Only 4 days remain for the two teams to get the shards home. In today’s update, we have news on what the value of the shards are for the anomaly, a brief recap on 10 of the shards, a look at Juan (#2) traveling around brazil, a round of ping pong across the North Atlantic Ocean and a cute little poem about Toodles.
Statistics Update
Shards #4, 11, 12, 14, 20, 24, 25, 28, 30, 31 – Recap: Countdown to the final shard deliveries
Shard #2 – Recap: Juan
Shard #7 – Recap: Cosmic Ping Pong
Shard #18 – Story (Res): The Saga of Toodles
If you would like your report added to tomorrow’s update, submit it here: http://fevgames.net/wpgforms/shonin-shard-stories
The rules for the anomaly this weekend have been released and it has been revealed that each shard that has made it to a target will be worth 500 points for the team which is roughly equivalent to an average score for a remote city anomaly however it can be easily overcome by covering three measurements of a primary city in a field or controlling 5 connected cells.
It looks like not a lot of progress has been made towards the targets in the past 24 hours (up to 1201 UTC), combined they have only moved 1,484km… there are still 17 shards closer to the Enlightened target and 10 shards closer to the Resistance target that aren’t yet captured.
Shards #4, 11, 12, 14, 20, 24, 25, 28, 30, 31 – Recap
By Thomas Sounness
Countdown to the final shard deliveries
Shard #4 ‘Felicia’, having been fired by the Enlightened into the centre of Paris from Toulouse (a city in the south of France), is being fiercely contested throughout the Paris’s quarters and sections. Felecia is seemingly well lodged into the complex network of portals and links surrounding Paris & may be living the life of a well respected vagabond on the banks of the Seine river. Looking at the pathway to Rotterdam, there are few options visible for a repeat of that shot fired to the centre of Paris before. I see many more blockages than opportunities, as this Intel screencap picture shows. Given how Felicia threaded the needle before to arrive in central Paris, and took the longest jump of 6880km, there is still the possibility of this shard being in play at the end of the game, this one – it breaks the rules, it sets new records more often than not.
Shard #11 – “Fried Chicken Shard” – was taken from the Japanese isles some time ago at it’s 21st jump and remains on the Hawaiian Archipelago – currently having returned, still under RES, control to the 5th largest island of Molokai (population 7 345). With a great distance to travel, this shard is unlikely to play any further part in the scoring. A wonderful story of Resistance teamwork for this shard’s movement is below.
Right now, sleepy the & quaint towns Houserville and Boalsburg, Pennsylvania is the most exciting place to be an Ingress agent. Near Boalsburg , a group of shards (#12 & #25) on what was a smooth passage to Washington DC has been disrupted whilst resting on the portal named “Mid State Trail Dedication Monument”. Given they were held to place for 30 hours, and given the jump is around the 10km mark, I think it was likely to be random jump, not a directed jump. So, either the Resistance were unable to find a safe passage in, or the shard was held in place by the Enlightened. The resulting shard movements were 7.9km & 10.8km respectively AWAY from the Resistance target, representing a serious disruption to further Resistance domination of the shard scoring patterns recently demonstrated. Close by in Houserville, Shard #31 “Bub” was also on a clear vector to their target – the Washington Monument. However over the last 24 hours this shard is also had it’s passage disrupted to a new part of the compass – this one now one travelling to the north west. It appears that the shard has been intercepted by the Enlightened and was taken away from Resistance control. ENL agents @SKSM5966 @the3lracer @ViolaRose @pschrat @5parkee @johnsjungle appear to be active in this action. This cluster of the shard is hotly contested and is proving to be very exciting.
Linked Shards #14 and #30 are still in the far north of Ireland just to the north of Londenderry, but not so far north as before. The potential for these shards to be taken across the atlantic is possible, and given the domination of the Resistance in the area – with RES blocking links being all that is preventing a long international link from being established (and the appropriate key) it is looking like these shards are among the most likely to be brought into play from an international source to assist the Resistance with their dominant lead for docked shards. If delivered correctly, these are potentially game winning moves by the Resistance and eyes will be looking closely to see what happens next.
Shard #20 (Melbourne Shard) remains in Salt Lake City – the agents there have been working very hard against each other to prevent the other side from moving towards either target. I count 5 changes in controlling ownership in the last 16 jumps, and the shard is now at the centre of a University Campus. Salt Lake City agents would have many stories to tell as we’ll see as their stories come in. Given the tightly contested nature of the last week, it seems unlikely that Shard #20 will be scored for either side.
Shard #24 (Perth Shard – nicknamed ‘Tony’ by various agents) is now away from the island of Faroe, and it’s brief travelling companion, shard #28, have separated company. #24 is seemingly under the control of the Enlightened at Holy Island, and there is no-one who have put any claim onto the portal holding shard #28 at “St. Aidans Church”. At the time of writing the portal had been vacant and unclaimed for 4+hours time. These shards will be difficult to score by the Resistance, but there is still possibility that these shards may be among the first to be scored by the Enlightened at their target destination.
By Johnny Kamigashima
Juan
Brazil, March 23rd: Shard #2 codenamed Juan arrived in Brazil at 3PM. It was sent thru Bolivia by the ENL to the City of Mariana, Minas Gerais. The same place the other two shards had been. Recent ENL activities used the portal in Mariana and Governador Valadares for megafield Operations, these keys are scattered all around the country making the shard that travels through them almost impossible to recover.
Agent @CryingIsFree from Betim – Belo Horizonte took the car to the city of Mariana (2 1/2 hours trip) to recover the Shard #2 from the Enlightened, the traffic was really bad and heavy rain was pouring, but time was precious and he had to prove that people from small cities can be heroes too and arrive before the 9PM jump time. He arrived at the destination at 8:46PM and cleared the area, sent ADA flying and linked to the destination portal successfully. The Shard was again in the hands of the Resistance.
Since then, the shard was stuck at the Resistance portal for 24 hours. There were 3 attempts from the ENL to recover the shard but they couldn’t do it, all the routes were blocked by random links and fields. The Resistance expects that if the Enlightened capture the shard they will send it to the original Route which is Governador Valadares, then Recife then Portugal.
During the day the Resistance Agents @ceaga, @CryingIsFree and @V1ny crossed some links across the city to block ENL from linking the shard portal to Governador Valadares which is the ENL controlled city.
There’s a fierce battle raging because the city does not have that many players on both sides and is far from any other major city. Then came the end of the day and once again some players are back, away from their jobs. Five Resistance agents and seven Enlightened fought bravely for the possession of the shard #2 at Igreja Assembléia de Deus just before the 9PM jump time.
A lot of links and blocks were made to avoid the shard from moving from Santa Luzia to Governador Valadares and the Resistance successfully linked to another portal 24 km south and the Shard finally moved after 24 hours.
Agents involved:
RES: @DavidYahoO, @Ichronos, @CryinsIsFree, @Ceaga, @BigLora
ENL: @jhakal, @CaptainInvernal, @Demolidor2014, @0wner, @RndoJr, @Mrpedok, @Dr999
Shard #2 is still In Minas Gerais finding a way to somewhere else.
By Peter Gpetr
You know, when you look at the last days and see the shards jumping around the map, you start to wonder what is the great meaning of all of this…
And let me tell you fellow agents what I’ve discover tonight: It is a cosmic Ping Pong play between Nzeer and the Shapers! If you don’t believe me, just watch the screenshots below.
This Saturday, one came to Azores-S.Miguel. In the mean time that one came to Portugal shores. On the brink of Sunday two came from Brasil to south coast of Portugal, in Alentejo. Sunday morning those same shards went to Azores-S.Miguel and rested there. On the brink of Monday the shard in Sintra went off to S. Miguel as well, and all three shards were in the island. Yesterday they just jump around the island, and two were flung during the afternoon to north coast of Portugal again. Today, at 6am, Ping Pong Master @n1sK and his teammates @Gaelatiuz, @xicoesperto and @k1ntas, send, in an unbelievable swoop, those two shards to Azores, this time, Terceira island! The shard taht was in S. Miguel managed at the last minute as well to come to Portugal north coast, Matosinhos, as the RES agents linked to a second portal.
So here we are, playing ping pong as if these shards were play toys! They are really addictive as the adrenaline always spikes up in the last minute when testifying these awesome plays by both ENL and RES players. Kudos to both factions.
If I may indulge your time a bit more, I would really like to tell you a detail of the unbelievable swoop by @n1sK master. The portal had been ADAed at 4:59:35 precisely, leaving a ridiculous small window to put a Jarvis on the portal and then link it to the destination, some 1580km away. He had one key. He had one opportunity to set the Jarvis virus. And you know what, this agent keeps on surprising me, for as long as I remember. He pulled it off! Thank you for this awesome move and for your incredible perseverance and faith. Hats off to your excellent team too, that made this dawn become one more awesome story to remember when we meet again!
Presenting The Ping Pong Masters Team
@n1sK – Nuno Nogueira
@Gaelatiuz – Hugo Gaelatiuz
@k1ntas Pedro – Oliveira
@xicoesperto – Hugo Mendes
By Jenn Denlinger
I promised you a sitrep and it’s an epic tale. So I will tell it this way. I do not have names and IGNs, they are too many to count. But you know who you are, and what you’ve done. You are, every one of you, my heroes. Your dedication and power makes anything possible. This then is for you, the makers of impossible things.
You’re going to call us heroes,
I know, because you do,
But this is just the simple story
Of Toodles and DMV blue.
Toodles was a cursed shard.
We knew it from day one
With all the mischief she had brought
And woes we had a ton.
We heard the noise in NC,
We battened down the hatches,
Dark night after dark night
After attempted ENL snatches….
She came in range at nightfall.
All through the night we watched.
Our local legends stood their ground
Against an attack in freezing dark.
And with the dawn she closed in.
We knew that we’d be fought
Out went the call- to arms to arms!
To block, to kill, they sought.
The link went up and the party started
Shields popping left and right
We knew hundreds were recharging
We modded for dear life.
Frog legions came, and flocked around
Bursting XMPs galore…
Twenty minutes of anxiety….
And finally, the score!
O, the screams and hugs of triumph
Jubilation on every side.
I went to tell the frogs “good game”
But only one or two did I find.
They’d been sure that they could take her
And yet, we brought her home.
Every single Res a hero
No one of us alone.
I only tell the tale I know
And that’s way less than half.
But I know for this we came
And this we did, at last.
Resistance Strong were all our crew
As Toodles made her way
Without North Carolina,
we’d have never seen this day.
Rejoice ye Res, you are the best.
Toodles proved it true,
We brought Toodles home.
There’s Nothing we can’t do.
Jgd 23mar15
Specific and special props to
Chris Norris who needs to share this to all those who bled for toodles and who kept on trying…
Evan Sippert who offered up 213 days worth of Guardianship to keep Toodles safe in Culpepper til we could line her up, and who stood with an amazing crew, in the freezing woods by that portal to defend her at two am.
Anna Muldoon the world’s best and most amazing organizer and all the DC troops who swarmed the monument and kept it blue
+ a certain red haired woman, who claims she was “just part of the team” but whose heart and persistence inspired us, as she Insisted that she see Toodles to the finish.
Once more, I can’t possibly find or thank all of the agents who were there. We are an amazing team, and I wish you’d help me out and reshare to those involved.
If you would like your report added to tomorrow’s update, submit it here: http://fevgames.net/wpgforms/shonin-shard-stories
Thanks to Thrakazog for the Shard tracking map and Marwan Sbitani for collecting the data for the map.