Fragapalooza 2008 – Day 2 – Pink Edition
We last left off with the closing of Day 1 of Fragapalooza 2008. Held in Edmonton, Alberta, this huge LAN party had just concluded the first day with the arrival of gamers from all over the city and country. Computers were setup, ceremonies were opened, enemies were killed (virtually), and overall much fun was had. Many gamers played into the wee hours on the morning (including me, which is why this post is late), and with the break of Day 2 it was time to stop gaming and step up to support a great cause.
Due to some of the scheduling conflicts caused by our venue change, the dates that Fragapalooza 2008 were to take place on coincided with The Alberta Cancer Foundation’s Weekend to End Breast Cancer. Gamers aren’t the virtually trained killers a lot of mainstream media make them out to be, and we enjoy participating in a good cause that benefits our fellow person. So it was a natural fit that Fragapalooza had to step up in some fashion, and support The Weekend to End Breast Cancer. This lead the staff to decide to first dye their hair pink the week before Fraga, and then have it shave off at the event.
They brought on the Est-elle Academy of Hair Design as sponsors, so the hair colouring and shaving was at least done by professionals. Everyone then assembled around the stage to witness what was easily going to be the biggest spectacle of that afternoon. Many of the staffers are rather…attached to their hair. Some have been growing it for years. Added to the fact that they are supporting a great charity will make this sacrifice all the more entertaining.
The event was started off with some words from the Vice President of Fragapalooza, Michael "Sphincter" Hollands. He basically welcomed all the media, thanked everyone for their support, and reminded them that there should be many before and after pictures available online after everything was said and done. I reminded him that there was also going to be some "during" media available, which is coming up.
The staff then lined up, posing for some pictures and sharing their last hair-covered moment together. After the blinding array of flash bulbs (there was a lot of media there for this event, including some local TV stations), it was time for some hair cutting.
There’s some great pictures in the gallery that follows this post, showing the aftermath of this rampage of hair trimmers. After all that, we noticed that one staff member still had their pink hair intact.
Gil "StraT" Amores, President and Head Organizer of Fragapalooza, very nearly escaped his date with a set of hair trimmers. He was hovering in the background on stage, hoping not to be noticed. Luckily Sphincter caught him, and took advantage of the opporunity to auction off his balding, with the full bid going to charity. Someone put forth $160, and StraT went under the razor.
Though he was a feeling a little trepidation about losing his locks, once finished StraT was greeted with a huge amount of cheers. We really appreciate what he and all the other Fragapalooza staff put together each year.
When all was said and done, all the staff, many of the volunteers, and about two dozen of the participants were rendered hairless on the top of their heads. The staff is still tallying the total donations received, since nVidia pledged to donate money for each Fraga participant that stepped up and lost their hair. We even had some of our longer haired participants donate their locks to the charity to make wigs for people undergoing Cancer treatment. I invite to look at the gallery below, as it contains highlights from the head shave as well as pictures from the very first random fun contest held at Fraga 08. It’s now Day 3, which is the most interesting test of endurance for a Fraga participant. There will be things going on all night. So I invite you back here tomorrow afternoon for all the highlights.
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- The tournament area in the light
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- Everyone else in the dark
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- The glow of case mods and computer screens in omnious
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- Ending Cancer takes a lot longer then a weekend
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- Luckily gamers care, and like to support such charities
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- The lovely ladies of Est-elle Academy of Hair Design
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- Michael “Sphincter” Hollands, VP of Fraga and MC for this event
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- The crowd patiently awaits the shaving of some heads
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- The Fraga staff show poise waiting for their turn under the sheers
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- The first vict….er participant to become quite bald
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- And here’s what he left behind
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- The next staff member to finish was Rob “Cova” Baumstark.
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- Sphincter finally finishes, and is still all smiles
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- Our diligent head of security (the man doesn’t sleep) poses for a quick pic.
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- With the chairs is empty, it’s time for the 2nd round of staff sheerings
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- Gil “Strat” Amores may be the President of Fraga, but he can’t avoid the sheers
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- This was done with the help of someone willing to donate $160 to see him bald.
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- Can you say “Vanilla StraT”? Bawls Bawls Baby.
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- I don’t think he’s too excited with my new nickname
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- Don’t worry StraT, it does grow back eventually
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- One of the participants who volunteered to donate his hair to charity
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- “We have our first skullet of the event” was heard from the crowd
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- EG|Django steps up to the plate to take one for the Intel team
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- Going…
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- Going…almost gone.
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- StraT is finally finished, and is greeted by cheers from the crowd
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- So…much…pink…
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- In the end over 20 people had much colder heads
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- From the creators of the wall hang comes the wall sit
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- Participants line up, squat down, and try to keep from falling
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- This is harder then it looks, and people started dropping quickly
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- Eventually we arrived at two finalists, using two methods
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- Sheer dogged determination…
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- …and simple concentration
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- The crowd waited, and waited…
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- Unfourtunately we don’t have all night, so the difficulty was turned up
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- That pretty well sealed the deal.
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- MSI prepping for their presentation
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- Slideshow outlining MSI’s newest product line
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[...] Fragapalooza 2008 – Day 2 – Pink Edition [...]
[...] a weekend it has been. This year’s Fragapalooza has had pink hair and bald geeks, Nerf-based weaponry, chair racing and bad dancing, and a whole lot of other mayhem. I’m left [...]