Geek Trivia: Where Is The World’s Largest LAN Party Held?

Munich, Germany New York, United States Jönköping, Sweden London, England geek-trivia-where-is-the-world-and-8217;s-largest-lan-party-held photo 1

geek-trivia-where-is-the-world-and-8217;s-largest-lan-party-held photo 2
Answer: Jönköping, Sweden

It’s not hard to host a LAN party–get a few friends together, plug some computers into a switch, and you’ve got the groundwork for a good time. Increase the scale however to, say, 20,000 friends, and you’ve got a project that requires some serious planning.

Back in the early 1990s, a group of Swedish friends and computer enthusiasts started gathering in a Malung elementary school basement. The original meeting had no official name, no internet access, and only a few computers. The gathering grew, and by 1994 they had moved upstairs to the cafeteria, adopted the event name DreamHack, and had 40 computers–but still no internet access. More people kept coming, computer companies showed an interest in giving demonstrations, and the entire affair continued to grow–by 1997 it had moved to a small arena in Borlänge. DreamHack continued to grow as an event (and outgrow venues) until it found a permanent home in Jönköping, Sweden at the Elimia Exhibition Center. In roughly 10 years DreamHack went from being the largest LAN party in Sweden, to the largest LAN party in Scandanavia, to the largest LAN party in the entire world.

How large? In December of 2011, the DreamHack Winter meeting boasted 20,984 total visitors, over 12,000 individual computers (all with their own individual stations that included power and a high-speed internet link to the venues temporary 210Gbps internet connection), a total prize pool of a $160,000, concerts, demonstrations, and even a massive sleeping hall for thousands of gamers to crash in between matches. For a weekend the Elmia Exhibition Center where the event is hosted becomes its own heavily populated and technologically dazzling village of games and computer enthusiasts.

More stories

How to Optimize Opera for Maximum Privacy

Opera, like all popular web browsers, contains features that sacrifice privacy for convenience. Opera contains some features that send every website you visit to its servers, but also offers excellent, fine-grained control of cookies.

Week in Geek: FBI Plans to Increase Monitoring of Social Networks

This week’s edition of WIG is filled with news link goodness covering topics such as the botnet apps found in the official Google Android Market, Mozilla’s plans to add a reset button to Firefox, the operator of the Kelihos botnet was a former anti-virus firm employee, and more.

How-To Decrypt DVDs with HandBrake (So You Can Rip Them)

Ripping DVDs is a great way to keep a backup and stream videos over your network. The process typically takes 2-3 different programs to accomplish the task. Here’s how you can skip a step and decrypt DVDs using HandBrake.

How To Change Inches To Centimeters In Word 2010

By default in Microsoft Word 2010, width, height, and even paper size is shown in inches. For some people this is an obscure measurement that is hardly ever used. If you’d rather display in centimeters instead, let’s take a look at how we can change the default measurement unit from inches to

The Cost of Technology Over the Decades [Infographic]

In 1977 an Atari 2600 cost $200. Adjusted for inflation that’s $589–more than enough to buy an Xbox 360, Wii, and some accessories for both. Check out this infographic for comparisons between computers, cellphones, and more.