IFS Deal (East Kent, UK) 2019 – as it happened

My partner in crime agent Moomintr0ll and myself – agent DrThod where still busy placing some dead drops when the first agents reported via Telegram that they had reached the play area. So out of breath we both arrived just ahead of registration – to an empty pub – The Port Arms, close to Deals beautiful seafront. Two minutes to relax before setup. I had given it a generous hour for registration – and I’m glad that I did as my part didn’t work smoothly. But it is appearances that count and apparently everyone congratulated me on fantastic organizational skills – well – I take that …

Agents of both factions started to roll in minutes later. A total of 15 Resistance and 19 Enlightened agents (not counting organizers) had signed up. 100% of Res showed up and 17 out of 19 Enl.

The play area had been cleared the day before and it was great to see that it stayed mainly neutral until the official start of the game. We tried to build up two local portals to level 8 – one for each team. I’m embarrassed to say – despite numerical superiority we ended up with a level 7 portal ahead of the group photo. Come on team – get organized !!

Agents got the hints for the passcode as soon as they arrived and could work on these – or just had a drink and socialized. Time passed quickly until the obligatory group photo.

The group photo – approx. 10 more agents hiding in the pub or elsewhere

With hints for the dead drops handed out and the clock ticking down, everyone got ready to head off – some more quickly as others. And the first opportunity for the organizers for a moment of quiet.

All First Saturdays ask for level gain, AP gain and km walked. We used fields created as the extra entry. Agents were told before of this – as we wanted to encourage them to field.

Enlightened clearly got the head start as a wave of green started to spread with the Portal Arms at the center. Resistance took a while to follow. I’m still undecided if this was lazy or clever play. I could only watch occasionally on the IntelMap – and that seemed to be slow to update. but mentioning from agents out there called it ‘manic’ which I regard as a positive.

This also allowed me my 8 minutes of own play as I headed out a while after the groups to deploy the two closest dead drops. Agents had been told these would appear later. All 10 dead drops, where capsules – predominately with keys – to help building fields and make it easier for someone first time in Deal. Each had a simple riddle associated to it to hint to a specific portal – and the keys or items in the capsule were related to the riddle.

This leads to the Pier. The Pier in Deal is the most fought after portal in town. It allows unblocked fielding across the channel towards France and Belgium and you can fan out from it to at least 50 portals along the sea-front. It also offers a great view of the houses along the sea which mainly were built in the Victorian time.

We encouraged a visit to this lonely portal by making it the last portal of the FS mission and also by offering a special prize to the agent who was owning the portal at a random time, only know to myself and Moomintr0ll.

Is it bad if you root against a member of your own team? For half an hour leading up to the mystery moment in time only a single agent owned the portal. Camped at the end of the Pier in the warmth of the café and with a cuppa in hand Squibby666 fought down every opposition. A cheer went up in the Portal Arms (early agents back from both teams) when my preset alarm went off and littleThorn wrangled ownership of the portal out of Squibby’s hold for a few crucial seconds. This was also fitting as both she and her partner needed to leave soon after and this was the only prize that could be handed out ahead of time – a Niantic metal pin.

You don’t have to feel bad about poor Squibby. Unbeknown to me I already had made his day when he earlier picked up my late dead drop of a capsule containing hear sinks. I must have dropped it straight at his feet as he hadn’t even bothered to read through my elaborate riddles to describe the portals where to find them.

This leads to the other winners of the day.

Most AP for ENL and overall went to agent clathrate with a total of 340220. He won a plush frog. He did enjoy the prize only for a short while as he donated it to someone more worthy – a little girl who stayed in the pub for 4 hours without a single complaint while her parents went out hunting or socializing.

The only double winner of the day came from Resistance. Elzillar managed most AP for Res (293477) and most fields created (33). He deserved the plush smurf and a blue Niantic pin.

Beaten by just 1 field was team TukaChinchilla and Sweathe4rt. Together the managed the impressive number of 58 fields between them – but only highest single agent number counted. I hope they can share the green Niantic pin.

A group of four agents tied for most km walked. Three Res players – AgentLv1, Gforce423 and The Flash8852 as well as Enl 0CaptinKirk0 all managed a total of 8 km walked. The blue Niantic pin went to TheFlash as he also scored second best for his team in AP gained and fields done while the green Niantic pin went to 0CaptinKirk0.

A total of 3 agents in total leveled up on the day:

Laurienator 5 -> 6

0CaptinKirk0 11 -> 12

Dreamwhispers 12 ->13

We decided that the remaining black Niantic pin went to the lowest level player – laurienator. After all – we want to encourage new players most.

This leaves the overall team scores. Two Res players didn’t know they should return to registration and their scores had to be excluded. One Enl agent didn’t know he should register at all and wasn’t counted either – he only dropped in to the pub long after the official event had finished.

Score	Resistance	Enlightened
Players	15 (13 scored)	17 (16 scored)
Level gain total	0	3
AP gain total	1762087	2203386
AP gain average	135545	137712
Km walked total	67	79
Km walked average	5.15	4.94
Fields created total	137	179
Fields created average	10.5	11.2

It was nice to see that the scores were close, and we had winners on both teams. Ingress encourages faction against faction competition – but it should be good natured. It is a success if the second best (or last) still has a smile or handshake with the winner and if both teams enjoy a drink.

Speaking of drinks – most pints of ale drunk (organizers only) went to Moomintr0ll, Resistance. Apparently, I got disqualified for starting with coke and moving on to cider after my first pint of ale.

The inside of the pub with the organizers busily adding scores to the spreadsheet

We had a great time in the pub and it was three hours after the official event closed when I finally left. The weather on the day was grey but dry. Good walking weather. It was a great opportunity to mingle with fellow agents – either from the same team or from the opposition. There are already plans for another FS – this time in west Kent. There are several other places in East Kent that offer even better portals and connections compared to Deal and I’m sure we will return to the East after meeting in West Kent first.

And we have two surviving level 8 portals in town now. This is the very first time since I started playing Ingress 4 ½ month ago that we have any level 8 portal here. I might jinx them by mentioning them here and an overeager agent will come and destroy them – after all – both are Enl right now. But I won’t mind if my partner in crime organizing this event ADA’s one of them. After all – it is next to the start of his daily commute and would be an ideal restocking portal for him as well. After all – the First Saturday is to encourage xfac play.

For the rest of the town and surrounding areas – let it be green again.