#ingressFS - Hamilton, NZ - 6th June 2015

On a slightly warmer and thankfully drier than expected Saturday morning, 46 agents dressed in blue and green descended upon Hamilton Gardens, no one quite knowing what to expect.  Agents came from Hamilton itself and further afield, Auckland, Raglan, Cambridge and even Levin.  

The pre-kickoff chatter and check ins were a great opportunity for agents to meet and socialise, especially some local agents who have been on opposite sides for ages but never before come face to face.

At kickoff most agents quickly dispersed to different parts of the gardens, linking and fielding was difficult but accomplished here and there.  The close proximity of portals and the number of players meant resonators didn't remain on portals long and most agents decided capturing was the way to score quickly.  

There was a variety of game play for some it was a full on 2 hours running from portal to portal, others took things a bit more casually and engaged in more of the social aspect. It was great to see experienced players helping out newer players and passing on tips and tricks. The vast majority of players engaged in the spirit of the day and respect for players of both factions was evident. 

The official event was rounded off with the check-in of final scores and a further chance to socialise while scores were tallied and the winners announced 

A special mention and congratulations also to Resistance Agent Tharrin who levelled up to level 16 during the event.

Results:

AP Gain: 
RES: 3,306,121
ENL: 2,532,819
Total: 5,838,940

Total Level Gain: 5 (5 RES; 0 ENL)
Total Player today: 46 Agents ( 28 RES - 18 ENL)

Top 3 Agents:
ruxue (ENL): 302,976
nogroz (ENL): 255,453
grogyan (RES): 272,022

Thank you to everyone that attended and made it a great event!
+Ingress 

Event: https://plus.google.com/events/c4c1fb6mdoqmt57n6mkkengdu5s

EN Faction Lead:   Revenador +Jason Drake 
RE Faction Lead:   andrewb +Andrew Brown 
Scorekeepers:       Tharrin +tharrin way 
                                 windbourne
Photographer:       sisterkiwi +Kaylene Fister 
FS Comittee
                                patonnic +Nicola Drake 
                                gible +Gible Fog 
                                nathefresh +Nathan Timoko 
                     

Come along to the first Christchurch Ingress First Saturday.
 
First Saturday is an agent organised event that happens on the first Saturday of the month where local agents can compete against each other and scores are also tallied internationally.

10am Cross Faction Meet Up and Registration
Come along early to grab a drink in the square, and meet other agents new and old, finally put a face to that name or take the opportunity to bring along that friend who is showing interest in the game but just wants a little more encouragement.
Register your level and AP at your factions check in station.

11am Level-Up Bootcamp
A quick explaination of the goals for the day
Higher level agents are encouraged to pair with newer agents working to level up.

11.30am Everyone Heads Out
Go out, explore, battle, capture and field

1.30pm Return for results
Scanners down, everyone returns to their check in stations to record their final levels and AP.
Results will be tallied and we hope to have a few prizes to award.

If wet we will start out at hummingbird cafe

If you need to contact someone regarding the event please see one of the following organising agents

+Debz King​
+Lisa Butler

+Tim King​
+Matt Jenkinson​ 
+kim uu​
+Andrew Mercer​

Thank you to all Agents that submitted their events for 6-JUNE #IngressFS. We are thrilled to see the cross-faction camaraderie. There's still time to register your June event: https://goo.gl/zhOaLw

Congratulations to the cities below for winning the IFSK-100 for their June events. 

*Vienna, Austria
*Liège, Belgium
*São Paulo, Brazil
*Vancouver, Canada
*NanJing, China
*San José, Costa Rica
*Tours, France
*Dresden, Germany
*Magdeburg, Germany
*Pune, India
*Milano, Italy
*Kingston, Jamaica
*Hamilton, New Zealand
*Panamá City, Panamá
*Cape Town, South Africa
*Port Elizabeth, South Africa
*Madrid, Spain
*Matara, Sri Lanka
*Puli, Taiwan
*Bangkok, Thailand
*Twente, Hengelo, The Netherlands
*Nottingham, UK
*Boise, ID, USA
*Charleston, WV, USA
*Elmhurst, IL, USA
*Houston, TX, USA
*Little Rock, AR, USA
*Salt Lake City, UT, USA
*Twin Cities, MN, USA
*Temecula, CA, USA
*Boston, MA, USA
*Barranquilla, Colombia
*Mendoza, Argentina
*Gold Coast, Australia
*Gaborone, Botswana
*Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
*Hamamatsu, Japan
*Mito, Japan
*Oita/大分, Japan
*Monterrey, Mexico
*Oslo, Norway
*Gwangju, South Korea
*Puerto Montt, Chile
*Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
*Mérida, México
*Burlington, VT, USA
*Kyiv, Ukraine

Photo credit to #IngressFS  Ponoma https://goo.gl/izgX03

Come along to the first Christchurch Ingress First Saturday.
 
First Saturday is an agent organised event that happens on the first Saturday of the month where local agents can compete against each other and scores are also tallied internationally.

10am Cross Faction Meet Up and Registration
Come along early to grab a drink in the square, and meet other agents new and old, finally put a face to that name or take the opportunity to bring along that friend who is showing interest in the game but just wants a little more encouragement.
Register your level and AP at your factions check in station.

11am Level-Up Bootcamp
A quick explaination of the goals for the day
Higher level agents are encouraged to pair with newer agents working to level up.

11.30am Everyone Heads Out
Go out, explore, battle, capture and field

1.30pm Return for results
Scanners down, everyone returns to their check in stations to record their final levels and AP.
Results will be tallied and we hope to have a few prizes to award.

If wet we will start out at hummingbird cafe

If you need to contact someone regarding the event please see one of the following organising agents

+Debz King​
+Lisa Butler

+Tim King​
+Matt Jenkinson​ 
+kim uu​
+Andrew Mercer​

Sorry for the reshare...
Tomorrow another ANZAC day is upon us. May I take this opportunity to remind us all that this is a solemn occasion where we pay respect to our fallen solders. I encourage you all to do this in your own way, and if that involves ingress then who am I to judge? But please do so with respect of those around you, discretion is the better part of valour..
I for one will ensure those who are taking the time to salute our heroes will do so under a nurturing field of green, and that they are equally unaware of my own private mark of respect.

Introducing Hamilton's 1st Ingress First Saturday!

Part social, part competitive, Ingress: First Saturday is an Agent-organized meetup. First Saturdays are a get together of the local Ingress family, new and old, to level up new recruits, make new friends, and strengthen Cross-Faction relations.

Plan for the day:
10am - Meet up / coffee / Sign in --- Meeting Point - Grass oval between main function centre and the lake

11am - Let the games begin.

1pm - Games End meet back and scores tallied 

There are two games going on.

One is a Level-Up game - tally of how many levels an individual gains, a faction gains, and a city gains.  This game puts a premium on having lower level Agents on your team.  Lower levels are being “rewarded handsomely.”

Two is an AP-gain race - tally of how much AP is gained.  Again, measure individual, faction, and city AP gain. This game puts a premium on having higher level Agents on your team.  

Operation Zero Cell
Date: 25-29 April, 2015
Location: PA07-Romeo-06 (Auckland, New Zealand)

Prelude
In order to win the perpetual rat-race that is the septicycle, Resistance in Auckland have a tradition of traveling long distances at all hours in order to field over the city, typically using one or more anchors that require special access or equipment.

In response to this, Enlightened decided to repeat a field thrown the previous weekend, using anchors that are more remote than the resistance favourites.

Field
On Saturday April 25,@Robodudenz and @Robokidnz headed out to the remote East Cape Lighthouse, to reclaim the anchor that Resistance had destroyed six days earlier. From there, in the early afternoon, they reestablished links to both Cape Reinga Lighthouse at the top of the country, and Egmont Plaque, at the top of a mountain on the west coast of the North Island, establishing a field worth 1.26M MU (and earning Robodudenz a platinum illuminator badge).

A Response(?)
On the evening of the 25th, Auckland Res agents were detected on Intel enroute to East Cape Lighthouse, presumably to take down the fields. But midnight came and went, with no activity at the lighthouse. Unsure what was going on, we went to bed, thinking maybe Resistance would wait until morning to drop the fields (they were still winning the cycle, so not exactly a rush).

Morning came, and reports came in that the Res agents were back in Auckland, citing bad weather and bad reception at the Lighthouse. At this point, we expected Resistance to send agents to the slightly closer lighthouse at Cape Reinga (if they weren’t already enroute), but again, nothing happened. 

Monday rolled around (a public holiday), and nothing had changed. Then around 2pm, a different Auckland Res agent appeared on Intel, near East Cape. So with fingers on recharge buttons, we waited. And waited. Then some activity was spotted at a known Res anchor. Perhaps they are planning to drop the fields and immediately throw their own? No, just seem to be key farming. More waiting. Surely they wouldn’t let us lead into the new cycle with a significant field and MU advantage?

7pm. Still nothing. Lots of rejoicing as the scoreboard refreshes with the first checkpoint of a new cycle, followed by the realisation that if Res don’t take the field down tonight, they probably won’t take it down until the end of the week.

A New Initiative
As a faction, we are careful to try and cater for all play styles (which under normal circumstances is fairly easy), but city-wide fields present an issue, especially if they are long-standing. For fielders, and those keen to challenge and win septicycles, they are a necessity, but for casual players and those who like to build and maintain their neighborhood, they can really inhibit play (not to mention those who have a connector or mind controller badge just around the corner).

In order to keep things interesting, it was suggested that seeing as we can’t link or field, that we instead set a goal of destroying as many Res fields as possible, with the ultimate goal being to reduce Res cell MU to zero for at least one checkpoint. And so Operation Zero Cell was born.

On Tuesday, as agents around the city searched intel for fields to destroy, we were surprised to find that the natural turnover of portals in the days prior had already eliminated the bulk of Resistance MU - so much so that the typical 50-100k standing MU was already down to a paltry 6.8k MU. Intel scanning resulted in a list of only 30 or so fields or field groups, and already that was shrinking as agents mopped up remaining fields near them.

By Tuesday night, the list had been whittled down to single digits, comprised mostly of fields in limited access areas, or away from roads or regular play areas.

The following morning, agents put their names down to clear the final few fields, and at 1:15pm,@Alnilamb destroyed the last fields at Auckland Botanic Gardens. Now all that was left to do was wait for the 4pm checkpoint to get confirmation of the zero MU.

4pm rolls around. 1 MU. “FUUUUUUUUUUUU!!! FIND IT!”.

30 mins later, Intel servers straining under the load of all of Auckland EN scouring the map, the remaining 1 MU field is found in the small town of Kaiwaka. The good news: one of the anchors is at 14% charge, and will decay in less than 24hrs. The even better news: intel logs reveal the portal was capped at 4:35pm, 7 days earlier! So intel was refreshed a few minutes later, and boom! It was gone!

Confident that every Res field had now been accounted for, we waited with baited breath for the 9pm checkpoint, at which point, Intel confirmed that our operation had been a success, and Res MU had indeed been reduced to zero!

Big thanks to all the agents who took part (knowingly or not!) and continued to play on under the field, from Whangarei in the north, to Drury and Waiuku in the south!

Local players have remarked that this is possibly the first time in the world that a cell containing a major city (population 1.5M) with two thriving factions (2 anomalies hosted) has had standing MU for one faction reduced to zero!

+John Hanke +Brian Rose +Joe Philley +Anne Beuttenmüller +Matilde Tusberti +Ingress 
#ingress