Fragapalooza

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Fragapalooza is a video game based gaming festival/LAN party that takes place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is Canada's largest LAN party event.[1][2]

Contents

[edit] History

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Fragapalooza started in Edmonton, Alberta in 1997 by Gil "StraT" Amores.[3] The first event consisted primarily of QuakeWorld and was held in a hangar at the Edmonton Municipal Airport.

[edit] Setup

From 2004, a two day setting up period was established to give the Fragapalooza staff and volunteers enough time to organise and prepare the Mayfield centre for the event. The largest job for the staff is the preparation of the network and the configuration of the 750 connection points. Once all the network cables are taped and secured, the testing and coding of the intranet can begin. Integrated within the two day preparation period is the training for the volunteers who greet and register the events entrants.[3]

[edit] Sponsors

Fragapalooza has had several notable sponsors in the past; most notably Intel and nVidia have both previously sponsored the gaming convention. In 2004, nVidia sponsored Fragapalooza offering 20 GeForce FX 5950 Ultra graphics cards to winners and runners-up of the official LAN game tournaments.[4] In late 2002, companies such as Sympatico, Intel, Cisco Systems, ATI, Microsoft, E-Compuvison and Digital Extremes sponsored the 3 day gaming festival billed as Fragapalooza East.[5] In 2007, professional gaming store, Razer, was invited to sponsor Fragapalooza, the company offered numerous products as prizes worth around $600.[6]

[edit] Other activities and competitions

Besides the opportunity to win prizes in the events official tournaments, gamers are given the chance to win "impromptu" competitions. In 2006, for example, on Fragapalooza's 10th anniversary, a dodgeball tournament was arranged. The organisers attempted to break the record for the largest dodgeball game ever at a LAN party. The record, at the time, was held by an event that occurred in Portland that had 200 participants. Crucial technology, a sponsor of the 2006 Fragapalooza event, attempted to break the record with 300 gamers taking part. Bad weather, specifically rain, caused the withdrawal of most of the participants resulting in the record not being broken. Nevertheless, the match went ahead and three winners were selected and each given 2GB of Crucial DDR2 RAM.[1]

Another non-video game competition organised at the Fragapalooza 2006 event was a "crab walk" race across the west side of the Mayfield convention centre. The participants were instructed to crab walk across the centre floor and all the way back again. Paramedics were present at the scene in the event of any accidents. The three selected winners of the race received free computer hardware from Cooler Master and Memory Express.[7]

[edit] Past events

Year Location Attendance Official Tournaments
1997 Hangar at City Centre Airport, Edmonton AB 70 Quake
1998 Hangar at City Centre Airport, Edmonton AB 150 Quake
1999 Hangar at City Centre Airport, Edmonton AB 300 Quake 2
2000 Hangar at City Centre Airport, Edmonton AB 400 Quake 3, Counter Strike
2001 Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre, Edmonton AB 700 Quake 3, Counter Strike
2002 Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre, Edmonton AB 750 N/A
2003 Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre, Edmonton AB 800 N/A
2004 Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre, Edmonton AB 800 N/A
2005 Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre, Edmonton AB 800 N/A
2006 Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre, Edmonton AB 800 Quake 4, Warcraft 3, Counter Strike: Source, Counter Strike
2007 Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre, Edmonton AB 800 Counter Strike: Source, Supreme Commander, UT 2004, Halo 2

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b A Tech Zone article 1 retrieved 24th January 2008
  2. ^ nVidia article retrieved 12th February 2008
  3. ^ a b Bjorn3d article retrieved 12th February 2008
  4. ^ nZone Web site retrieved 24th January 2008
  5. ^ MTB online article retrieved 24th January
  6. ^ Razerzone Website retrieved 4th April 2008
  7. ^ A Tech Zone article 2 retrieved 24th January 2008

[edit] External links