Well it’s been a week since Fragapalooza closed its doors, and I’ve finally managed to recover from it all. Now some of you may be unfamiliar with the name Fragapalooza, so I’m here to educate you. Fragpalooza is the largest gaming event in Canada. In four days this huge event crams in a convention centre sized BYOC area, gaming tournaments, random draws and prizes, and more caffeine then is healthy for human consumption. I’ve been a regular attendee since 2003 and the last time Futurelooks attended was at Fragapalooza 2005. I thought that it was time that I brought the event back to the Futurelooks audience.

This year’s event was held from August 7th to August 10th at the Northlands Sportex in Edmonton. Over 1,000 gamers and spectators from across Canada and the USA came to enjoy the four days of gaming goodness. In addition to the main BYOC event, there was a whole host of side events and contests, as well as tournaments. Thanks to generous sponsors like Intel, NVIDIA, HP, and Razer, there were over $65,000 worth or prizes to be given away for tournaments, contests, and random draws, making this one of the must go to events. Futurelooks even managed to bring with us a few prizes from sponsors like NZXT, GIGABYTE, and ZeroSurge.

Every year Fragaplooza hosts a wide array of official tournaments, which run the gamut from games used in professional competition to the latest popular releases. The games selected this year are Counter Strike: Source, Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Warcraft III: Defence of the Ancients. These are all selected by a vote from all registered participants, and are run during the duration of the event on machines donated from the sponsors.

Fragapalooza 2008 is even more special this year because it takes place on the same weekend as The Weekend to End Breast Cancer, and the venue is right across from where the Edmonton walk starts and ends. In honour of this event, the Fragapalooza staff all dyed their hair pink in the week leading up to the event, and shaved their heads (and faces in some cases)bald. There will of course be an associated fund raiser, with all proceeds going to the Alberta Cancer Foundation.

And if all that wasn’t enough, there’s plenty of things happening on the side lines. There’s unofficial tournaments, random contests, and whatever can be drummed up from the minds of the sleep deprived staffers and participants. So without further adieu, it’s time to dive inside the event that is Fragapalooza.

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