Fragapalooza

Fragapalooza (also referred to as Frag or Fraga by participants) is an annual video game festival/LAN party that takes place in August currently in Leduc, Alberta, Canada. The name Fragapalooza was derived from the Military Slang " Frag" and "palooza" which is the suffix for any type of named festival or gathering, such as Lollapalooza. Traditionally held in the summer, Fragapalooza runs over a period of four days and lasting 24/7 for most of that time. In 2008, it was Canada's largest LAN party event, having reached approximately 900 attendees at its peak and is still one of the larger gatherings in western Canada..A Tech Zone article 1
retrieved 24 January 2008 It is also one of the longest running annual LAN parties in Canada.

History and background

Fragapalooza started in Edmonton, Alberta in 1997 by a group of computer game players playing the game Quake by ID Software. The first event consisted primarily of the first-person shooter game Quake and was held in an old airplane hangar at the Edmonton Municipal Airport. It has since evolved into a larger, annual gathering, drawing attendees mostly from across Canada but has included participants from as far as Asia, Europe, Australia and the United States.FutureLooks article
retrieved 5 May 200

Fragapalooza is a nonprofit event, where proceeds from seat sales and sponsorship are rolled into the event itself to cover prizing, rentals, and various other event costs. The event is also volunteer-run that is drawn from many long time attendants.

This event currently requires participants to "Bring Your Own Computer/Console" (sometimes referred to as BYOC).

Milestones

* A proof-of-concept event called Quakefest was held at The Node Room in 1996. The event was organized by 2 gamers that wanted to meet and compete with fellow local gamers. It was considered a success by all who participated and was determined that a larger event was possible. This event gave birth to the idea of Fragapalooza leading to the first event in 1997.
* In November 2002, a one-time 'Fragapalooza East' event was held in Mississauga, Ontario.
* In July 2006, Fragapalooza held its 10 Years in the Making event, marking its 10th year in Edmonton.
* In February 2009, Fragapalooza held its first winter event in Grande Prairie, Alberta attended by approximately 100 people.
* In 2009 Fragapalooza started to expand its location selections to the Edmonton Proper Area, driven both by costs and availability of supporting infrastructure in venues.
* In 2010 Fragapalooza started to hold events in Leduc, Alberta, which is within the Edmonton Proper area, but about 20 minutes outside the city.
* In 2016 Fragapalooza held its "20 Years in the Making" event.
* In 2020 Fragapalooza went "Online Only" like so many things due to COVID19, hosting "The Digital Experience" on Twitch, bringing together several remote streaming participants and helping bridge communities.
* In 2024 Fragapalooza returned to a full-size, in-person event, while continuing to embrace the new Online world by hosting several notable Twitch Streamers.

Sponsors

Fragapalooza has had many notable sponsors including Intel, and NVIDIA who have both previously supported 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. In late 2002, companies such as Sympatico, Intel, Cisco Systems, ATI, Microsoft, E-Compu-Vison, and Digital Extremes sponsored the 3 day gaming festival billed as ''Fragapalooza East''. In 2007, a professional gaming store, Razer, was invited to sponsor Fragapalooza with the company offering a product prize pool of approximately $600.

Additionally sponsors have made presentations, setup booths and attended the event while being able to promote their new products or technologies directly to the gaming community that tends to support them.

Activities and competitions

Besides the opportunity to win prizes in the events official video game tournaments, gamers are given the chance to win "impromptu" competitions. In 2006, during Fragapalooza's 10th anniversary, a dodgeball tournament was arranged. The organizers 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 however the match went ahead with three winners each gaining 2GB of Crucial DDR2 RAM.

Another non-video game competition organized 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. The three selected winners of the race received free computer hardware from Cooler Master and ''Memory Express''.A Tech Zone article 2
retrieved 24 January 2008

Other official "FUN" competitions included:
*The Wall Hang: This competition was held at the Mayfield Trade Center where an eight-foot wall stretched across the venue. Competitors would hang from the wall with the last person to fall being declared the winner.
*Keyboard Toss: Competitors are invited to throw their keyboards across the venue at a distant object. Competitors who hit the object or comes closest would win a new keyboard (thrown keyboards often broke).
*Binary Rock-Paper-Scissors: 256 attendees compete in a single-elimination tournament of Rock Paper Scissors.
*Chair Race: Contestants attempt to ride their chair across the floor, the winner being the person to get the farthest, or go the straightest.
*Dance-off: A crowd judged dance competition which included several dance moves and even included participants in costume.
*Paper Airplanes: Attendees are invited to create a paper airplane of their own design and fly them across the venue with the winner being declared based on either distance or accuracy.
*Garbage Architect: Teams of four compete to build impressive or humorous structures out of garbage found at the event. These usually consist of recyclable beverage containers and cardboard and\or pizza boxes.
*Photoshopper: a crowd judged Photoshop contest.
*Case Mod Competition: Last held in the 2004 event, attendees' modded computers were adjudicated based on various criterion.
*Scavenger Hunt: Groups of competitors compete to gather the most items from a list. In 2024 Fraga by night encouraged younger participants to engage in the hunt.
*Paper-shredded Puzzle: Attendees invited to put together a one-page puzzle after it has been shredded in a paper shredder.

Attendees and sponsors will occasionally organize their own unofficial competitions and tournaments. These have ranged from standard gaming tournaments to marathons where competitors are disqualified in the event if they leave their chair, fall asleep, disconnect from the game or otherwise stop playing. These competitions usually have smaller prizes funded by the organizer or a participant pool.

Staff will frequently issue challenges or tasks to all attendees over the intercom and prizes awarded to the first person to accomplish this task. The goals of these challenges can vary significantly, but they are almost always unique from year to year. Attendees have in the past been asked to blue-screen their computer, bring an attendant's pendant from a previous year, buy the staff dinner, find an item hidden inside the venue, and obtain a valid product code for an obscure out-of-print video game. These challenges are usually held at night when larger competitions and events cannot take place due to lighting and noise constraints.

Past events

All events within Edmonton, Alberta unless otherwise specified

References

{{reflist

External links

Fragapalooza.com, The official Fragapalooza website

Gaming conventions
Recurring events established in 1997