AWS GameDay - AWS Community Nordics Edition

In May we joined forces with other Nordic AWS user groups for the first ever AWS GameDay Nordics, organized by AWS Community Nordics in collaboration with AWS. Gunnar Grosch, AWS Senior Developer Advocate, hosted the event, and around 30 participants from Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark gathered online via Amazon Chime to compete in teams, troubleshoot broken architectures, and score points by keeping fictional services alive under pressure.

For those unfamiliar, AWS GameDay is an interactive, team-based learning experience where you get dropped into a gamified, risk-free environment with real AWS services and things start breaking. Your job is to fix, optimize, and keep everything running. It is a fantastic way to learn by doing, and the competitive element keeps things interesting. Registration went through a separate GameDay page, which added to the sense that this was something beyond a regular meetup.

The cross-Nordic format added a fun dimension. Working alongside community members from other countries gave us a chance to see different approaches and problem-solving styles. Gunnar kept the energy up throughout, and there was plenty of friendly banter in the chat as teams raced to climb the leaderboard.

Events like this remind me why community matters. You learn things in a GameDay that no tutorial or certification prep can teach you – the instinct of where to look first when something is broken, how to prioritize under time pressure, and how to collaborate quickly with people you have never worked with before. A great evening well spent.