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Fragapalooza is pleased to announce that we will be selling BAWLS again this year! We are taking pre-orders for both the original Bawls, as well as the new G33K B33R!! Please check the forum for details.

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Just a quick update to let everyone know that the deadline for Early Registration is Tuesday June 30 at midnight. Beginning Wednesday July 1 the cost for registration goes up to $95 for the weekend.

Also, please note that you will not be able to order an embroidered shirt with your name on it after June 30.

Also, please note that the deadline for pre-ordering ANY merchandise will be this Friday, July 3rd. This includes Hoodies, hats and touques.

-- Sphincter

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We are very happy and proud to welcome back Nvidia and BFG as our video card sponsors for this year. Nvidia has been a long time supporter of Fragapalooza and they will once again be there with BFG sporting all kinds of sweet SWAG and Prizing.

Cheerz!

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We at Fragapalooza picked tournaments based on what the gaming community wants, we got a lot of feedback about the lack of having counter-strike tournament this year. I actually had more people go to the trouble of emailing me then actually bothered to do the simple task of voting.

Saying that we have decided to run a CS 1.6 cash tournament, we will be offering a prize of $500 to the first place team. It doesn’t end there though the challenge is out there to the CS community, if 12 teams sign up on the website we will increase the prize pool to $1500. This is a chance to the CS community to step up. There were a few CS players that did a great disservice to there community by acting poorly after our initial announcement, but there were a few who expressed intelligent insightful comments to me personally.

I will need to rework the code slightly on the tournament page to allow signups pre-event, give me until the end of the weekend then you can create your team and get your players signed up. Also, UT2004 will become a sponsor prize tournament.

Also we have Nvidia and BFG back again this year as sponsors. So thanks for their continuing support!

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This year we for the first time ever, we will be having cash prizes for selected tournaments. Tournament selections were made by 2 polls, the first one narrowed it down to 3 games in each category.

Our cash tournament team game will be COD4, and our 1v1 cash tournament will be UT2004. Our second place picks in the poll will be prestige tournaments(That means you play for pride not prizes), but we hope to find sponsors for prizing(no promises). For our team game we will have TF2, and for 1v1 it will be starcraft.
I know there will be some flack for this but there will be no Counter Strike tournament, the reason is pretty straight forward, only 9 people picked it.
Prizing: $5 from each registration will be going into a cash pool that will be awarded to the winners, additional sponsor prizes may be added as we get confirmations.
I wish it could be more, but we don't want to promise what we cant deliver. Help us get the word out, more participants = more cash pool.

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As some of you have already discovered, Seating is now open for those of you who have paid. Feel free to login and click on the Seating link to select your seat on the map.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please message me on the forums, or stop by IRC and chat there.

-- Sphincter

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I have posted the Scoring and Rules for the Rock Band fun tournament in the Forums for everyone interested to take a look at. Please post any comments or questions in the thread, or stop by IRC to discuss.

Thanks!

-- Sphincter

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Fragapalooza updates are now easier than ever to get.
Not only can you check our NEWS page, but we have some other options as well. If you have an RSS Reader you can subscribe to our News feed.
We also can be found on Facebook and now also on Twitter!
If that isn't enough, you can find us on IRC - #fragapalooza on EnterTheGame.

Check us out and stay tuned for updates as the event gets closer!

-- Sphincter

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So its time for a tournament announcement again. I am pleased to let you know that we will be having 2 cash tournaments this year, one team based and one 1v1. I was hoping to announce the games tonight but the polls are too close to call, so I eliminated the bottom games and I have created a new poll of the top 3 team games and top 3 1v1 games. Head to the poll section to complete this poll. Cash prizes will be determined by attendance. We are working hard on securing more cash for the tournaments, sponsors are a little more frugal with cash these days so help us by putting out the word. We will make our final tournament selection and cash breakdown on June 7th.

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Registration for Fragapalooza 2009 is now open! If you encounter any problems during the registration process, please come into IRC and ask an admin, or send me a PMSG on the forums.

Please ensure you complete the game poll as we use it to decide the Official Tournaments.

Seating is not live at this point yet. Due to the new venue again this year, it will take us some time to draw up the seating map. We will work on getting that ready as soon as we can. Thanks!

-- Sphincter

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Fragapalooza 2009 registration will open Wednesday April 22! This year plans to be bigger than ever as we announce Cash prizes for the first time! The tournaments chosen based on the poll results will have CA$H prizes this year. As a result we will be selecting the Official Tournaments on May 22nd. If you want your vote to count, you will need to register early. Preference will be give to those PAID registrations, but we also take into account ALL registrations.

Like every year, the first 200 PAID and first 400 PAID registrations are entered into a special draw for a new Nvidia video card and CPU from Intel.

Seat Selection will be made available again this year, but will not be active right away. With the new venue again this year we are forced to redo the seating plan. Rest assured, we will get it up for you ASAP!

Fun Tournaments are always a big part of Fragapalooza, and this year is no different. The first big announcement is the RockBand 2 Tournament, which should prove to be a great time!

Every year we really count on the volunteers for making the event happen. This year is no different. If you would like to be a part of the Fragapalooza Family and volunteer some time to help make it the best event possible, please send an email to volunteer AT fragapalooza DOT ca.

Please check back often for updates, as well as discussions on the Forums. IRC is usually busy and there is almost always someone around to answer your questions. #fragapalooza on irc.enterthegame.com

Let's get ready for another fantastic event! -- Sphincter

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As I have become a HUGE RockBand fan, I have decided to run a RockBand tournament at Frag this year. This will be an Official Tournament and as such will have some prizes attached to it.

This tournament is NOT going to be a "who can get the highest score on Expert on the hardest song possible" kind of tournament. Instead the scoring will be a combination of who can play their respective song the best, along with who can perform their song the best. That's right...there will be a panel of judges to award marks for costume, crowd interaction and overall performance of the song. Just because you can play on Expert, does not guarantee you will win this tournament.

Specific rules are still being worked on and will be posted as soon as possible. However, I can say that you will need to select a song that can be played on at least Hard by all 4 band members, and that you put serious thought into your band name,costumes and look. Also, be prepared to perform your song, not just play it.

Any song from RB1, RB2 and all DLC will be available to provide a wide range of music. You and your band will choose the song you want to perform. I would suggest having a second song available in the event of a tie-break, or encore (if you really blow us away)

Specific rules will be posted at a later date, but if you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to post in the forums, or stop by IRC.

--Sphincter

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For those that maybe do not know, fragbuxs are points that you can win by "betting" them on games in the offical tournaments.
I am looking for ideas to improve the idea and make it more fun and better. Here is a list of questions I have, and any insight would be greatly appreciate.

• How to do the odds? (Right now it works of a ratio of the money bet on each team, with some limits, but last year pretty much everyone bet one sided which put the odds at the limit(6.0 to 1.2) maybe inject some randomness?
• how should we award fragbuxs? (last year everyone got 200 to start with and alot of people lost them all, should I give everyone 200 each year, should we hand them out for fun prizes?
• What should fragbuxs get you? (Last year was a trial year, and it was a bit buggy so we just had a fun prize at the end for them. Thoughts?

Email me your comments (andrew at fragapalooza dot ca)

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So...did we fool you? Yesterday was April Fools Day for those of you who believed my posts yesterday!

Thanks for having fun with us!

-Sphincter

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You will recall I said there was a big announcement coming regarding tournaments. Here it is!!!

For the first time, Fragapalooza will be offering CA$H prizes for our official tournaments this year!

That's right. Specific amounts have not been determined as it will depend on the amount of attendees, but I would expect some significant prizes to be available this year. If you have any questions or comments, stop by IRC or post it on the forums. The FP Staff are actually quite excited about this new direction and hope you feel the same way.

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Hang tough on your purchase of a Line Conditioning UPS. I am working with a potential sponsor to supply us with some industrial ones so you might not have to buy your own. I will be sure to keep you updated.

Be sure to stop by IRC and see us. #fragapalooza on EnterTheGame.

- Sphincter

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I know some of you have been asking about the location for this years event. Thank you for being so patient with us.

For those of you who have been coming since the beginning, you will be very familiar with our venue for this year. That's right...Fragapalooza 2009 is going back to the Hangar! Now, this choice in venue's does come with some challenges and limitations.

First, the limitation - for the first time ever we are going to have to set a limit on the number of attendees. We are only going to be able to accommodate 450 people this year, so you are going to need to pre-pay if you want to guarantee a seat.

As for the biggest challenge - power. If you remember the power issues we ran into at the Hangar when everyone had a 350W PSU, you can imagine what might happen now that the average is 650W. We will be renting a BIG generator or 2 for the event to help with the power issue. As some of you know, the power from a generator is not as "clean" as from the mains, so for the first time ever, we are encouraging you to bring and use a Line Conditioning UPS. Remember, not all UPS's do Line Conditioning so if you are going to go buy one, make sure you get the right kind.

Stay tuned as we get ready to open registration in the next few weeks.

-- Sphincter

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