Fragapalooza

Last updated

Fragapalooza
StatusActive
GenreVideo Gaming
VenueLeduc Recreation Centre
Location(s) Leduc
CountryCanada
Inaugurated1997
Filing statusNon-For-Profit
Website http://www.fragapalooza.com/

Fragapalooza (also referred to as Frag or Fraga by participants) is an annual video game festival/LAN party that takes place 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. In 2008, it was Canada's largest LAN party event, having reached approximately 900 attendees at its peak. [1] [2]

Contents

History and background

Fragapalooza started in Edmonton, Alberta in 1997 by Gil "StraT" Amores., [3] David Chan, Derek French, Scott Beuker, and Poh Tan. The first event consisted primarily of the first-person shooter game Quake and was held in a hangar at the Edmonton Municipal Airport. It has since evolved into a larger annual gathering, occasionally drawing attendees from across Canada and the United States. [4]

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. Fragapalooza is volunteer-run.

The event requires participants to supply their consoles or computers (sometimes referred to as BYOC).

Milestones

Sponsors

Fragapalooza has had notable sponsors in the past including 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. [5] 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. [6] In 2007, a professional gaming store, Razer, was invited to sponsor Fragapalooza, the company offered numerous products as prizes worth around $600. [7]

Additionally, sponsors may make presentations to the attendees to promote their new products or technologies as well as sell 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 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. Nevertheless, the match went ahead, and three winners were selected and each given 2GB of Crucial DDR2 RAM. [1]

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. [8]

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.

Past events

All events within Edmonton, Alberta unless otherwise specified

YearLocationApproximate AttendanceOfficial TournamentsNotes
1997Hangar at the Municipal Airport 70 Quake
July 16-19, 1998 [9] Hangar at the Municipal Airport 150 Quake
1999Hangar at the Municipal Airport 300 Quake 2
2000Hangar at the Municipal Airport 400 Counter-Strike , Quake 3
2001Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre700 Counter-Strike , Quake 3
2002Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre750 Counter-Strike
2002 (East)International Center, Mississauga, ON350 Unreal Tournament 2004 One time east event
2003Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre800 Counter-Strike
2004Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre800 Counter-Strike 1.6 , Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne , Unreal Tournament 2004
2005Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre800 Counter-Strike 1.6 , Counter Strike: Source , Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
2006Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre800 Counter-Strike 1.6 , Counter Strike: Source , Warcraft III , Quake 4
2007Mayfield Inn and Convention Centre800 Counter Strike: Source , Halo 2 , Supreme Commander , Unreal Tournament 2004
2008 Northlands Sportex 500 Call of Duty 4 , Counter Strike: Source , Defense of the Ancients , Team Fortress 2 , Unreal Tournament 2004
2009 (Winter)Holiday Inn, Grand Prairie, Alberta100 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 , Call of Duty 4 , Unreal Tournament 2004 , StarCraft , Rock Band 2 Fort Saskatchewan is a suburb of Edmonton.
2010Leduc Recreation Center, Leduc, Alberta 320 Call of Duty 4 , StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty , Rock Band 2 Leduc, Alberta is a suburb city in the Edmonton Proper
2011Leduc Recreation Center, Leduc, Alberta 270 StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Leduc, Alberta is a suburb city in the Edmonton Proper
2012Leduc Recreation Center, Leduc, Alberta 300 StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty , Team Fortress 2 , League of Legends Leduc, Alberta is a suburb city in the Edmonton Proper
2013Leduc Recreation Center, Leduc, Alberta 320 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , Team Fortress 2 , League of Legends , TrackMania Leduc, Alberta is a suburb city in the Edmonton Proper
2014Leduc Recreation Center, Leduc, Alberta 325 Call of Duty , StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty , League of Legends , TrackMania Leduc, Alberta is a suburb city in the Edmonton Proper
2015Leduc Recreation Center, Leduc, Alberta 260 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , Super Smash Bros. , Battlefield 4 , Left 4 Dead 2 , StarCraft 2 Leduc, Alberta is a suburb city in the Edmonton Proper
2016Leduc Recreation Center, Leduc, Alberta 345 League of Legends , Super Smash Bros. 20th Year Event
2017Leduc Recreation Center, Leduc, Alberta 326 League of Legends , StarCraft 2 Leduc, Alberta is a suburb city in the Edmonton Proper
2018Leduc Recreation Center, Leduc, Alberta 377 Team Fortress 2 , StarCraft 2 Leduc, Alberta is a suburb city in the Edmonton Proper
2019Leduc Recreation Center, Leduc, Alberta 386 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , Overwatch , Super Smash Bros. , and moreLeduc, Alberta is a suburb city in the Edmonton Proper
2020Streamed Live on Twitch.tv/FPeventsPeak Viewership Online: 138 Assetto Corsa , Super Smash Bros. Virtual Only due to Covid
2021Streamed Live on Twitch.tv/FPeventsPeak Viewership Online: 123 Super Smash Bros. Virtual Only due to Covid
2022Fulton Place Community League

Streamed Live on Twitch.tv/FPevents

In-person: 50

Peak Viewership Online: 130

Super Smash Bros. Limited in-person due to Covid

Related Research Articles

A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:

  1. One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentrated into a relatively short time interval.
  2. A competition involving a number of matches, each involving a subset of the competitors, with the overall tournament winner determined based on the combined results of these individual matches. These are common in those sports and games where each match must involve a small number of competitors: often precisely two, as in most team sports, racket sports and combat sports, many card games and board games, and many forms of competitive debating. Such tournaments allow large numbers to compete against each other in spite of the restriction on numbers in a single match.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dodgeball</span> Team sport

Dodgeball is a team sport in which players on two opposing teams try to throw balls and hit opponents while avoiding being hit themselves. The objective of each team is to eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them with thrown balls, catching a ball thrown by an opponent, or inducing an opponent to commit a violation, such as stepping outside the court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Cyber Games</span> International video game esport event

The World Cyber Games (WCG) is an international esports competition with multi-game titles in which hundreds of esports athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions also known as Esports Olympics. WCG events attempt to emulate a traditional sporting tournament, such as the Olympic Games; events included an official opening ceremony, and players from various countries competing for gold, silver, and bronze medals. WCG are held every year in other cities around the world. The WCG 2020 competition received nearly 650 million views worldwide.

A LAN party is a social gathering of participants with personal computers or compatible game consoles, where a local area network (LAN) connection is established between the devices using a router or switch, primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer video games together. LAN party events differ significantly from LAN gaming centers and Internet cafes in that LAN parties generally require participants to bring your own computer (BYOC) and are not permanent installations, often taking place in general-use venues or residences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esports</span> Form of competition using video games

Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams.

The Churchill Cup was an annual rugby union tournament, held in June, contested by representative men's teams from Canada, England, the United States, and other invited teams from a wide array of countries.

QuakeCon is a yearly convention held by ZeniMax Media to celebrate and promote the major franchises of id Software and other studios owned by ZeniMax. It includes a large, paid, bring-your-own-computer (BYOC) LAN party event with a competitive tournament held every year in Dallas, Texas, USA. The event, which is named after id Software's game Quake, sees thousands of gamers from all over the world attend every year to celebrate the company's gaming dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyberathlete Professional League</span> Professional sports tournament organization

The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) was a professional sports tournament organization specializing in computer and console video game competitions. It was founded by Angel Munoz on June 27, 1997, in Dallas, Texas. The CPL is considered the pioneer in professional video game tournaments, which have been held worldwide. The CPL's tournaments are open to all registrants, but due to the ESRB content rating of some video games, CPL competitions are restricted to participants age 17 or older. The CPL has distributed more than US$3 million in cash prizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esports World Convention</span> Competition

The Electronic Sports World Convention (ESWC) is an international professional gaming championship. Every year, winners of national qualifier events around the world earn the right to represent their country in the ESWC Finals. The event has been praised for its organisation and ability to put on a good show for spectators.

The Pittsburgh LAN Coalition, Inc. (Pittco) is a video gaming organization which holds LAN parties in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

The World e-Sports Masters (WEM) was an international competitive gaming event organized by the Hangzhou eSport Culture & Sport Communication Company, Ltd. Prize money are awarded to winning individuals and teams. It was first held in 2005 under the World e-Sports Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Series of Video Games</span>

World Series of Video Games (WSVG) was an international professional electronic sports competition. It held its first season in 2006, with competitions in six different games and six events held around the world including the finals of the event. The total prize purse of the season was US$750,000 which includes the $240,000 prize purse that was winnable at the finals. The WSVG was operated by Games Media Properties, an American gaming company founded in 2002 with the BYOC Lan section subcontracted out to Lanwar Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campus Party</span>

Campus Party (CP) is a conference and hackathon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chess tournament</span> Series of competitive chess games

A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition among serious players.

The Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) is an annual conference in Orlando, Florida organized by the National Training and Simulation Association held at the Orange County Convention Centre, a large conference and exhibition centre located on Exhibition Drive on the south side of Orlando.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organised Chaos LAN Party</span>

Organised Chaos, was a monthly LAN Party held in Cape Town, South Africa at the Sunningdale Sports Complex as well as other venues in both Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth. The LAN has a current capacity of 540 after moving away from the Bellville Velodrome in April 2012. The largest LAN Party held by Organised Chaos was in December 2010 at the Bellville Velodrome with a total of 1263 attendees. Its main organizers are Dietmar Rheeder-Kleist, Lance Aylward and Kyra Rheeder-Kleist. It is currently the largest monthly gaming event and LAN party in Africa

RootsTech is a family history and technology conference and trade show held annually in the Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. It first debuted in 2011 having been created from the ground up through a team at FamilySearch. In 2017 it claimed to be the world's largest family-history technology conference. Over the years, RootsTech has welcomed a number of celebrities, television personalities, and actors as keynote speakers.

Lan ETS is a yearly LAN party event held by a student club of the same name from the École de technologie supérieure university in Montreal. It is currently the largest LAN party in Canada and on North America East Coast. In 2013, approximately 1094 gamers attended the event for a chance to win over $18,000 in money and over $25,000 in prizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships</span> 2022 edition of the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships

The 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships were the 46th edition of the IIHF World Junior Championship, played from August 9–20, 2022 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

References

  1. 1 2 A Tech Zone article 1 retrieved 24 January 2008
  2. nVidia article retrieved 12 February 2008
  3. Bjorn3d article Archived 8 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 12 February 2008
  4. FutureLooks article retrieved 5 May 200
  5. nZone Web site retrieved 24 January 2008
  6. MTB online article Archived 11 September 2012 at archive.today retrieved 24 January
  7. Razerzone Website Archived 21 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 4 April 2008
  8. A Tech Zone article 2 retrieved 24 January 2008
  9. Jebens, Harley (13 May 1998). "Campers Coming to Play Quake". GameSpot . Archived from the original on 15 October 2000. Retrieved 14 November 2022.