Speedrunning tournaments coming to DreamHack Anaheim

DreamHack Speedrunning will have a new look and see multiple community tournaments at DreamHack Anaheim 2020.

The festival will see a series of community based speedrunning tournaments with special featured speedrunners in attendance.

One of bigger tournaments will be a solo run of Halo: Reach with $2000 in cash and prizes to win. Competitors will play for the fastest time in selected levels provided on site with five players at a time.

48 of the fastest runners, the top 24 from both Friday and Saturday, will then compete throughout Sunday for the fastest time and a shot at the $650 for the winner. Prizes will also be given out to each day's fastest runner.

Jonathan "ProAceJOKER" Carroll and Matthew "DJBluePDX" Beasley will be hosting the speedrunning portions of DreamHack Anaheim.

Applications for any speedrunners are open for those willing to submit timed runs of various games for the chance to earn an invite and featured spot at the event running from 21-23rd February.

Speedrunning has been a subgenre of gaming for decades but has seen a growth in popularity in recent years thanks to livestreams showcasing runs by popular speedrunners. Both modern games and classics have records that can be immensely competitive as players continue to optimise runs and beat personal records and those of other runners.

Events such as Awesome Games Done Quick raise money for charity with speedrunning forming a key part of the entertainment provided in exchange for donations.