DreamHack’s Press and PR Manager, Per Sjölin, has released a statement event security after the recent mass shooting at a Madden 19 esports tournament in Jacksonville, Florida.
The tragic event on August 26 saw the shooter take the lives of two people, and wound multiple others, before taking his own life.
DreamHack, the host of some of the biggest esports conventions and tournaments on the planet, sent its condolences to the victims before reassuring fans and players that the upcoming DreamHack Masters Stockholm event will have the correct security measures in place:
“While we cannot provide any details on how we work with security, we can say that this is done in consultation with law enforcement and security experts. This work is always ongoing and involves all DreamHack events.
We consult and have an active dialogue with the police as well as the Ericsson Globe security team regarding this weekend’s tournament in Stockholm. The latter has a long experience of event security and will have all their standard security measures in place for the CORSAIR DreamHack Masters Stockholm.”
The Jacksonville news brought the issue of security at esports and gaming events to light in the worst way possible, and number of prominent figures, like Richard Lewis and Jaryd ‘summit1g’ Lazar, expressed their concerns about security at tournaments in general.
In fact, DreamHack’s statement came after summit1g took to Twitter to say that security at events “needs to be taken ultra serious” and that 90% of the events he attends have “little to none”.
- Read More: OpTic Gaming Announces Madden Charity Stream to Support Families Impacted by Jacksonville Shooting
He followed that statement up by saying “I don’t want to throw DreamHack under the bus, but literally zero security”.
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Richard Lewis, who has been vocal about the lack of security at events for a number of years, said that he was: “devastated about today’s news regarding the shooting in Jacksonville. Even though I had warned about this potentially happening at an event I had hoped I would always be wrong.”
With the $250,000 DreamHack Masters Stockholm CS:GO tournament set to begin on August 29, attendees should expect to see tighter security measures than ever before.
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