Niantic has advised that the Valentine's Day event will now start on February 11th, instead of February 13th. Starting time remains the same, 1700 UTC.

Source: https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/18171/linking-hearts-with-xm

@IUENG

Niantic has updated the FAQs regarding Phase 2 of the Kureze Event adding the following detail:

Interactions made by Agents during the 10-minute initialisation period of Battle Beacons, will be counted as Kureze Effect interactions and will impact the CAT-level of the battle.

As a reminder, valid interactions are:
- Resonator deployment or upgrade (note: upgrading your own Resonators does not count)
- Resonator attack or destruction
- Portal Mod destruction
- Link destruction
- Resonator recharge or Remote recharge

Source: https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/17975/kureze-effect-faqs-updated-10-feb

@IUENG

The Valentine's Day is already in full swing! Until February 15 at 5pm UTC you can now link under fields, discover new glyph sequences and grab a medal in the store! Also, the distance for the SBUL program in the Kinetic Capsule has been lowered to 4km and SBUL can be hacked more often.

@IUENG

Niantic has changed the color of XM for the upcoming Valentine's Day!

The scanner received a nice coat of pink which we assume will last for the duration of the Valentine's Day Event!

@IUENG

First Agents are reporting in after obtaining their Second Sunday Badge! With their report, the tiers for this medal are also revealed:

Bronze: 1
Silver: 6
Gold: 12
Platinum: 24
Onyx: 36 Second Sunday Events attended

@IUENG

Happy Valentine's day! ❤️

Today we want to celebrate love in every way, shape or form! Take a moment to tell your significant other, your friends or loved ones how much they matter to you and make them feel appreciated!
(It might be the perfect chance to let someone know your true feelings for them, who knows? 😉)

In this special occasion, we are glad to share with you this awesome Field Art of a rose - one of the textbook gifts on Valentine's day - created by Agents Soraexus, Y2L and GMiLLP in Singapore!
Congratulations, Agents! It looks beautiful 😊

Share the love! 💚💙

@IUENG

With Europe sound asleep, Niantic announced all the details regarding a special Toast Day Event!

The event will take place from February 24 @ 1700 UTC to February 28 @ 1700 UTC! During this time, the following will be active:

🔸Moar Toast in Glyph Sequences
🔸2x Glyph bonus AP
🔸2x Glyph hack bonus output
🔸10min Drone cooldown

In addition, the Ingress in-app store will feature:

🔸The new limited-time “Toast Day 2022” Medal (2500 CMU, in the photo) (Hype!)
🔸Fracker 10-pack + 10 free (28,800 CMU)
🔸Toast Beacon 10-pack (3,900 CMU)

For the occasion, Niantic invites Agents to share their favourite Toast Glyph Sequences on the Ingress Community Forum or Twitter with the hashtags #Ingress #IngressToast to try and get a small surprise from the team!

It's time to get toasty! 🍞

Source: https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/18290/it-is-time-to-toast-toast

@IUENG

Niantic announced a new partnership with international tech company Sony on their blog!

This cooperation aims at "providing people with an unprecedented AR experience" by mixing Niantic's Real World AR technology and Sony's audio technology.
As reported by the blog post, part of this initiative is working together on Ingress "to create an even more immersive AR and sound experience" with more details to be released later this year.

This partnership focuses on utilizing Sony's new audio products such as the new LinkBuds to integrate Niantic's AR technology with Spatial Sound allowing for more immersive experiences and, using the words of Niantic's Vice President Setsuto Murai, "offer a new level of AR experience, beyond just what you can see."

More details on this can be found on Niantic's Blog: https://nianticlabs.com/blog/sony-partnership/

@IUENG

NianticThia has posted a poll both on her Telegram channel and the Community Forum to ask Agents which, in their opinion, is the perfect banner size!
⚠ Note that this is not indicative of anything Niantic is working on and should just be seen as a fun little poll.

Vote on the Community Forum: https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/18305/mission-lovers-how-many-missions-is-the-perfect-banner-size

Telegram poll will follow.

@IUENG

The Kureze Effect Anomaly resumed today! with players in the East of the world already fighting for Battle Beacons!

The event scoreboard already contains scores for Agent-Deployed Beacons for yesterday and NIA-Deployed Beacons in Asia.

The score at the moment is:
Agent-Deployed
ENL 24,201 vs 26,511 RES

NIA-deployed
ENL 264,590 vs 215,985 RES

Source: https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/18321/kureze-effect-the-direction-phase-2-interim-report

@IUENG

Our wonderful graph is also back! 📈

Link: https://bit.ly/3LLkAjD

@IUENG

Yours truly was on the ground in Milan, one of the zones where Niantic deployed their Battle Beacons!

We are looking forward to hearing your experience on the ground during this phase of the Event! Send your pictures in our discussion group! 📸

@IUENG

New scoring update!

The Resistance overtakes the Enlightened in the lead thanks to their wins in Europe!

The margin is narrower than ever! The battle in the Americas will be fierce!

Agent-deployed
ENL 40,848 - 40,299 RES

NIA-deployed
ENL 658,630 vs 681,090 RES

Source: https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/18321/kureze-effect-the-direction-phase-2-interim-report
Graph: https://bit.ly/3LLkAjD

@IUENG

Happy faces from Kureze Effect meetups across the world! 📸

Left to right, top to bottom:
🇺🇦 Dnipro, Ukraine by @ZlobbiDp
🇮🇱 Resistance in Giv'atayim, Israel by @ravidor
🇦🇷 Resistance in Buenos Aires, Argentina by @MatiasM20 (from Phase I)
🇧🇬 Enlightened in Sofia, Bulgaria by @diadomraz

@IUENG

While waiting for results from the New Continent, here are some more pictures from Agents! You send them to us, you watch them again here :)

🇧🇪 Ostend and Brussels, Belgium by Wolves of Belgium
🇮🇳 Trivandrum, India by @balagopalks
🇺🇾 ENL team in Montevideo, Uruguay by @Pepini
🇪🇸 RES team in Elche, Spain by @ReinaMayla

@IUENG

A new scoring update was released by Niantic at 00:30 UTC, after the dust in the Americas settled.

The Enlightened regained the lead but with a margin even lower than the previous update! The event isn't over yet, Agents still have some hours today to score points for their Faction!

Agent-Deployed
ENL 59,232 - 55,756 RES
NIA-deployed
ENL 851,510 - 849,080 RES

Source: https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/18321/kureze-effect-the-direction-phase-2-interim-report
Graph: https://bit.ly/3LLkAjD

@IUENG

Big turnout, small turnout... It doesn't matter as long as you have fun playing! 📸

Left to right, top to bottom:
🇨🇱 ENL team in Santiago, Chile by @Chaniitapaz
🇦🇷 ENL team in Buenos Aires, Argentina by @martinba and @DesconexionSideral
🇲🇽 RES agents in Toluca, Mexico by @MrChics
🇦🇷 Córdoba, Argentina by @ema483
🇮🇳 Kolkata, India by @TrainerTicklu

@IUENG

The last batch of cities was added in the latest update to the scoreboard!
From now until Monday at 1100 UTC, Agents will only be able to score by deploying and winning their own battle beacons!

Agent-deployed
ENL 59,232 - 55,756 RES
NIA-deployed
ENL 867,670 - 854,165 RES

Additionally, Niantic has published a map that allows you to see how the battles turned out for each city and how many points each faction scored! Check it out here: https://bit.ly/3h6sfuJ

Source: https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/18321/kureze-effect-the-direction-phase-2-interim-report
Graph: https://bit.ly/3LLkAjD

@IUENG

More happy faces incoming! 📸

From top to bottom, left to right:
🇮🇩 ENL team in Jakarta, Indonesia by @deznald
🇧🇪 RES team in Brussels, Belgium by @nomADAndrea
🇮🇳 Bangalore, India by @Mykitic01

@IUENG