Dreamhack Montreal 2017 has arrived, running from September 8th to the 10th, bringing in a lot of people with or without their own gaming rig to participate in a huge LAN party. Check out our Indie Game Zone recap here.
Day 2 brought in the bulk of the action with the esport tournaments all heading into their elimination matches while Hearthstone wrapped up the day with their Top 8. Dreamhack Astro Open for Counter Strike: Global Offensive also had their Decider and Elimination matches, having the event visitors flooding the show floor. Street Fighter V tournaments were running hot as well as the Smash Bros Championships for both WiiU and Melee Championships. And for non-gaming action, the event to start off Saturday for the general public was the exciting Cosplay Competition. Let’s take a look.
Cosplay Competition
Dreamhack’s cosplay competition kicked off at noon on Saturday and featured really intricate and great costumes from all the participants. It started off with Gundam and followed through with a few cosplayers doing Overwatch. Crash Bandicoot made an appearance as well as Warhammer and Monster Hunter and of course, Zelda and Final Fantasy XV’s Prompto. The top three were the following:
3rd Place: Monster Hunter
2nd Place: Gundam
1st Place: The 3 Queens of Overwatch
Gaming Tech Highlight
Cosplay, indie games and esports are only a portion of Dreamhack. For those in between events or taking a break from gaming, there are lots of gaming software companies to try out new technology and gaming rigs along with display cases. It is a wonderland of gaming accessories and hardware to explore and try out.
ThermalTake showed off a display case with a Donkey Kong theme.
In Win also showed off their in medieval casing at the Omen by HP booth earning some super style points. These are only examples of the tech that was on the exhibition floor as virtual reality technology dominated also with gaming rigs that could give the best resolution for those interested in immersing in those worlds.
One of the most immersive and impressive experiences goes to Aperium, a company that works with virtual locomotion. At this event, they chose a walking simulator horror game and the HTC Vive as well as a motion-sensored rolling carpet that would accommodate to the player’s move whether walking or speeding through the halls. This helped to make the virtual reality experience more authentic and immersive.
Esport Tournaments
Dreamhack events is defined by their esport tournaments. While we aren’t experts and don’t have particular interest in participating in it, there is no doubt that the crowd makes it hard to not be enthusiastic to join into watching some of the events. Our main draw went to Dreamhack Astro Open which showed teams competing in Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Dreamhack Hearthstone Grand Prix which was one versus one in Blizzard’s free online card game, Hearthstone.
Dreamhack Astro Open
Counter Strike: Global Offensive is truly a force to be reckon as we can see that each match brought out a lot of audience. It is an exciting game to watch even if you aren’t a multiplayer type of gamer. How this works is that they have to compete in 30 rounds of CS:GO and take the majority of the wins. If needed, they have the option to take a limited amount of tactical pauses to discuss with their coaches. We saw a few matches during Saturday showing off the teams and their abilities from CompLexity, Lumininosity, Kinguin and Counter Logic Gaming (CLG). Of course, there are many more teams. You can watch all the matches on the Dreamhack Youtube or Twitch channel.
One of the most impressive rounds of Saturday did have to go to the one we witnessed with CompLexity versus Luminosity where Luminosity started falling behind in the first few matches and made a very impressive comeback. The winner of the Dreamhack Astro Open went to The North is Here.
Dreamhack Hearthstone Grand Prix
Hearthstone may not have rendered a huge stage but the crowds standing behind them stopping and watching were countless. The strategy and deck building let each of these players show off what they can do using different card types in Hearthstone. Hearthstone competitors had to win three matches first in order to gain points and proceed. We caught a few rounds on the show floor with Chris Leblanc, Cydonia, Teebs, Swarm and Sh4dowmoon, etc.
One of the highlights of the matches we were watched did have to go to Sh4dowmoon, a Canadian 13-year-old competitor. While he didn’t make it into the Top 16, the game he played showed some potential and hopefully we will see succeed in future Dreamhack events. The winner of Hearthstone Dreamhack Grand Prix went to Muzzy who took a 3-2 over his opponent, Seohyun628 in the finals. Other tournaments included the Dreamhack Smash Championship which included the Super Smash Bros WiiU and Super Smash Bros Melee, Street Fighter V and of course, the immensely popular and passionate Star Craft 2 World Championship Series Circuit.