I was pretty disappointed when my knee was so swollen that I couldn't go out and play Ingress while the Los Angeles Resistance captured around 30 portals, defended them and made them into a Level 8 farm throughout the night.
My health is far more important than spending the night at the Great Wall of Los Angeles.
When we got up this morning, outside of significant bruising, my knee looked mostly like a knee and not a balloon. I took a lot of comfort in that and decided we should go grab breakfast and maybe swing by the Great Wall or connect with my wife's cousin, a local Level 8 Resistance agent to give her some swag I picked up at the Ingress GDC mixer.
We ate a pretty good and very big portioned breakfast at Eat here in North Hollywood.
After breakfast we stopped by Fry's in Burbank and I finally captured the portal there. That Fry's location is all decked out in an Alien Invasion style with props like an old 50s diner, the Mars Attacks aliens, the alien from The Day The Earth Stood Still and more. Very impressive.
We bought a needed SD card and then headed to downtown Los Angeles' Little Tokyo to meet up with our cousin.
On the way there, Niantic Labs developer Brian Rose posted on Google+ about an Ingress campus event at USC that he'd be attending at 2PM. It was only a little bit further past Little Tokyo so I indicated I would attend the event on Google+ and we made plans to go after giving our cousin the pack of Resistance stickers I got for her at the GDC mixer.
We parked in front of the Little Tokyo library and I captured the portal there. We walked over to a really cool Space Shuttle Challenger memorial and met up with our cousin and two other players. I offered them Hint water complete with in game item codes but they all refused. Our cousin gave me fifty Level 7 XMP and we headed to USC while they headed to lunch.
After having a difficult time navigating to find parking, we parked at the Exposition Park near the Natural History Museum and walked over to the campus from there.
I registered at the "Ingress USC Campus anomaly" table and was told that I was only the second person to register for the event. The event started at 2 and it was already 1:40.
Shortly before 2, Brian Rose arrived and I said hello and introduced myself. I was excited to meet him. A few minutes later the campus agents gave me a confidential packet of materials and sent me off on my mission.
Points were scored if one faction took over another's portals and five points were given if the home base portals, Tommy Trojan statue for the Resistance and The California Science Center for the Enlightened at specific times of the anomaly once every 30 minutes.
I walked the campus, farming low level supplies and capturing one green portal before heading back just in time to help defend the Tommy Trojan statue. I met two agents from the Resistance and took a photo with Brian Rose after the first battle was won by our team, seemingly only fighting Brian on the Enlightened side.
I left with the agents but we noticed Brian attempt to attack again so I hung back and guarded the statue while they went off to capture the Enlightened base.
Several more agents swung by and left their extra gear with me while I sat comfortably resting my knee in my Resistance tee shirt in the shade. My wife joined me shortly before the next defensive opportunity. I thought Brian had a second agent with him and got nervous but I singlehandedly defended Tommy Trojan from Brian Rose's attacks. I technically beat the developer in one on one combat.
That was pretty cool!
Brian was a very cool guy. I am very glad to have had the chance to meet and play the game he is developing with him.
The Resistance agents fell back to upgrade the statue to Level 7 and we stood and chatted with Brian about Power Cubes and magician Misty Hannah preparing for our final skirmish at 4pm. Well, we were preparing to fight until Brian's phone battery died.
We all shook hands and congratulated each other on a fun time and headed back to the student union for debriefing.
As winners, the Resistance got very awesome pass codes that gave us 16 resonators and 16 XMP bursters for whatever level we were. Brian had Level 8 patches and stickers with him and even though I wasn't yet Level 8, I said I was close and should be there next week and he gave me the patch a little bit early.
We took some group photos and even though the Great Wall battle and farm were truly an epic event, in the end I am really glad I rested and did the USC event instead.
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