CAGGTUS Leipzig 2025: Gaming Heritage, Germany’s Last LAN Party and Cosplay Photography

Leipzig and its Unique Gaming Legacy

With CAGGTUS 2025, Leipzig once again demonstrated why the city still holds a special place in Germany’s gaming culture. Today the event is widely considered the last major LAN party of its kind in Germany, preserving a tradition that once defined the early years of PC gaming communities.

Yet the story behind CAGGTUS is much larger. To understand its significance, it is worth taking a brief look at Leipzig’s long gaming convention history.

From Games Convention to Gamescom

In the early 2000s, Leipzig became the epicenter of the German gaming industry’s public events through the Games Convention, first held in 2002.

At its peak, the fair attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors and functioned as a European counterpart to the American Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and Japan's Tokyo Game Show. Publishers, hardware manufacturers, and developers used the event to showcase upcoming games, new technologies, and major industry announcements.

For years, the Games Convention turned Leipzig into one of Europe’s most important meeting points for the gaming industry.

However, the event was eventually relocated to Cologne, where it was rebranded as Gamescom. For many gaming enthusiasts in Leipzig, the move felt like a significant loss of cultural identity.

Fortunately, the city’s gaming tradition did not end there.

The Evolution: Games Convention Online to DreamHack

After the relocation of the Games Convention, Leipzig introduced the Games Convention Online, focusing more strongly on online gaming, esports, and internet culture.

This event eventually evolved into DreamHack Leipzig, the European edition of the famous Swedish gaming festival. DreamHack combined massive LAN parties, esports tournaments, exhibitions, and community-driven gaming culture.

For several years, DreamHack kept Leipzig firmly on the map of international gaming events.

When DreamHack eventually moved on as well, Leipzig once again faced the question of how to continue its gaming heritage.

The Birth of CAGGTUS

The answer was CAGGTUS.

Designed as a successor that carries the spirit of earlier festivals forward, the event blends classic LAN party culture with modern gaming conventions.

The core concept includes several major components:

• a large LAN area where players bring their own gaming setups

• esports tournaments and stage events

• exhibitor spaces featuring gaming hardware and software

• community and creator areas

This hybrid structure allows CAGGTUS to maintain something many modern conventions have lost: active participation.

Instead of only watching games, visitors can still experience gaming culture directly.

The LAN Party: A Rare Tradition

The LAN party remains the heart of the event.

Participants bring their own PCs, monitors, keyboards, and headsets, connecting them to a massive local network. For several days the exhibition hall transforms into a digital playground where players compete in tournaments, join cooperative matches, or simply enjoy gaming together.

In the early 2000s, LAN parties were central to gaming culture. Today they have become increasingly rare, which makes CAGGTUS something like a living archive of that era.

For many participants, the event represents both community and nostalgia.

Gaming Meets Pop Culture

While gaming remains the central theme, CAGGTUS has gradually expanded into a broader pop culture festival.

Modern gaming culture overlaps strongly with other entertainment fields, including anime, streaming culture, and cosplay. As a result, the event features a growing variety of complementary attractions.

Among the highlights are:

• cosplay appearances and competitions

• retro arcade machines featuring classic titles

• a museum-style exhibition about video game history

These exhibits showcase the evolution of gaming from early arcade cabinets to modern competitive esports.

My Personal Focus: Cosplay Portrait Photography

Although gaming forms the foundation of the event, my own focus at CAGGTUS naturally lies elsewhere.

As a cosplay portrait photographer, conventions like this offer an excellent opportunity to capture creative costumes in dynamic environments. Many visitors attend the event dressed as characters from popular games, anime series, or other pop culture franchises.

This creates a perfect intersection between gaming culture and cosplay photography.

Unlike purely anime-focused conventions, gaming events often feature characters from franchises such as The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter, or Cyberpunk, offering a visually diverse mix of costumes.

Between exploring the gaming exhibitions and observing the LAN area, I usually spend much of my time searching for interesting cosplay subjects, arranging spontaneous portrait sessions, and experimenting with different photographic approaches.

Events like CAGGTUS demonstrate how closely gaming and cosplay culture have become intertwined.

Why CAGGTUS Still Matters

In a time when many gaming conventions have become highly commercialized marketing events, CAGGTUS retains something special.

It combines the participatory spirit of classic LAN culture with modern elements such as esports, cosplay, and gaming exhibitions.

For visitors, this creates a unique atmosphere where gaming is not only presented as entertainment, but also as a shared cultural experience.

And for photographers, it offers a fascinating visual environment where gaming culture, community, and creativity meet.

Looking Ahead

By maintaining the legacy of LAN parties while embracing modern pop culture trends, CAGGTUS Leipzig continues to honor the city’s long history with gaming conventions.

If the event keeps balancing these traditions with new ideas, it will likely remain one of the most distinctive gaming festivals in Germany.

And for me personally, it will certainly remain an event where gaming culture and cosplay photography intersect in the most interesting ways.

Drone Sakura over Yoshino: A Near-Lost DJI, Hanami Culture & Japan Beyond Tourist Tōkyō

Sakura, O-Hanami & a Drone Scare in Yoshino

In spring 2025 I found myself reminiscing about a very special trip: my visit to Yoshino during sakura season in 2024. Returning to the photos a year later almost felt like celebrating the journey again.

Yoshino, located in Nara Prefecture, is famous throughout Japan for its spectacular cherry blossom scenery. Thousands of sakura trees cover the surrounding mountain slopes, transforming the entire landscape each spring into layers of pink, pale rose, and white. It is widely considered one of Japan’s most iconic cherry blossom viewing spots.

Sakura Season and O-Hanami Culture

Cherry blossom season in Japan is more than just a beautiful natural event — it is a deeply rooted cultural tradition.

The custom of o-hanami (literally “flower viewing”) brings friends, colleagues, and families together beneath blooming sakura trees. People spread blue tarps across park lawns, share food such as bento and onigiri, and enjoy drinks like sake (nihonshu) or beer while celebrating the fleeting beauty of the blossoms.

Japan even broadcasts a national cherry blossom forecast alongside the weather report. This “sakura front” predicts when the blossoms will begin to open across the country so people can plan gatherings at the perfect moment.

Popular hanami locations become extremely competitive. In large companies it is common for a junior employee or intern to be sent hours in advance to reserve a good viewing spot. This practice subtly reflects Japan’s hierarchical work culture — sometimes even leading to criticism if another company manages to secure an even better location.

I witnessed this atmosphere myself years earlier in Osaka Castle Park (Ōsaka-jō Kōen), where groups gathered under the blossoms to eat, drink, and play volleyball, frisbee, or badminton well into the evening.

My Earlier Visits to Yoshino

My connection with Yoshino actually goes back further.

The last time I had visited before 2024 was in 2016, during my Working Holiday year in Japan. At the time, my personal goal was to explore Japan beyond the usual “tourist Tōkyō” highlights such as Shibuya, Akihabara, Shinjuku, Harajuku, or Asakusa.

Japan’s regional culture fascinated me — especially local festivals and the broader matsuri tradition, far away from the large city parades with dozens of mikoshi (portable Shinto shrines) that I had previously been lucky enough to help carry.

Back then I mostly explored Yoshino’s temples and historic areas on foot.

But in 2024 I had a new perspective in mind: seeing Yoshino from the sky.

Drone Filming the Yoshino Sakura

Unlike many other parts of Japan, the cherry blossom groves around Yoshino lie in a green flight zone, meaning that flying a drone there does not require a permit from Japan’s MLIT aviation authority as long as standard safety rules are respected.

During that trip I was traveling extensively using the Sanyō-San’in Northern Kyushu Rail Pass, visiting places like Hiroshima, Miyajima, Matsue, Kumamoto, and Okayama — often launching my drone near historic castles and scenic landscapes.

Yoshino was one of the highlights I had been looking forward to capturing from the air.

My drone for the trip was a DJI Air 2S, which I bought in 2022 during my study abroad semester at Shinshu University, a partner university of Leipzig University. Occasionally I also use the Insta360 Sphere Kit to record 360-degree aerial footage, although the additional weight significantly increases battery drain. My best shots with this kit were taken above the Tottori sand dunes and Atami Castle.

A Small Mistake with Big Consequences

Unfortunately, on that particular day I made a simple but critical mistake.

I overestimated the remaining charge of my drone battery.

Normally I carry spare batteries for my older DJI Mavic Platinum, which I normally don't bring ton Japan when I am on a short term stay, but with the Air 2S I only have a single battery. It still appeared sufficiently charged, so I skipped recharging it before flying.

That assumption turned out to be wrong.

Right after takeoff the drone reported unexpectedly low remaining flight time, forcing me to keep the flight extremely short. On top of that, the lighting conditions weren’t ideal either — the colors of the blossoms appeared rather dull in the footage, possibly because I forgot to adjust the camera’s color temperature when lifting off. It was also on Auto-ISO, so it might have been my mistake by using the wrong mode.

Then things got worse.

The Forced Landing

Despite still having some battery capacity left, the drone suddenly initiated an automatic emergency landing.

Just seconds earlier I had lost visual contact with it because of the dense tree branches. I couldn’t see it anymore — and worse, I couldn’t hear it either.

Instead of returning to the takeoff location using the Return-to-Home function, which normally acts as a reliable safety backup, the drone simply descended and landed at its current position.

Somewhere in the forested hillside.

Panic.

Searching for the Drone

Fortunately the DJI app includes a “Find My Drone” GPS tracking feature that works even without a mobile connection.

Using the map and directional arrow, I started walking along the narrow paths and small hills surrounding the cherry blossom groves.

But something felt wrong.

The arrow seemed to guide me in circles.

After almost 45 minutes of searching, I realized the problem: the direction indicator between the overview map and the detailed map view was effectively reversed by 180 degrees. On the winding mountain paths it took a long time to notice this.

Ironically, the drone had landed only 20–30 meters from my original launch point.

Dense trees likely blocked the sound, which explains why I never heard it during the landing.

A Lucky Recovery

Eventually I found it.

The drone had landed safely in a grassy slope surrounded by tall grass.

The relief was enormous.

The landing location had been incredibly lucky — just 30 or 40 centimeters further toward the slope, and the drone might have tumbled down the embankment or even fallen toward the road below, making recovery far more difficult.

The fact that the drone remained untouched during that time also felt like something uniquely possible in Japan, where lost items often remain exactly where they fell.

An Unexpected Coincidence

While I was recovering my drone, another drone pilot arrived nearby.

Interestingly, he launched a DJI 3 PRO-series drone from almost exactly the same spot where mine had landed. He flew with three batteries and even wore a safety vest — impressively well prepared and very conscientious.

Encounters like that always remind me how important responsible drone flying is.

In Germany, drone pilots sometimes face skepticism or even hostility from bystanders. I have personally witnessed situations where people flew drones without registration or knowledge of the regulations — something that ultimately risks stricter rules for everyone.

When possible, I even talk to other pilots about the rules. With EU regulations and aviation authority registration requirements, responsible behavior is crucial if we want recreational drone flying to remain possible in the future.

Back to Osaka

After the recovery I captured a few more ground shots with my Insta360 camera, packed up my equipment, and eventually returned to my base in Ōsaka.

Despite the stressful moment, Yoshino once again proved why it is considered one of Japan’s most breathtaking sakura destinations.

And the story of the nearly lost drone has now become part of the memory of that journey.