Fragapalooza
Encyclopedia
Fragapalooza is an annual video game festival/LAN party
that takes place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
. Usually held in late July, it runs over a period of four days, allowing non-stop gaming. It is currently Canada's largest LAN party event having reached approximately 800 attendees in 2008. While Fragapalooza provides several official tournaments every year, these are not considered to be of primary appeal to participants.
at the Edmonton Municipal Airport. It has since evolved into a much larger annual gathering, occasionally drawing attendees from across Canada and the United States.
A proof-of-concept event called Quakefest was held at The Node Room in 1996. Gil & Poh ran the event. It was well accepted and was determined that a larger venue was in order. Hence Fragapalooza in the following years.
In November 2002, a one time 'Fragapalooza East' event was held in Mississauga, Ontario
which has not been repeated since.
In February 2009, Fragapalooza held its first winter event in Grande Prairie, Alberta attended by approximately 100 people. It is unknown if this will become an official annual event.
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. 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. In 2007, professional gaming store, Razer
, was invited to sponsor Fragapalooza, the company offered numerous products as prizes worth around $600.
In addition to having their products awarded as prizes and publicity garnered throughout the event, sponsors will occasionally be given a chance to make presentations to the attendees to promote their new products or technologies as well as selling their products directly.
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.
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.
Other official competitions may include:
Attendees and sponsors will occasionally organize their own unofficial competitions ranging from standard tournaments to marathons where competitors are disqualified in the event 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 the task. The goals of the challenges vary significantly and 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.
, Alberta unless otherwise specified
LAN party
A LAN party is a temporary, sometimes spontaneous, gathering of people with computers, between which they establish a local area network , primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games. The size of these networks may vary from the very small to very large installations...
that takes place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Usually held in late July, it runs over a period of four days, allowing non-stop gaming. It is currently Canada's largest LAN party event having reached approximately 800 attendees in 2008. While Fragapalooza provides several official tournaments every year, these are not considered to be of primary appeal to participants.
History
Fragapalooza started in Edmonton, Alberta in 1997 by Gil "StraT" Amores., David Chan, Derek French, Scott Beuker and Poh Tan. The first event consisted primarily of QuakeWorld and was held in a hangarHangar
A hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft or spacecraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other materials such as wood and concrete are also sometimes used...
at the Edmonton Municipal Airport. It has since evolved into a much larger annual gathering, occasionally drawing attendees from across Canada and the United States.
A proof-of-concept event called Quakefest was held at The Node Room in 1996. Gil & Poh ran the event. It was well accepted and was determined that a larger venue was in order. Hence Fragapalooza in the following years.
In November 2002, a one time 'Fragapalooza East' event was held in Mississauga, Ontario
Mississauga, Ontario
Mississauga is a city in Southern Ontario located in the Regional Municipality of Peel, and in the western part of the Greater Toronto Area. With an estimated population of 734,000, it is Canada's sixth-most populous municipality, and has almost doubled in population in each of the last two decades...
which has not been repeated since.
In February 2009, Fragapalooza held its first winter event in Grande Prairie, Alberta attended by approximately 100 people. It is unknown if this will become an official annual event.
Sponsors
Fragapalooza has had several big name sponsors in the past; most notably Intel and nVidiaNVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
have both previously sponsored the gaming convention.
In 2004, nVidia sponsored Fragapalooza offering 20 GeForce FX
GeForce FX
The GeForce FX or "GeForce 5" series is a line of graphics processing units from the manufacturer NVIDIA.-Overview:...
5950 Ultra graphics cards to winners and runners-up of the official LAN
Län
Län and lääni refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010....
game tournaments. In late 2002, companies such as Sympatico, Intel, Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
, ATI
Ati
As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa...
, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, E-Compuvison and Digital Extremes
Digital Extremes
Digital Extremes is a Canadian computer and video game developer founded in 1993 by James Schmalz, specifically noted for its part in the highly successful Unreal series of games...
sponsored the 3 day gaming festival billed as Fragapalooza East. In 2007, professional gaming store, Razer
Razer USA Ltd
Razer is a privately held computer peripherals manufacturer specializing in products specifically marketed to gamers.Razer's main slogan is 'FOR GAMERS, BY GAMERS'....
, was invited to sponsor Fragapalooza, the company offered numerous products as prizes worth around $600.
In addition to having their products awarded as prizes and publicity garnered throughout the event, sponsors will occasionally be given a chance to make presentations to the attendees to promote their new products or technologies as well as selling their products directly.
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 dodgeballDodgeball
Dodgeball is any of a variety of games in which players try to hit other players on the opposing team with balls while avoiding being hit themselves. This article is about a well-known form of team sport with modified rules that is often played in physical education classes and has been featured...
tournament was arranged. The organisers attempted to break the record for the largest dodgeball game ever at a LAN party
LAN party
A LAN party is a temporary, sometimes spontaneous, gathering of people with computers, between which they establish a local area network , primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games. The size of these networks may vary from the very small to very large installations...
. The record, at the time, was held by an event that occurred in Portland that had 200 participants. Crucial technology
Micron Technology
Micron Technology, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Boise, Idaho, USA, best known for producing many forms of semiconductor devices. This includes DRAM, SDRAM, flash memory, SSD and CMOS image sensing chips. Consumers may be more familiar with its consumer brand Crucial...
, 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.
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.
Other official competitions may include:
- 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.
- 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 boxes.
- Photoshopper: a crowd judged Photoshop contest.
- Case Mod Competition: Last held in the 2004 event, attendees' modded computers where adjudicated based on various criterion.
- Scavenger Hunt: Groups of competitors compete to gather the most items from a list.
- 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 ranging from standard tournaments to marathons where competitors are disqualified in the event 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 the task. The goals of the challenges vary significantly and they are almost always unique from year to year. Attendees have in the past been asked to blue-screen
BSoD
BSoD is an initialism. It may stand for:* Blue Screen of Death* Black Screen of Death...
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
CD key
A product key, also known as a Software key, is a specific software-based key for a computer program. It certifies that the copy of the program is original. Activation is sometimes done offline by entering the key, or with software like Windows XP online activation is required to prevent multiple...
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 EdmontonEdmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
, Alberta unless otherwise specified
| Year | Location | Approximate Attendance | Official Tournaments | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Hangar at the Municipal Airport | 70 | Quake | |
| 1998 | Hangar at the Municipal Airport | 150 | Quake | |
| 1999 | Hangar at the Municipal Airport | 300 | Quake 2 | |
| 2000 | Hangar at the Municipal Airport | 400 | Counter-Strike Counter-Strike Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe... , Quake 3 |
|
| 2001 | Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre | 700 | Counter-Strike Counter-Strike Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe... , Quake 3 |
|
| 2002 | Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre | 750 | Counter-Strike Counter-Strike Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe... |
|
| 2002 (East) | International Center, Mississauga, ON | 350 | UT2004 | One time east event |
| 2003 | Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre | 800 | Counter-Strike Counter-Strike Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe... |
|
| 2004 | Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre | 800 | Counter-Strike 1.6 Counter-Strike Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe... , Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Unreal Tournament 2004 Unreal Tournament 2004 Unreal Tournament 2004, also known as UT2K4 and UT2004, is a futuristic first-person shooter computer game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes... |
|
| 2005 | Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre | 800 | Counter-Strike 1.6 Counter-Strike Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe... , Counter Strike: Source, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne |
|
| 2006 | Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre | 800 | Counter-Strike 1.6 Counter-Strike Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe... , Counter Strike: Source, Warcraft III, Quake 4 Quake 4 Quake 4 is the fourth title in the series of Quake first-person shooter computer games. The game was developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. Raven Software has collaborated with id Software, the creators and historical developers of preceding Quake games... |
|
| 2007 | Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre | 800 | Counter Strike: Source, Halo 2 Halo 2 Halo 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox video game console on November 9, 2004, the game is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved... , Supreme Commander, Unreal Tournament 2004 Unreal Tournament 2004 Unreal Tournament 2004, also known as UT2K4 and UT2004, is a futuristic first-person shooter computer game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes... |
|
| 2008 | Northlands Sportex Northlands Northlands is a non-profit, volunteer organization in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1879, before the official incorporation of the city of Edmonton, or the province of Alberta.... |
500 | Call of Duty 4, Counter Strike: Source, Defense of the Ancients Defense of the Ancients Defense of the Ancients is a custom scenario for the real-time strategy game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft... , Team Fortress 2 Team Fortress 2 Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows... , Unreal Tournament 2004 Unreal Tournament 2004 Unreal Tournament 2004, also known as UT2K4 and UT2004, is a futuristic first-person shooter computer game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes... |
|
| 2009 (Winter) | Holiday Inn, Grand Prairie, Alberta | 100 | Call of Duty 4 | Smaller regional LAN, format slightly different than main event. |
| 2009 (Summer) | DOW Centennial Center, Fort Saskatchewan | 450 | Counter-Strike 1.6 Counter-Strike Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe... , Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament 2004 Unreal Tournament 2004 Unreal Tournament 2004, also known as UT2K4 and UT2004, is a futuristic first-person shooter computer game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes... , StarCraft StarCraft StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling... , Rock Band 2 Rock Band 2 Rock Band 2 is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems. It is the sequel to Rock Band and is the second title in the series. The game allows up to four players to simulate the performance of popular songs by playing with controllers modeled after musical instruments... |
Fort Saskatchewan is a suburb of Edmonton. |
| 2010 | Leduc Recreation Center, Leduc, Alberta Leduc, Alberta - Demographics :The population of the City of Leduc according to its 2011 municipal census is 24,139, a 3.6% increase over its 2010 municipal census population of 23,293.... |
320 | Call of Duty 4, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty |