Operation Teiaiagon: World's First Level 14 Homogeneous Field in Toronto, Ontario
Summary:
On February 11, 2022, nine Toronto agents successfully established the world’s first Level 14 homogeneous field with collocated portals that they created.
Preamble
Collocated portals, for the longest time, were a luxury discovered only in very few lucky countries. Created by coincidence or sponsorships, they were discovered in only Poland, Germany, and Japan thus far. To players around the world, collocated portals seemed as mythical as the VRLA. Then, everything changed when the Lightship set sail…
Project Collocated (Phase I)
Agent drunkencyclist caught wind of an anomaly that lifted the 20 meter portal barrier and began toying with the idea of creating collocated portals. After discussions with Agent YX3am and other Wayfarers, we decided to submit new portal candidates using the exact coordinates of an existing portal. Soon, we began exploring the streets of Toronto and scouting for candidates that share the same space as existing members of the Portal Network. Despite the excruciating Wayfarer process and the meticulous detail required, the results were worth the effort as three suitable collocated portals came online.
First Run
The drive behind Project Collocated began with the possibility of recreating Kurashiki’s level 12 homogeneous field in Toronto. After the sets came online, Agent drunkencyclist studied, mapped, and reworked the Japanese link plan for the operation, but we think these collocated portals could do more… What if we create more collocated sets? The possibilities are endless!
We decided to share the project details with control field specialist, Agent 57Cell. At the same time, we rallied three more agents, farmed keys, and we were ready to execute the plan on January 15th. But a day before the mission, agent 57Cell informed us of a plan that we could elevate the field to level 14! You know what they say, “Go big or go home”. Within 8 hours, we remapped our existing plan based on this new set of instructions, and out we went.
That evening, we went home… empty handed. Half way through the execution, we realized a layer was missing. Unfortunately, January 15th coincided with the first cold snap of the year. Agents were already on the field for two hours under -15°C (5°F); we had to abort the operation. We found out that we had in fact failed to verify the homogeneity of the modified link plan due to the rush.
Disappointed but determined, we went back to the drawing board and thought critically about what went wrong. Agent drunkencyclist reformulated our plans, verified the homogeneity of every draft, and revamped the instruction set for the operation flow. With Agent YX3am’s crazy spreadsheet skills and Agent 57Cell’s field simulator, we were confident that our link plan would produce a level 14 homogeneous field this time. After enlisting an additional three players to the operation, we voted that February 11 would be the D-Day.
Operation Teiaiagon (Phase II)
With the upcoming Kureze event, the opposition became hyperactive. Our required site was only a short bike ride away from the closest blue player. Niantic also changed the start time for the Matryoshka rule from the 13th to the 11th; even friendly agents could ruin the homogeneity of the control field. Time was of the essence to ensure the success of this highly choreographed operation. Fortunately the field consists of only 71 links and the park was open for vehicles until 11:00 pm. At about 9:30pm, eight ground agents dispersed and started moving to their positions. At first, we had a rocky start getting familiarized with the operation protocols, but everyone picked up their pace quickly. Midway through the operation, agent UnlikelySanity reported activity from a Resistance agent happening immediately north of the core of our operations. We ramped up our speed and sent agents who had completed their sequences back to reinforcing the portals and prepare to defend. Thankfully, the blue player didn’t engage with us. Our core team completed their set at 10:53pm and left the park safely before the park security locked the gates. At 11:02pm, the last link was thrown, and we completed a world record breaking HCF 14!
Operation Name Origin
Teiaiagon (pronounced “Tee-ay-ah-gone”), was a Seneca Nation village, part of the Iroquois Confederacy that consisted of five nations (the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca). The village was built in the 1660s or 1670s, after they defeated the Huron-Wendat, the former inhabitants of this area. The location was strategically situated on the summit and slopes of a large promontory overlooking the main channel of the Humber River. Our links crossed the Humber River and our fields covered the Toronto Carrying Place Trail, a century old major Indigenous trade route that linked Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe. We decided on the name to pay tribute to Teiaiagon and the rich history of the indigenous peoples that shaped the area and contributed to the development of Tkaronto and Canada.
Sources:
http://babypointheritage.com/historical-importance/archaeological-importance/
https://torontoist.com/2015/06/historicist-the-village-of-teiaiagon/
https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/587693
https://www.torontocarryingplace.ca/about-the-trail
https://cms.driftscape.com/feature/bb68586a-d44b-11e8-8000-a4480fe5cbe4
A Comparison with Kurashiki’s H12
Both used 3 sets of collocated portals, so how did we ascend an H12 to H14?
Both HCFs utilized the maximum portal combinations of the largest field with 3 sets of collocated portal, which is 8. The difference is in the utilization of additional interior portals: the H12 (left) contains a level 4 base; the H14 (right) contains a level 6 base, illustrated as below:
Final Drunken Words
This operation wouldn’t have happened without everyone’s support. Even before the pandemic, the Ingress scene in Toronto had been stagnant; this operation was an excuse to wake our community, to bring us back to the olden days when players worked with each other to achieve a common goal. I am surprised that many players took their evenings off and hopped on to our operation and none of them asked how long this would take. Your enthusiasm burns like the sun! For me particularly, this has truly been an enlightening experience, never have I ever imagined that one day I would team up with players I played against, let alone setting a world record together. The world around you is indeed not as it seems.
The Team: @drunkencyclist @YX3am @IP5EC @unlikelysanity @caiOHawk @MAMAH @jbzy008 @AlZF @sillygwailo!!
Stats: 9 agents; 20 portals; 71 links; 331,265 MUs; logged time 1h15m; 2 attempts
After party at the Ministry of Silly Walks featuring SillyGwailo!
Special Mentions:
A huge thank you to Agent 57Cell who drafted the plan for us and raised our ambition.
Another huge thank you to Agent YX3am who created 2 of the collocated located portals that we worked on.
Final huge thank you to Agent Adibrill for staying up to record the operation for us and producing such an epic video!
Comments
congratulations, amazing work!
congratulations, amazing work!