Frag for a good cause

Evan Oberman and Yazeed Sobaih are organizing Saturday's Frag for Cancer. (Danny Abriel Photo)

What’s “frag”? The dictionary says it’s a noun or verb – “from Vietnam-era U.S. military slang via the games Doom and Quake… 1. To kill another player's avatar in a multiuser game.”

What’s “Frag For Cancer”? Well, it doesn’t have much to do with killing other player’s avatars. In fact, Frag For Cancer—run by Yazeed Sobaih, Evan Oberman and Andrew Ehler—raises money for the Canadian Cancer Society. It’s really more about saving lives.

Yazeed Sobaih, a third-year commerce student at Dalhousie, founded Frag For Cancer.

“My first year at Dal, in the summer of 2005, my dad was getting ill.” On Yazeed’s 18th birthday, his father was diagnosed with lung cancer. The next summer, Mr. Sobaih passed away and Yazeed began volunteering at the Canadian Cancer society.

He started out canvassing door to door and then proposed a video game tournament as a fundraiser and got the green light. His idea grew into Dalhousie’s “Frag For Cancer.” The third annual Frag For Cancer video game tournament is set for Saturday, October 11 in the McInnes Room in the Dal SUB.

Eighteen-year-old Evan Oberman, who is studying business management at Dal, likens the event to a combined concert and sports game. “I used to play sports… (but) there’s nothing like the rush of a good game of Counter Strike,” says the former competitive gamer. He’s an ideal organizer and a technical wiz who built his first computer at 13. “I met Yazeed at (a previous) Frag for Cancer. We’re both into gaming… we decided we’d both work together on Frag for Cancer 3.”

There’s a lot to work on. The tournament will feature multiple games—Defence of the Ancients, Halo 3, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and the smash hit Rock Band—and prizes donated by the likes of Alienware and EB Games.

It’s a spectator event as well. “We’re going to do Rock Band on stage, on a projector. Rock Band is one of those games that’s not only fun to play, but fun to watch.”

This year’s event is much more ambitious than its predecessors. Yazeed hopes to raise about $3,000 this year, up from last year’s total of $545. “This is a huge jump,” says Yazeed. “But that gives us the sky’s-the-limit challenge that we’re going for.”

So what’s the best thing about Frag For Cancer? “The whole aspect of planning an event for months, and then seeing it happen in front of me, you know what I mean?” says Yazeed. “Everything you imagined, it clicks all together. That’s pretty good satisfaction, there.”

Evan is adamant that the event will be satisfying for participants too. “Most charity events, I find, are just ‘OK, come, donate, and leave,’” he says. “But aside from being a charity event, (Frag For Cancer) is a fun event people are going to take something out of. Aside from the prizes – “and there are plenty – “I met a lot of people last year… it’s a great way to meet other gamers, and we get involved supporting a good cause.”