DreamHack Anaheim 2022 Cancelled

DreamHack Anaheim 2022 has been canceled, as announced by DreamHack on Wednesday, December 15. The esports event was supposed to take place in February, won’t go through with the schedule due to undisclosed difficulties.

The DreamHack Anaheim 2022, scheduled for February 11-13, has been canceled. The Swedish tournament organizer announced the news, citing “difficulties in hosting the festival in a qualitative way.”

“We were all really looking forward to our first in-person festival in the United States in two years, so canceling DreamHack Anaheim was not an easy decision,” said Krzysztof Pikiewicz, SVP of Festivals at ESL Gaming.

“However, DreamHack creates a space for our community to connect, explore, win, play, and be themselves through an interactive, gaming lifestyle experience, and we simply didn’t feel like Anaheim would be able to live up to that in February. We are now focusing on DreamHack Dallas and DreamHack Summer in June and can’t wait to welcome our community back at those festivals.”

The event’s cancellation is a massive blow to the Halo esports scene, as the festival was supposed to host Halo Infinite HCS North American Regional Championship. The tournament was intended to be hosted in partnership with DreamHack and 343 Industries, but unforeseen challenges made that impossible.

Fortunately, the competition was not scrapped. Instead, as ts replacement, DreamHack, and 343 Industries announced a new, stand-alone tournament that will take place on the same dates as initially planned.

The festival was also supposed to host a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ESL Challenger event. Like its Halo counterpart, it got canceled; however, DreamHack has yet to announce rescheduling.

The DreamHack Anaheim 2022 was going to be DreamHack’s first event in North America in two years when the company hosted the DreamHack Anaheim 2020. But, unfortunately, due to COVID-19, all the subsequent events had to be held online.

What’s more, DreamHack Anaheim is the second event the organizer had to alter, following DreamHack Atlanta, which had to be pushed back to 2022 due to COVID-19.

Despite the cancellation of the gaming festival, the Halo Championship Series 2022: North America Regionals is still on. The tournament will take place on the same dates as initially planned (February 11-13), but it’s unclear where the event will be held.

The HCS NA Regionals will serve as a qualifier Halo esports event for the Kansas City Major. The tournament will feature 24 teams and an open signup format.

Sixteen teams will get seeded directly into the Pool Play and join the top four teams from the Upper Bracket. Meanwhile, the top four teams from the Lower Bracket will advance to Championship Lower Bracket.

The Pool Play will feature four groups of five teams and a double-elimination round-robin format. The Pool Play will welcome 16 seeded teams and four Open Bracket teams, who will compete in a best-of-five (Bo5) format.

The top two teams from each group will advance into the Championship Upper Bracket Round 1. The third, fourth, and fifth-placed teams will get seeded into the lower bracket’s third, second, and first round.

The event will have a total of $125,000 prize pool, with a $45,000 winner’s share and $27,500 for the second-placed team. Besides the prize pool, the teams will also compete for a spot at the Kansas City Major; however, the tournament organizers have yet to announce how many tickets for the Major will be available.

The Halo Kansas City Major is slated for April 29 – May 1, 2022, in Kansas City, United States. The Halo Major will feature a $250,000 prize pool and 16 teams, hailing from Europe, North America, Mexico, and Oceania.