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Fragapalooza 2008 - Day 1

Dawn broke on the city of Edmonton, and for a select few gamers it was truly a day to awake for. Yesterday was the first day of Fragapalooza. Though the forecast was calling for a high of 32C few were worried. Soon we would be inside, under air conditioning, and enjoying four straight days of gaming madness. I gave a quick sneak preview of this awesome LAN event, and now it’s time to show you exactly what goes on inside. I’m pleased to bring you Day 1 of Fragapalooza 2008.

Day 1 started and ended in much the same way. Since this is the first day, there isn’t much going on. People are just arriving, technological and social bugs are still being worked out, and things really don’t get started. Still I was glad to see the Futurelooks.com banner hadn’t fallen from its place. This banner has seen adventures in Vegas, Taipei, and varied and sundry areas of Vancouver, and now it’s followed me to Edmonton. I’ll of course be posting a full article on the event at Futurelooks.com, once it’s over and I’ve recovered.

As for setup, it proceeded fairly smoothly. Everyone filed in, and slowly but surely got setup. There were chairs to re-assemble, components to connect, and bags to check to make sure nothing was forgotten. By about noon, it was safe to say nearly half the participants had arrived, and were setup.

In addition to the computers, many had to setup their sleeping quarters. Fragapalooza events many years ago had an area where participants could setup a tent should they want to. This year that tradition returned, and Tent City was reborn. Some us still prefer to sleep on a quick-setup mattress on the floor in front of our computers, but if you wanted a tent you more then welcome to set one up.

With many people setup and settled in, it was time to start the opening ceremonies. It was also time to give away some free stuff. Every year the Fragapalooza staff and sponsors give away some special prizes to those that registered early. This year, those that were the first 200 to register were eligible to win a GeForce 8800 GTS based video card, and those in the first 400 could win a Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme processor. Intel also had some very comfortable (and highly coveted) small pillows to throw into the crowd. Speeches were made - including one by me - and the event was now officially under way.

With everything now in full swing, it was time to take a look around. Everything isn’t still quite where it should be, and as I said earlier people are still filing in. Still there’s some very organized individuals who have their modded rigs setup and ready to go. There’s also the tournament area, which hosts the few tournaments held at this LAN party. The systems are provided by and put together by the sponsors. Speaking of the sponsors, their booths are fully setup for those who want to take a break from assembling their gear to check out some awesome wares. The gallery below shows what an event like this is like on the first day.