Fairly new to the GORUCK Special Events scene is something called GORUCK Ingress. These events are a collaboration between GORUCK and Ingress which is definitely an interesting concept. The last time GORUCK teamed up with a company for an event (from what I can recall) was when they had the GORUCK x Spartan Race Hurricane Heat. It sounds like the GORUCK x Ingress project turned out a lot better though as they already have many more events planned together and on the calendar.
GORUCK Ingress Gear
GORUCK has released some Ingress branded gear to help you out on your Ingress rucking adventure. There are both Ingress Ruckers and Ingress Ruck Plates which you can use at the GORUCK Ingress events.
Don’t worry, there are versions for both Enlightened and Resistance so you can get stuff for the team you’re on. As of right now there is the following:
- GORUCK Enlightened Rucker
- GORUCK Enlightened Ruck Plate
- GORUCK Resistance Rucker
- GORUCK Resistance Ruck Plate
What is Ingress?
The vast majority of the people who read ADR know what GORUCK is but I’m guessing only a subset of that knows what Ingress is. Ingress is a video game played on cell phones that is put out by Google. The best way to describe it (from what I’ve found) is that it’s a complicated version of capture the flag where you use XMP bursts to bring down flag aka portal defenses and resonators to capture portals. There are tons of websites, videos, and tutorials dedicated to Ingress strategies already so if it’s a game you want to play I recommend reading or watching some of those.
I’ll be honest… the game can be a little complicated, intimidating to start, and a little (okay, maybe a lot) nerdy. Once you get the hang of it the game can be rewarding and make for a great workout.
Ingress and Rucking?
When you open the game you’ll see a map of your area. On that map you may see some portals nearby and, if you want to take them over, you’ll have to head over to them. The idea here is why not do that with weight? Ruck from portal to portal conquering the land while training for your next event. The two ideas really do work out well together because it only takes a second to hack a portal or take over an unclaimed portal. You can add exercises that need to be performed at each portal as well as anything else you can think of. The idea here is to make a long ruck a little more fun.
GORUCK Ingress Events
So far GORUCK has only had one event with Ingress but they already have a second planned for Portland, OR. From what I’ve read these events are broken up into two different teams which each team carrying items around that are made into moving portals. There’s a competition involved with each GORUCK team trying to take over and hold the portals.
If you’ve taken part in one of these events I’d love to hear some feedback in either the comments below or in an email.
New to the Goruck/Ingress scene are their version of Tough challenges called “Stealth” which take place before the anomaly competition. The Light version still takes place as described above but is now called “Urban.” I’m really looking forward to trying them out!
During the Ingress ‘Anomaly’ events, certain portals (termed “volatiles”) are worth more points if held. The 2 GORUCK SpecOps teams (1 Resistance, 1 Enlightened) compete with one another for intel as to where these volatile portals will be in a series of mini-challenges.
The winning team is given a list of the volatiles and that information is passed to the other Ingress agents in the field – who are *not* part of the GORUCK event. I was at DC and it was cool to know that our efforts were helping the whole faction in the area, not just the folks doing the GORUCK event.
That is awesome! Thanks so much for the insight.