Turf insider November 2019

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Round Winners[redigera]

Congrats to the winner of round 112: MasterOfTurf from Kalmar, finally living up to his Turf nick! Király from Skåne turfed home his 18th medal and Torbjörn from Västerbotten soldiered through a man cold to secure his second bronze.

Well done mates!

Turf Events[redigera]

Västerås annual Christmas event, LusseTurf, will take place Sunday the 8th of December and the event runs between 11.00-13.00. The base camp is the same as previous years, if you go to the zone "Orientalen" then you are right! The venue opens at 10.15am, and you are welcome to register at www.uturf.se but you can also register at the event. The event is open to all, but those who have registered have a chance to win prizes and get coffee after the event. Those who register in advance receive a discount! On Uturf's website, further information about the event will also come up during the month. It is a highly appreciated event and turfers gather from all corners of the Turf world.

If you want your public event featured in Turf insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.

Musikhjälpen and SteelFM[redigera]

In Sweden Music Aid (Musikhjälpen) is held between December 9-15 in Västerås and of course we will find something on Stora Torget. The theme of the Music Aid this year is ”Sex is not a weapon”, read more here. Turf Västmanland will ensure that there will be Crowdy takes (2 different attempts to get a Crowdy-144) as well as a digital collection box from "Turfarna" that everyone in Sweden can contribute to (more info about it will be posted on Turf's Facebook-page). Perhaps will we see other private Turf initiatives get underway during the week. The turfers of Västerås think it would be fun if the zone on Stora Torget (Aseaströmmen) changes owners as often as possible. Come on over to Västerås and help them!

It is not only Sweden's turfers that have the opportunity to take part in charities. This year again, the radio channel Steel-FM is organizing a collection in Åland. This year's collection, which runs from December 2 until the New Year, ends with a long live broadcast the last three and a half days from a cage in the city square of Mariehamn. This year's money goes to the Food Bank in Åland. Support from the Food Bank is provided to families with children and people who have a temporary or long-term financial crisis and is a complement to society's other forms of support. Turfers have been engaged in this collection both in 2017 and 2018 and have been mentioned several times in the live broadcast. Here too there will be a Crowdy attempt, will it be a 144th this year?

Turf Region Battle[redigera]

A Turf Region Battle is a very special kind of Turf Event. It takes place during one whole round of Turf and it is a battle between at least two different regions. The first Region battle was more of a inter-city battle between the turfers of Västerås where West was battling the East of the city. Later there has been several region vs region battles: Västmanland vs Stockholm, Västmanland vs Uppsala, Stockholm vs Skåne vs Åland and the six-region-battle of 2017.

During round 112 the battle was between Skåne and Västra Götaland (VG). Points could be won in three different categories: total points, total number of takes and number of unique zones. Battle points for each category was awarded each week and at the end of the round, the weekly battle points were summed up and the winning region was Västra Götaland, congratulations!


I asked a member of each region's team to write about the battle from their perspective. The first report comes from Kingslayer in Team Skåne:

”This year’s regional competition in Sweden between Skåne and Västra Götaland introduced two very-much needed novelties: the 80% rule, which meant the result of each sub competition (Points, Takes and Unique) was calculated on the top 80% of the team in that sub competition, and the introduction of total amount of new unique zones as a sub competition. The first one meant that turfers did not have to feel they dragged down the team if they got sick or otherwise could not go all in during a specific week, the second one that turfers that normally don’t show up high in the result lists could excel as well. Possessing Unique 2500 medal or higher was a clear disadvantage in the Unique sub competition ;)

Tompa_65 did a great job with recruiting, pepping and cheering in the Skåne team and most participants got engaged since they could choose the sub competition that suited them best. Among others, we saw turfers with reduced abilities to walk or bike beating the toughest racing turfers in the Unique sub competition. Kudos!

The chosen sub competitions in combination with the 80% rule made the overall competition extremely even. We have received many comments from Turfers in Skåne that this was one of the most exciting competitions ever as it was so even, and because each turfer could see how their own performance played a role in the weekly totals on turfportalen.se.

The first week was won by VG two to one, the Points sub competition was won with only 94 points per participant, mainly because the turfers in Skåne were lazy getting out of their warm Sunday beds. The second week was won three-null by Skåne, a treat which was repeated by VG the third week. In the last week, Skåne started in full speed and was leading both the final week and the total competition with only three days left. On the last Thursday of October, several Malmö-turfers ran a hamster wheel collecting each over 500 takes. Maybe the whole team got all washed-up and run-down by this performance, because after that the activity in Skåne became very low while VG was raising all their sails and spinnakers. VG cruised up abreast and then ahead and won the whole competition in the last two days. Until next time we need to practice finishing in Skåne. (Or, maybe sailing?)

In order to raise the status of the region competitions as such, the Turf Skåne association decided to donate an impressive cup to the game for the winner to keep. The general idea is that the winner then sponsors a new cup for the next competition they are in. Hence, this first region cup goes to Västra Götaland – well done!

We have had lots of fun in Skåne, we have seen many places while collecting unique zones for the team and many of us have new or upgraded Turf medals in the medal collection. Turfers who never met before are now well known to each other, and many have accomplished achievements well over their normal turf round performance. We wish to thank VG for an even fight in a positive atmosphere. For example, Pumac did join TXL assisting while TXL was visiting Gothenburg. We have not heard of any unsportmanship behavior or mean comments in this specific competition. Finally, we also wish to thank Laynus on turfportalen.se for excellent competition support!

One thing puzzles us in Skåne though: what was the point of sending VG team member after team member to the remote zone of Kullaberg’s lighthouse (KullensFyr) in Skåne to run an internal VG hamster wheel on this single zone?” Unless a team VG member want to give the answer to this question in the next Turf Insider, we will all wonder...


HappyF from Gothenburg has a few words to describe the region battle from the West coast's perspective:

”This round, the region battle against Skåne became an extra motivator for many of us in VG. It resulted in many wins in the groups in the series and many beat their personal record. It started a bit tentative on the part of VG, with a 2-1 victory with scarce margins the first week and a 0-3 loss the second week.

Week 3 we were warmed up and won 3-0. The last week, and the conclusion of the total battle, started badly for us and we were down at the beginning of the week by a fairly large margin. We needed to win at least three of the last six sub competitions for a total victory, but the Skåne team was going strong. In the middle of the week we got together and decided to focus on unique zones, to at least level the field to 3-3.

That said, there were several of us, no one mentioned and no one forgotten, who set off on shorter and longer trips to hunt unique zones. Travel that not only gave those longed for unique zones, but also many points and takes. On Friday we had turned the game around and now we were in the lead. But the lead was not a sure thing, so even Saturday was spent chasing unique zones and points. A chase that paid off, and on Saturday night we had turned the game around to a 6-0 lead.

We took it a little quieter on Saturday night, but watched the Turf map in case Skåne would respond. But the response was lacking, so we started to celebrate the victory. But of course we kept our eyes open on Sunday until 9 o'clock when we received the official congratulations from Region Skåne who professed to be defeated.

We want to thank Turf Skåne for challenging us in the regional battle and fighting well. The battle gave us a lot of cohesion, not only among Gothenburg's turfers, but from the entire region of Västra Götaland. I think I can speak for many of us when I say that the region battle meant that we had extra energy and joy during a gray autumn month and that we look forward to new challenges, even from other regions.”

Thank you Kingslayer and HappyF for contributing with your view of the region battle between Skåne and Västra Götaland!

I am sure more region battles will take place, and the first (?) one off the bat is Dalarna battling it out against Örebro during December. At least the challenge has been made from the turfers in Dalarna.

Medal Vote 2019[redigera]

At least one new medal is in the works...and YOU get to vote for which one you want the most to become a reality. Do it here. You get one vote.

Winter is coming, so remember to outfit yourself and your bike with reflexes, lights and dubbed tyres for safer Turf sessions. Personal dubbs for the shoes of those that Turf by foot are also recommended. Stay safe and on your feet/tyres!

Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!
Munin