VPesports had the opportunity to sit down for a chat with Mike Van Driel, the Chief Product Officer of DreamHack Events and Esports live from their Atlanta event. Van Driel talked about the partnership with Hi-Rez, Counter-Strike as a staple of DreamHack, event saturation and more.

You can find the full interview below:

VPesports: All right, so first, I was wondering about how the Hi-Rez partnership came to be? And then is it being viewed as long-term, or is it a one-year trial kind of thing?

Mike Van Driel: So I mean, we’ve been working with Hi-Rez, now I’m saying a year, so I want to be right. But it’s either 2015 or 2016. They first came to DreamHack summer actually, and did kind of their, like European stuff, right? And then we’ve actually been doing DreamHack Valencia as well. So we’ve been actually working pretty closely for a number of years now. And then when we first came to Atlanta, obviously a bunch of them come out to check out the event and so on. But then they were doing HRX as their own standalone event.

And then it kind of just talking, we’re in Atlanta, they’re in Atlanta, so it’s just like, “Hey, can we do something bigger together? Can you have more space?” I mean this is a huge facility, right? So, it kind of just evolved out of discussing and doing stuff together. I mean, for them, especially in Europe, it’s been very easy to. I mean, they’re an American company, not a huge footprint in Europe. So it makes a lot of sense to come do stuff at DreamHack, right?

And so from that, it’s just kinda like, “Well hey, how ’bout you bring everything to DreamHack Atlanta?” And we really try to put on a big shabang together. So that’s basically how the conversation came about. I mean this is their world championship. We really wanna make sure that those fans feel like this is prestigious and important, so from our side, we definitely hope that they will do it more. And we think it is, hopefully people are happy here. We’ve really put a lot of work in to try to make this event, so. It’s our second year, they’re really trying to make the visitor experience even better. Do more cool stuff. Make it also easier. I mean, it comes down, a lot of who wants to just wait in lines, and QA, and food options, and so on.

VPesports: It’s better than TwitchCon’s lines. So you guys already beat that.

Mike Van Driel: Security, it’s super important, right? And so we’ve put a lot of work to try and make sure that everyone can feel safe, first off. Because that’s more important than being stuck in here, right?

So it was decently long queue this morning, but everyone got it. And I think people just understanding the importance and need for that, so those people that give are understanding and funding, we’ve worked a lot on the security, and I have some really good people that really spent a lot of time on articles working at the venue, local authorities and everything. Just because it’s the utmost important thing, so.

VPesports: Alright. And then, we talked about CS:GO before. What about CS:GO has made it such a staple of DreamHack? I mean it’s at all events, on two different levels. You have masters, you have the regular open events. Why Counter-Strike?

Mike Van Driel: Counter-Strike is that kind of game where it seems to be popular in all of the regions where we’re giving events in. And it’s also obviously a game where, the approach Valve has taken allows us a lot of freedom to do what we want as we pleased. And then just the game itself is popular enough that we can drive enough viewership to generate sponsorship to do it. And so I mean, when it comes to doing that open specifically, it is a lot of stops we do. And it is challenging because obviously, we may be if we only focused only the tier one, we might get more viewership. But we feel it’s super important for the longevity of Counter-Strike to have tournaments that are not only focused on that top 1%, but to focus on the teams that if you think of the HLTV rankings that are, I don’t know, team top 50, or top 60, or top 40, or whatever.

VPesports: More into 15 to 30 instead of top 10.

Mike Van Driel: Yeah, exactly. And so, I think we’re actually, or I am. And Mark went through, and I’ve seen this motif in someone who worked on DreamHack open are. We’re proud that we can actually put on such a great show, and not just focus on the 1%. So Counter-Strike, it really comes back to down to just the size of the audience, and the fact that the approach Valve has taken allows us the freedom to do as much as we do. But we are mindful of not trying to do too much, and over-saturate the scene. That’s why we do focus on the tier two, a little bit more DreamHack open. And try to keep DreamHack Masters kind of exclusive. That’s also what makes, we believe, DreamHack Masters very, very prestigious to win.

VPesports: Yeah, speaking of the saturation. That was something I was gonna talk about it. So, once again, ’cause it comes up several times a year, right? The online leagues, and the LANs, and how people have to choose between two LANs at once, and all that, how do you guys work with that? Are you in talks at all with ESL or with ELEAGUE, or anybody to say, “Hey guys, we wanna put a masters event in September 20th.” Can we have that? Or is it just you guys do it, and hope that they don’t?

Mike Van Driel: There’s kind of a, I would call, a gentleman’s agreement between the different tournament organizers where we share our dates. And for the most part, big overlaps are avoided. But as DreamHack, we’re putting on something like 10 tournaments a year. 8 DreamHack Open stops, and two masters. There will be overlaps. And that’s just the fact of life. No one wants to do anything on Christmas, or not many, Easter’s okay, but no one wants to do anything on Christmas, and New Years. So there’s only so many weekends, and it’s also, within in the ecosystem and system, it’s better that everyone is doing stuff and there’s overlaps. Because once you start to try to police this, it just becomes a complete mess.

And all of a sudden, DreamHack Atlanta is this weekend. This Counter-Strike tournament is actually part of something bigger, so if we’re not allowed to have Counter-Strike on this weekend because we want to avoid overlap, then there’s just no event at all. It’s not like, “Oh, we do a weekend later.” And it’s challenging with venues, availability, and so on. So, I think it will be interesting how it continues to evolve in terms of, it is a lot of investment going into these tournaments, and I would say there are cases where you look at the prize pools, and stages built, and so on, where it’s just often maybe hard to see that this a wise use of money in some cases.

It means we’re actually building a sustainable business. ‘Cause again, for DreamHack, what we’re trying to do is really have a sustainable long-term ecosystem where we can have Counter-Strike on a professional level for years to come. Not just burn out, spend too much money, and move on to fresher pastures. It’s really about focusing on Counter-Strike. So, I would say it works pretty good between tournament organizers to avoid overlaps. And people also understand that they will happen. And oversaturation’s a challenge, and ultimate at the end of the day, it comes back to the teams and players to decide what they wanna participate in.

And of course, there’s this special balance there between players and teams where maybe on some teams players are more in the driver seat of where they’re going. And maybe on other teams that they have commitments to their teams, right? So they need to attend a lot of events, and I think it’s important that the teams are also doing what’s right. And the players need to be able to have a life. I think it’s great in Counter-Strike how there really is this kind of player vacation period. Super healthy thing that’s also, it’s like a proper eco-system, where it’s evolved on it’s own. It’s almost Darwinian where the players were like, “Okay, we need to do this.”

Because at the end of the day, the tournament organizers are competing against each other. And so we will keep doing more stuff. We will be creating more content. And in the long run, it’s good that we’re competing against each other. And so, of course, it’s important that the players push back and set up this stuff. And so on the point is, while I’m on this tangent, is like the player union. It’s a great thing for us, because it’s important that we get more organized, and get better channels to be able to improve what we do, look at what we do, and again, make it sustainable for the long run.

VPesports: Moving away from CS into DreamHack as a whole, with an event like this, more games better? Less games better? ‘Cause I mean, it gets to the point where, ’cause you guys don’t have the same ones at every event, right? This event, and maybe a couple of these titles, and the other ones. But do you put a cap on it? Like, “we’re only running seven different games,” or are you like, “Well if more are there, or more want to get it on it, then we do it.”

Mike Van Driel: We always have a limited number of space, right? So it’s important not to do too much stuff. And of course, putting on an extra fighting game, where their fighting games are fast. They’re sharing a stage, and so on. It’s a lot different than adding a dota tournament or something. So, I think for us, our goal is really to have a diverse content offering. So, perhaps it’s like bringing a big Halo tournament here. Of course, I think there’s actually some overlap between Counter-Strike and Halo, but it’s maybe not huge in that way. So, the more different communities we can bring together is great for us. So we’re really always trying to do more, but at the same point, we don’t want it to be too much stuff happening at once. And that’s also, we’re offering a focus not on just having e-sports content, but other content. And the games down here for example. Everybody playing games actually probably go and check out some different indie games, be like, “Yeah, these are cool.”

So it’s a lot about having a diverse content offering that isn’t just about esports. Kind of the common thread really is gaming. And that’s what DreamHack is kind of about.