DreamHack
A Swedish computer party that started in a school basement in Malung in 1994 and ended up as a global esports brand.
In its early years DreamHack was a fairly ordinary demoparty: a few dozen people, their computers, and competitions in demos and music. Gaming gradually took over, and after a few years in Borlänge the event moved to the Elmia exhibition centre in Jönköping in the early 2000s. There it grew into the world's largest LAN party, with thousands of self-hauled PCs and entries in the Guinness World Records.
From there the road led to esports: MTG bought a majority stake in 2015, and the brand is now part of ESL FACEIT Group. The scene competitions lingered for years in the shadow of the tournaments – a quiet reminder of where it all came from.