This was my second FS I attended – having started nearly 4 month ago. I had learnt from my first FS and came a little bit better prepared. Step 1 – I aimed to level up during the event. Level 12 was getting close – so I pushed it in the days leading up to the FS and left with 190K to go. I managed already 125K just from home to the local railway and from St. Pancras to Tower Hill – so I slowed down when I was close as I didn’t want to level up just before registration.
At the first FS I felt lost on my own. Coming from East Kent I didn’t expect to know anyone. I therefore left a message in the Kent hangout group to deliberately meet up with others. Thanks to Mr and Mrs Squibby as well as Emma to answer my call and to welcome me at the pub.
This left some stocking up on the day before and cleaning out of key space. This wasn’t truly successful as I had pushed myself a little bit the week before – depleting bursters and resonators – but at least I had a decent collection of gear.
The badge I care most about is my Pioneer Badge. I therefore didn’t buy a Day Travel Card but rather deliberately made my way by foot from St Pancras to Tower Hill – taking every portal that seemed feasible on the way. It also means that during the event I tried to cover as much new ground as possible – happily sacrificing some AP in the process.
So how did I do during the event?
| Level Gain | AP Gain | Trekker Gain | Hack Gain |
| 1 lvl | 182669 | 9 km | 177 hacks |
| One out of 10 level gains | Approx. 20% above average – not even close to top scorers | 2nd Enl, shared 2nd overall | 3rd Enl, 3rd overall |
I wasn’t in London to ‘win’ – but I like the competitive side of an FS. It seems I was in the wrong team to gain the top for trecker or hacker – but I’m happy with how I managed to do. More importantly for me where the daily gains overall as I took advantage of a day in London. So here are my stats with some short remarks:
| Badge | Progress | Comment |
| AP | 517339 | My first half million+ in a day (not including approx. 180K bonus AP) |
| Trekker | 26 | Lots of walking – platinum badge here we come |
| Pioneer | 250 | Highest score ever and a nice round value |
| Liberator | 287 | 87% of portals captured have been unique |
| Explorer | 476 | I could have pushed this to 500 would I have known |
| Hacker | 512 | 95% of hacks were unique hacks – guess I know why I didn’t get 1st place in the hack of the day if I ‘avoided’ portals already hacked |
| Builder | 946 | Less than 4 resonators / portal captured I know where I lost my AP |
| Connector | 101 | You had to get rid of the surplus keys somehow Linking was tough |
| Mind Controller | 13 | My normal driver for AP I didn’t bother much with this one |
| Illuminator | 219 | See above |
| Purifier | 801 | This is a lot for my normal standards I often have less overall Res resonators in all of town |
| Engineer | 10 | It was a FS – I didn’t deploy any there |
| SpecOps | 0 | I contemplated doing some I rather went for max uniques |
| Translator | 1 | I’m not good at it – but this is shocking. I didn’t even try on the day |
| First Saturday | 1 | Waiting for this one to increase – but it will (eventually) |
My own way how I approached this FS is likely very different to other players. My own highlights have been:
- Meeting players F2F who I only knew via handouts. This included a first key drop of 100 keys from my town – hopefully going to good use eventually
- Great progress on my favorite badge – Pioneer. And pushing Explorer hard enough to ensure the remaining 187 unique hacks to reach my 7th gold for next level will be plain sailing
- Another level up. I will have to look at OPR now – I can’t submit yet as I’m someone who started on Prime
- A great atmosphere and an excuse to travel all the way.
Back home my local nemesis as well as a fellow player from the next town took advantage of my absence by nearly wiping me from the town. That was a great gift as I seldom have that many low level portals nicely connected waiting for me. 75K AP just getting home from the train station at night using a scenic route was a great welcome back – thanks local Resistance – it was appreciated.
Now it is time to get organized – I planned to host a first FS in East Kent in April and noticed that the registration is already up. Still feels a little bit scary to do that when there are so many players locally around whom I never met and who play a lot longer than I do. But what better way to rectify that as by having a local FS. There is already enough interest for sure. It will be more familiar compared to London. But who knows who will come from further away? And I already have been asked if I would be willing to be Enl contact for a later FS not in my own town.
Update: The event is up and we already have 18 registered players who want to come to Deal.Register at https://fevgames.net/ifs/event/?e=11617