Chipotle will be shown at US tournaments in Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas.

In return, the barbecue restaurant will provide food to player lounges at eSports events and support a Chipotle Challenger Series where amateurs can prove their skills at DreamHack events.
Chipotle, like other large companies, hopes to benefit from the growing eSports market and its community, as Chipotle Marketing Director Chris Brandt said:

“Our partnership with DreamHack allows Chipotle to grow even further into the eSports community. The sponsorship gives us the opportunity to get in direct contact with new and old Chipotle customers”.

It remains to be hoped that potent sponsors will also pay more attention to DreamHack events in South America in the future. Then cancellations like the one in Rio de Janeiro might soon be a thing of the past