Fragapalooza 2008 – Day 4 – Endings and Beginnings
What 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 sitting in my apartment, looking back on the whole event, and just going "woah".
For those just joining us from work on Monday morning, let me bring you up to speed. The largest LAN party in Canada occurred over this past weekend. Running from Aug 7 – 10, Fragapalooza attracted almost 1,000 gamers from all over the city of Edmonton and the rest of Canada. Now that the whole event is all over. My ID badge is hung up, my stuff is put away, and it’s time to look at the denouement of Fragapalooza 2008 known as Day 4.
For many, Day 4 tends to start rather late. Those that don’t manage to stay up all night tend to crash at very extended morning hours, and as a result sleep in rather late. I myself slept in until about 10:30AM after having lost all energy around 5:00AM. I could have started popping Foosh Mints or drinking massive amounts of energy drinks, but I didn’t want a heart murmur to add to my collection of Fraga swag so I just gave into my body and went to bed.
When I finally crawled out of bed, I decided to do the responsible thing and start packing up my non-gaming related gear (clothes, tent, sleeping stuff). Luckily I was saved from doing something responsible by yet another random contest. This time the contest was to see how fast you could solve a Rubik’s Cube, with the promise of nice loot to the person with the best time.
Some of the contest participants struggled with the tough little puzzle, and were provided some help (and in some cases a complete substitution) by some willing "experts." After a few minutes, a winner finally emerged. Then shortly there after, a 2nd place winner was finished. They pretty well kicked off the prize giving for Day 4.
The lucky winner received a power filter from ZeroSurge, valued at about $160. He actually didn’t complete the puzzle, as he was one of the participants who used a substitute "expert" to solve it. However, the substitute decided to just let him have the prize anyway. As for the runner up, who was incidentally right next the first place winner, he received a minor swag bag with some vendor logo’d trinkets. After that contest it was time to have my morning coffee (Bawls), only to have that interrupted by another random contest.
During Day 3 a Photoshop based contest was announced on the internal Fragpalooza website. Luckily thanks to our incredibly fat internet connection, this years internal site was the same as the external site. In fact if you went to the main page you could follow the action. As for the photo to be edited, EG|Django stepped up to the plate to willingly be humiliated by the Fraga participants and later most of the internet. The top three pictures can be found in the huge gallery at the end of this post.
With all that out of the way, it time to squeeze in the last few gaming hours we had. Some did the responsible thing an started packing up, but most of us kept gaming right up until the network was shut down. Then once again and for the final time, we all head to the main stage for the closing ceremonies, and the giving away of free stuff. Everything went as was expected; sponsors gave a few thank you speeches, the tournament winners were awarded their prizes, and a couple small prizes were thrown into the crowd. Then we were treated to a Fragapalooza first, and what was the inspiration for the title of this blog post.
One of the long-time attendees of Fragapalooza, who goes by the alias of SuperMan, performed the first public marriage proposal in Fraga history. It was quite a moment, and was greeted by a huge wave of cheers from the crowd. Thankfully she said yes, and to show our congratulations and wish them luck on the path they are setting out on we cheered with more much more volume. After that, it was time to give away some more prizes to random attendees. That was basically the curtain call, and everyone returned to their seats to clean up, pack up, and head home. Another Fragapalooza was, to borrow a phase, in the can.
Thanks to all the staff and volunteers for putting together yet another wonderful LAN party. I invite you to check out the gallery below. I also encourage you to keep an eye on Futurelooks.com. I will be posting a full article recapping the event in the next few days, and showcasing some spectacles yet unseen on this blog.
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Yay for Fraga! Now it would of been nice if someone told me that Royce would be proposing. =D But I am glad that he was able to share that moment with all his closes geeks and mentors. Thanks for letting us share our specail moment with you guys… maybe there is a Fraga wedding in the process??? Maybe it is a little to geeky…