Gaming is quickly becoming one of the most popular activities for children, teens and adults alike. Whether its on your phone playing candy crush or shooting games on your xbox, gaming is great fun for everyone. Here are some events happening around the year that celebrate gaming.

Counter Strike – MLG Columbus

March 29th – April 3rd

The first major counter strike tournament to be held outside of Europe, 24 of the worlds best teams will compete in North America for the chance to win 1 million dollars! Counter Strike is a fast paced first person shooter game requiring strategy, patience and teamwork. Thousands will go to watch these games live, along with millions of viewers watching the event streamed on twitch.tv

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Dreamhack summer

18th June – 21st June

Dreamhack is the largest LAN festival in the world with 56,000 visitors using over 23,000 devices at once. Hosted in Jönköping Sweden, Dreamhack is world famous for having the fastest internet in the world with the most simultaneous users. Dreamhack is also the host of multiple e-sport tournaments across many genres. Some are open to all guests with the final tournaments featuring the best players around the world.

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Gamescom

17th August – 21st August

Taking place annually in Cologne Germany, Gamescom is the largest gaming event in the world attracting 345,000 visitors last year. It is used by game companies to showcase upcoming games and hardware, which can be exclusively played early by visitors. Many major e-sports tournaments have been hosted at gamesom, such as the Dota 2 international 2011, the first tournament with a prizepool of one million dollars.

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EGX Expo

22nd September – 25th September

Previously known as Eurogamer, EGX is the UKs biggest gaming event with 75,000 guests attending last year. Hosted in Birmingham, this expo will feature big budget games, newly announced indie games, along with live e-sports and in depth discussions with developers.

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Will you be watching or attending any of these events? Let us know over on Twitter or tag us on Instagram @holidaydiscountcentre. 

Images via Flickr:thegorbenkoreport,map,louisbrindle,eslphotos