Dreamhack: Day 2

Saturday, 29th of April

• I am in "Vollie HQ/Subs"

• Walking around, making sure people are going where they intend to go. I took over Just Dance for a casual employee for a while, so I helped attendees with the game, console issues, etc.

• Bring your own computer zone (BYOC). Culture of playing video games in a public setting. Half of RLA was dedicated to this

• Collection of volunteering lanyards

• Cosplayers competition - main stage, in Rod Laver Arena

• "Artist's alley'' zone - fan made art, DND dice, cosplaying items

• My shift - 2.30pm until 8.30pm. 30 minute break

• Volunteers very open, playing / communication with attendees is high

• Prizes that tempt individuals in the community (razer, racing chairs, t-shirts, RGB keyboards, headsets , marvel figures, game specific rewards (Rainbow 6 siege) ↳ "celebrating gaming culture" ↳ volunteers!

• People with and without skill - many different levels. People also here purely for the E-sports ↳ mobile gamers , but also Pc / console.

• Formation of groups in the volunteers: 4 team leaders, staff ↳ determined by whether they have volunteered before

• Lots of spectators around cosplay competitions, super smash bros competitions in fighting hall (expo), speed running, etc. ↳ High levels of immersion

• Social identification. in groups and out groups.

• During my time in Dreamhack today, I spent most of my time packing giveaway bays with a league of legends theme.

• Bags consisted of squishies/stress toys (2 per bag), a lanyard, and two wristbands.

• These bags were originally going to be thrown at attendees to catch, and those of us volunteers who were packing the bags got curious to what that would feel like. (This turned into us throwing drawstring giveaway LOL bags to each other at full force).

• Speed running packing the bags - holding 3 or 4 at a time. We finished all of the packing within 3 or 4 hours.

• Trash Taste meet and greet and cafe - crowd control

• Guiding attendees to the live music - it felt like the wrong target group/market. Rave like music?

• AS A VOLUNTEER, YOU EXPERIENCE THE EVENT IN A WHOLE NEW WAY /LENS.

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Today was the big day - WRISTBANDS! - the tournaments, the finals for League of Legends. The in groups and out groups, the visible wristbands, the highest amounts of crowds throughout the whole weekend. When I arrived I was sent to 'Rainbow road", where there was a game of guess who, but for League of Legends characters. It was cold, so we didn't have to show our orange volunteer shirts (see photo). Instead, I wore the Dreamhack hoodie. (also see photo).

League of Legends Guess Who

To the left you are able to see the set up of the League of Legends guess who game. This was also a space for attendees to relax, and hang out outdoors in the sun. On the left side of the photo you can see a cosplayer - she was interacting with another attendee, who takes videos of cosplayers in a cool way. Behind me when I took the photo, were chairs and bean bags (you can kind of see it on the right hand side of the image), where attendees could relax in a more peaceful and calm environment.

Whilst I was posted in this area, I mainly was helping attendees with the guess who game, and directing others where they had wished to go (RLA, MCA, Expo, etc).

Dreamhack Volunteer t-shirt

This was also when I had an attendee come up to me - saying that he was lost, so I tried to help him. I asked where he wanted to go, and what he was looking for - I was ready with the Dreamhack app on my phone open at this point. To which, the attendee said he was looking for my instagram? This honestly wasn't something I was expecting at Dreamhack as a volunteer, and I awkwardly laughed it off with the volunteer I was working with next to me. It was really awkward.

After I had directed attendees to places they wanted to go, and explain the guess who game to attendees, it was then brought to my attention that we had too many volunteers in the expo area. I messaged in the volunteer discord channel, however, there were waaay too many messages being sent at the same time, and it was super hectic. Saturday was really crazy. So, I went back to volunteer HQ and I asked if there was anything I could help with, and so I was sent to the loading dock - Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC). This was around 5:30 to 6pm, and to be in this area you had to wear a Hi-Vis vest, as you were working with people driving in their cars, picking up their PCs and letting them out of the loading dock area of Rod Laver Arena. It was really

BYOC Loading Dock

dead. I think there were maybe, maximum 5 cars that came by to BYOC. I just stood at the exit of the loading dock and made sure that they were able to exit, and that no unwanted or that external guests and civilians didn't come inside through the gate - I was basically a security guard. I would've never thought to be a security guard whilst volunteering at Dreamhack, but here we are.

When the BYOC area had closed off for the day, I was then sent back to volunteer HQ. Another thing to note, is that during this, I was able to see the backstage areas of Rod Laver Arena - the dressing rooms, the areas that performers go before and after their concerts - it was really cool seeing the backstage parts.

When I got back to volunteer HQ, we explained that the BYOC area had closed for the day, and asked what there was to do and how we could help out. This is when the wristband distribution had begun.

WRISTBANDS! THEY'RE FREE!

At first, it was us crowd controlling and handing out wristbands as we saw people. Then, we were told that the aim was to get rid of all the wristbands we had. This was because all the wristbands were the leftovers from the giveaway bags I had packed the day before, and were all League of Legends themed. Saturday was the last day for all of the League of Legends E-sports tournaments, which meant that all of the League of Legends wristbands had to be distributed out into the crowd - every. single. one. It got to the point where it was kind of ridiculous, and we were giving

wristbands to people that had become familiar faces. Not to mention all of the cleaners, and the workers of the Olympic Park Arenas that we had given wristbands out to, (even though majority of them had no

idea about League of Legends, and what the game even is). We had bags upon bags of wristbands, and there were only two types of them that we had, both related to League.

It was at this point where I had begun saying "wristbands, wristbands! Do you want a wristband, did you know that they're free?" to anyone that I saw walking down the arena halls, even if they already had an arm already sleeved up in them. Regardless of that, though, they still took them. One guy took a whole bag of them, and another guy asked me to put the wristbands on top of his arm cast (it's harder than you think). We had a whole box of wristbands to get rid of.

There was a group of guys that came up to us volunteers and said that they would take more wristbands. One of them said that they were going to throw them at their friends, in a joking way, and the other guy replied (also jokingly), "Hey, do you hear that? He said he's going to throw them at me, don't give him anymore!!!"

We still hadn't gotten rid of the wristbands, and so we then started to walk into the Arena where the League tournaments were happening, and started discretely giving them out to those seated on the upper levels. This was my idea, and we had to get approval for it because we weren't sure if it was allowed. But we did it anyways. And then, day two of Dreamhack was over (after we finished crowd control for the League of Legends tournament of course).