Ingress x GORUCK @ CLT

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Sunday, Feb 22:

Short Wake-up Flow & Return - Day 1 - Sense Yoga with Adriene

Monday, Feb 23:

18A "Lower Body Prep" in 18:24, then "Lower Push BW" in 41:12

INGRESS X GORUCK STEALTH OPS

GORUCK had Ingress-themed events in CLT.  I've heard that a decent number of people found rucking via Ingress, and I've been a Pokemon Go fan for a long time, so it was hard to pass up this opportunity to check it out.

They had three events over the course of a weekend, starting with a Friday night "Stealth Ops", which is their night time event.  It has some elements of traditional GORUCK events, like rucking interspersed with little workouts, but it's a bit more relaxed, less physically demanding, and there's a competitive aspect between the two factions.

In Ingress, when you create an account, you pick a side (Enlightenment vs Resistance), and the two sides fight to gain more territory than the other side.  There's a backstory to it all, which is pretty interesting and creative.  There are official youtube videos that explain it all, and superfans create their own guides on how to play, too.  

I created an account, signed up for the events, and started trying to figure things out, a few days before go-time.  There is a learning curve, even if you've played Pokemon Go before, because it is more complex than Pokemon, which is meant to be easy enough for kids to understand.  

I showed up at the start point in uptown and met my fellow Resistance team members.  About an equal number of Enlightenment team members showed up, which would make things fair and interesting.  Everyone was really nice.  The teams would wear clothes matching their faction's colors.  Since we were next to the main event hotels, there were non-GORUCK people who stopped by to watch a bit, too.

For this event, they use Tough weights (20# for me).  We got a little briefing from Cadre Barbarossa and had a "welcome party / warmup" of exercises that each participant picked as they introduced themselves.  For the rest of the event, we'd do 1-2 0.75 mi laps around Marshall Park, and after each movement, there would be some kind of challenge between the two factions.  There was a decent amount of time to recover after movements and challenges.  

1. Crab Walk relay

2. "Capture the Portal" to ruck out and collectively capture 2 designated neutral portals and ruck back before the other team

3. Patch puzzle relay

4. Ruck brigade

5. Rock Paper Scissors single elimination with burpee penalty

5. Tunnel of love 

6. "Last Portal Standing" with ruck OH where the faction with the last man standing wins

Our team won crab walks and "capture the portal".  The other team might've won puzzles.  We won ruck brigade.  The other team won Rock Paper scissors.  I don't remember who won Tunnel.  Our team tended to win the more physical events, and the other team tended to win the mental events.  "Last Portal Standing" came down to my HDT friend Ian and I.  He's a legit rucker, and he beat me.  I think I lasted around 6 min.

Resistance came out on top, which earned us points towards the overall Ingress competition known as the Anomaly, which was the main reason that people (many more than those who came out to the GORUCK events) flew from all over the country and perhaps even the world to be here.  I didn't even know about it, but Cadre and the participants described it as quite an experience.  The factions would be spread out all over the city, with people behind the scenes for each side directing different groups from their team where to go and what to do, to earn as many points as possible for their team.  It sounded interesting, so I planned to do that the next day with them.

We covered about 7 miles.  We were able to get out before midnight, which was nice, since that gave me a bit more sleep before the next day's Urban Ops event plus the Anomaly.

INGRESS X GORUCK URBAN OPS

Urban Ops is like a "Light", if Stealth Ops is the "Basic".  Stealth Ops used to be longer back in the day, the OGs said.  It was similar in format, with movements followed by challenges.  

We did have uneven numbers this time, so the two faction leaders would have to decide how to handle the odd man out, whether it was having one team pick someone to go twice, or have the other team sit someone out.  This was decided by rock paper scissors, when there was a disagreement.

1. Bear Crawl Relay

2. Capture the Portal

3. Glyph Quiz - first to maybe 20 points wins, taking turns identifying what glyph is shown on the phone

4. Puzzle

5. Last Portal Standing

For Capture the Portal, each team member had to put down a resonator, and because I was the lowest level in the group, we had to make sure that I got to claim a spot first, since I wouldn't have the ability to upgrade someone else's resonator, and once you mess it up, it becomes more difficult to solve because you have to use a mod to flip the portal to the other faction's, defeat it, and then re-capture it... I told you it's complicated.

Enlightenment won this time.  Ian beat me again at the OH holds, although I lasted longer this time... maybe 9 or 11 minutes?  I don't remember.  I was using a shorty v3 rucker instead of a v2 rucker this time and got a better hold of the ruck by gripping the backpanel instead of just hooking fingers into the side handles.  Kudos to him for outlasting me!

We covered about 3 miles.

ANOMALY

Multiple people were willing to let me tag along with their group during the Anomaly.  They are all about Opsec, so you only know what your group's instructions are, and even in the lead-up, there is a sequence of rally points to get everyone together.  You have to be careful about how loudly you speak when there may be members of the other faction around, too.  

Even before the event starts, the two factions do prep work to lay down conditions that will help their team once the official event starts.

Once the event starts, there's some running, some "hurry up and wait", lots of people on their phones... I wonder what "muggles" thought the blue-colored and green-colored people on their phones were doing during the event, which started at 2pm and ended at 5pm.

Many times, there wasn't much I could do to really help, since the level of "weapons" you can get and use depends on your game level.  I just tried to "help" and learn at the same time.

Another element of the event is that you can win a virtual badge by completing certain tasks.  My group helped me complete the tasks, which is tough to do at a low level since you need items and neutral portals, and neutral portals can only become neutral if you either win them back from the other team, or flip them.  My team graciously donated items and helped me flip portals to enable me to finish everything, with minutes to spare.  There was another newbie in the other sub-group, and he finished with like seconds to spare.  

By the end of the event, I was able to get up to Level 4.

There was a faction afterparty afterwards, at Lost World Brewing, which I had never been in before.  They had swag for sale, some players made fun trading cards to give away with some bios, people caught up on the day's events, and there were group photos.  It's like a reunion for people in the community, since everyone would've been split up during the day.

("Lady Birds" are what the female Resistance team members are called)

OPERATION CLEAR FIELD

This is definitely not a traditional GORUCK event.  It's like Scavenger, except there's no weight requirement, and apparently, you're allowed to use wheeled means of transportation.

I hadn't arranged for a team beforehand.  I wanted to go fast and win.  Solo was an option, but some tasks are more doable with a group.  A group from California called @pacific_smurfs ended up taking me in... they seemed like a natural fit.  I was the navigator.  We had waypoints, like in a Star Course or Scavenger.  The X factor is how much mileage and speed the group can manage, though, and that's typically dictated by whoever the limiting factor might be.  We did our best, but we got 3rd.  1st place used the light rails.  I didn't want to mess with that, since you'd have to wait around for a train, and as a GORUCK person, using something other than your feet for an event feels off.  

We had specific tasks, and we got to find historical or artistic bonuses, symbols of the city, limited cool points, items in the real world that looked like Ingress-related objects.

We ended up squeezing a couple of "Missions" along the way.  "Missions" are like Pokemon Go "Routes".  That did eat up a bit of time that we could've spent getting Clear Field points, but a couple of people had to leave for flights right after the event, so they didn't have much time to get it in.

After Clear Field, I met up with NixieTubes to do some more missions and complete my 6, although I accidentally did one extra and got 7 instead.  They are presented in rows of 6 as badges, so having a number other than 6 throws off the alignment.  It was a nice way to round out a weekend full of Ingress.