Round winners – October 2023 (Round #160)
Congratulations to the winners of round October 2023: Björke from Östergötland took not only Gold, but also became the fith turfer to be awarded the Roundpointer 2M medal, gerald_flux.rc from Berlin added a Silver to his previous two Bronzes, and AJHB from Greater London turfed home a Bronze. Well done mates!
The Roundpointer medals that were released last round, requires you to take a zone to be awarded the medal. If you reach the Roundpointer level by pph, you will not automatically get the medal. You need to go out and actively take a zone. If you have not been awarded a Roundpointer medal due to this bug, write an issue and it can be manually awarded to you :) Note that only the 2 M Roundpointer will be awarded retroactive beyond round 159 when the medals were released. Any other Roundpointer level has to have been reached AFTER the medals were released at the beginning of October 2023.
Upcoming events
If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into the news letter :)
Lusseturf Sunday 10th of December in Västerås
For the eleventh year, Turf Västmanland is organising Lusseturf, an open Foot event famous for their lussebullar :) Please sign up HERE.
Bonanza 2024 in Enköping
I hope you have booked the14th of September 2024 for attending the next Bonanza in Enköping, Sweden. More information will come closer to the Event.
When winning a Round of Turf in any of the official Turf countries, the price is your own zone. Many winners name it after themselves, in one way or another like Király001, SJ201601 and ZX201905 or RozalionPier, MBSecretPath, WsnurrsHage and KingeninHeart. The reason behind the location of a winner zone can be as simple as the winner lives or works near the zone and other times there is more thought behind both the name and the location.
Corazon – Corellian
"My first winner zone is up on a hill overlooking the city of Mariehamn and the Slemmern Bay. I wanted a zone there by the old wooden windmill simply because I love windmills and thought it was a really nice spot, deserving a zone. The zone name is Corazon, Cor-a-zon with a reference to my nick "Corellian" but also as in (spanish/mexican) "heart". To match the zone name the zone shape is a heart (for love and courage) with a crown (for loyalty), but it also looks like a strawberry. The zone is dedicated to my beloved and loyal berry-loving daughter, who loves Mexico. She decided on the zoneshape and spelling of the zonename."
ZurSieg and KemperWerth - JoasK
“I have placed 2 of my 3 Winner Zones on a narrow, green strip between 2 rivers (Rhine and Sieg). This is where the Sieg ends and flows into the Rhine. The path there is very lovely, you walk across meadows and through old forest. At the end it doesn’t go any further. So you have to go back again. I like this place. It’s a bit of Lands’ End. I didn’t think much about the names. I chose them so that they fit the surroundings. It only occurred to me afterwards that it might be nice to choose the names so that you know who they’re from or when they were won.”
PreciousSons -féarglas
”This is in a Commonwealth war graves cemetary, and a wee boy aged 4 that was killed on the local road where all our children run up and down is buried there. The community came out to line the street for his funeral procession. The zone is at the graves of two boys that died in their first 3 months, one even at 8 days old. When I passed there one night, I saw something flashing in the dark, it was a Happy Birthday 16 balloon. It struck me then, as my son had just turned 16. And I thought whether alive or dead, children we have had are precious. And that’s my reminder when I take that zone.”
The
main responsibility lies with the turfer to NOT take zones that are
off limit for one reason or another. If it is illegal to enter the
area where a zone is located, do not enter that area. Turf Crew,
however, is no police and can not punish any turfer taking zones in
off limits areas. Turf Crew is not all knowing, especially not about
local regulations and events like a swing pest. The zone makers are
from many different countries and are not up to date with everything
that goes on in every Turf country. This is were local turfers are so
important and Turf Crew would like their help via the issue system to
learn about when a zone ends up in an off limit area.
Turf
Crew are conscious situations like the swine pest will arise and we
try to keep up to date where we can and please, notify us via the
issue system. Once we are made aware of local restrictions, we will
consider them and respond in a responsible way in keeping with the
specific situation. Sadly there is no way to ”inactivate” a zone
without deleting it, and zones are never deleted. It would mess up
both medals and all statistics regarding that zone. Zones can be
moved, but for zones in the swine pest area, this is not considered a
viable solution. There are just too many zones affected. So, again it
comes down to the responsibility of the turfer.
Once
Turf Crew are made aware of a situation where an area is off limits,
we will inform all active zone makers and try our best to make sure
no new zones are made in the area while restrictions are in place.
Together Turf Crew and the turfing community can make sure restricted
areas are not turfed in.
Turf
Clubs/Associations Presentation
of the association Turf Västmanland - uTurf (Sweden) by Optimus "We have
existed as an association for just over 6 years (the association was
formed on 2017-05-17) and even before the association was formed we
had started organizing events in Västerås, Sweden. Over
the years, we have, in different years, had member meetings, closed
member events and club championships. Under the association's
auspices, open events have also been organized (for example the
annual "Lusseturfen" around Lucia every year) and Bonanza
2018 and the upcoming Bonanza 2024 (Bonanza 2012 was before the
association existed). We have produced and sold various T-shirts,
buffs, etc. We have had an average of 63 members during these years. From the beginning, we were part of the Orienteering Association, but we didn't notice any benefits from that, so we are no longer part of it.
We
have made a survey to see what the members think - and it can be
easily summarized with: Events and the Monthly Meetings (which are
sometimes called Turf Beer). We also asked what more we can do and
there were requests to coordinate trips to other cities to explore
new zones (but no one has organized that yet) and generally raise
interest in Turf.
We
also wanted to draw attention to Turfare who might have done
something special. It can be almost anything that is a little out of
the ordinary and the person you "nominate" does not have to
be a member of the association. But the special thing must preferably
have happened in Västmanland, Sweden or someone from Västmanland
who did something extra for the entire Turf world. There we would
need your help with nominations (and of course everyone can nominate,
regardless of whether you are a member of the association or not).
Email your nomination together with a motivation toadmin@uturf.se
-
THANK YOU in advance! There you can also ask questions to the
association if you want. If you want to read more about us or become
a member, you can do so atwww.uturf.se
(right
now the page is being updated, but hopefully more info will be there
shortly)." If you belong to a Turf Association that has not yet been featured in Turf Insider, write about it to insider@turfgame.com :)
December is not far away and a popular feature of the December round in the last few years, have been Turf advent calendars. Turf Skåne will be organising one this year and information will be posted on their home page closer to the start of December, HERE. Turf Insider has no information if the very popular Advent Calendar by turfers in Örebro will happen again this year, but we hope!
Turf
Picture of the Month
This
months Turf Picture is of the zone JaktEfterZon taken by Fafng.
If
you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the
Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please
include your Turf nick for recognition!
Turfa
lugnt/Safe turfing!
//Munin ...if
you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to
insider@turfgame.com
:)
C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.
Round winners – September 2023 (round #159)
Congratulations to the winners of round September 2023: Gallant from Kalmar took his second Gold, pPilot from Scotland took his second silver and Pilgrim from Västra Götaland added a Bronze to his medal row. Well done mates!
Upcoming events
If
you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to
insider@turfgame.com
a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event
into Turf Insider :)
Östgopen 7th of October in Linköping
Two events organised by Östergötland Turf Association. Read more about it HERE.
Events are fun and if you want to organize your own, write to events@turfgame.com and our amazing Event manager will help you :)
Bonanza 2024
We finally have a place and date for next year's Bonanza: 14th of September in Enköping, Sweden.
Västmanland and Uppsala, in cooperation, will host the next Bonanza in Enköping the 14thof September 2024.
The Banquet dinner will be held at “Kompassen”, Kaptensgatan 4 in Enköping.
For those of you already planning to go and know you will stay the night, here are some Turf-deals for accomodation:
At Kompassen you can stay on your own sheets and sleeping mat on the floor for 250 kr/night. A 4-person room costs 1295 kr/night, a double room 995 kr and a single room 795 kr, with breakfast included.
Book at +46 (0)171 15 33 90.
Use the code ”Turf” to get a discount at hotel Best Western at Kyrkogatan 7 in Enköping during the Bonanza weekend. Single rooms are 800 kr/night and double rooms 950 kr/night, with breakfast included.
+46 (0) 171 478080, reception@parkastoria.se
September was TURF Ultimate Region Fight month, and 12 regions were competing during the four weeks of the September round. Already after the first week Team Scotland and Team Västmanland were going head to head in the three categories. In the end it was the runner-ups from last year, Team Västmanland who turfed away as Region champs of 2023. Well done!
FrökenBok from Team Västmanland summarizes the Region battle in five words:
”Sweat, fellowship, and great fun.” And then she continues with a longer story:
”Now, it has been a few days since the Region Fight ended. We, Västmanland won, and that has been our goal every year. The two last fights have taught us that a one man show is not the way to win this fight. We needed to be clever, helpful, positive, and work as much as we could together. And so we did. We tried to be more organized than earlier years, and it was easier when we had a lot of team members with routine. We did not have a team leader. Instead, the whole team helped each other with different things. Some people guided others, some traveled away, and a lot of people asked if someone wanted to follow them to places nearby cities.
Week 1 and 2 were a bit sweaty because we needed to travel to a lot of (round) unique places to be able to beat Scotland, which was challenging. Week 3, we were a bit tired but still continued to find even more (round) unique zones. The last week was the calmest one, and there were more relaxing bicycle rides. It felt a bit strange, since we, the two years previous, have been fighting to the end.
I/we want to thank all the team members in Team Västmanland that made this competition a memorable experience. We have had a lot of fun together, we have seen beautiful nature and the sun has been shining almost every day. We also want to thank our competitors in the other teams, the people who organized the fight and Turfportalen , the other turfers in Västerås and our families who have been very supportive.”
So what happened to Team Scotland? The first open event in Scotland, UK happened. And it happened very well! ESOCWalter and kjtindall gives us their view on the 3-day long Turf weekend.
The Inaugural Scottish Open Event by ESOCWalter and kjtindall
Edinburgh was the centre of the Turf world for the weekend of 29 September to 1 October. This is because it was hosting the inaugural Scottish Open Event featuring the Scottish Turf Championships – what excitement! We had over 100 participants over the three days across a number of events (foot turfing, open championships and MTB Orienteering) including very welcome visitors from Scandinavia and England.
When we had the idea for the first ever Scottish Turf Open Champs event, we had a vision that it would be fun, welcoming to all and also action-packed! Since we had those Turfers that were travelling over from Sweden and elsewhere, we were keen to make the trip worth their while and showcase the best of Edinburgh. With our organising team having been to the last two Bonanzas, inspiration was taken from a few things we’d seen work really well there, such as the name stickers everyone had in Umeå, which we did as well and we all made some new friends because of it. And before we knew it we had Turf logos on bunting, stickers, pens, temporary tattoos - we also had Turf Scotland T-shirts and playing cards (featuring a different Scottish Turf zone on each card), so there was a lot on offer, plus there was a can of Scotland’s delicious best-selling soft drink, Irn Bru, in everyone’s welcome pack. And we got lots of great feedback on what we could do in future.
It was so cool to see everyone come together in Edinburgh for the events, and for the Turf map to light up with so many turfers grabbing unique zones and enjoying the events. There was a great feeling right through the weekend and people got right into the spirit of it, with the yellow and green dress code for Friday (Turf colours), blue/white/tartan theme for the Saturday night (Scottish colours), etc., as well as throwing themselves into the Crazy Closing event, chasing after one of our team dressed as Turfo, and tackling the weirdest zone shapes you have ever seen!
We were so extremely grateful to everyone for making the effort to come to Edinburgh and you were all so well behaved that you would be welcome back any time (well most of you anyway!)
The results from the event can be seen here Turfgame.com but special congratulations to MarkkuEsoc who won the bike event and Fozzie who won the foot event on Saturday. Both events were very tight and very hard fought right to the end. It was also great to see juniors with fantastic performances from schnappi.jr in the bike and Mathsboy in the foot.
From left to right: Fozzie (Gold-Foot), ZulaTheAlien:) (Silver-Foot), Pancosmic (Silver-Bike), MarkkuEsoc (Gold-Bike), Mathsboy (Best Junior-foot), schnappi,jr (Best Junior-bike), Hodge (Bronze-bike). SpeedyGonsales came third in the Foot event but was not present at the Saturday night event dinner where this photo was taken.
Of course, the last day of the event was yellow dot Sunday and it was amazing to see so many people hoovering up unique zones in Edinburgh and we even had a Swedish King for a while – we let magnusn borrow our Scottish crown for a while :) Now the question is whether it will happen again next year. The answer is, of course it will, but only on the condition that you all come back and bring some more turfers to make Edinburgh the turf capital of the world once again!
A big thanks to the Scots for a very well put together Turf weekend! The only thing missing was an Event T-shirt ;)
A new medal serie was released at the round start on October 1st: The Roundpointer. 11 new medals awarded based on your points during the round. So far 759 turfers have been awarded the first medal in the serie: Roundpointer 10k. Many more will follow, I am sure! This was the second part of the medal happening. Next up will be a vote for supporters only, about what new medal will be introduced. Stay tuned!
Turf Picture of the Month
This month's Turf Picture is of the zone OntIBaken taken by Miawita. Thanks to everyone who sent in your Turf pictures, keep 'em coming :)
If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!
Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!
//Munin
...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.
The second step is going live!
At the start of the October round(#160) we will activate a brand new medal series called Roundpointer.
The Series is based on a Scottish community request and awards medals based on amount of points you gather during a round.
The medals are not retroactively handed out. However as an homage to outstanding efforts, users who have reached the 2M level will be awarded retroactively if they wish.
Hope you enjoy it!
The upcoming step will be a vote for supporters on which medal will be next. We are currently finalizing the voting system.
Congratulations to the winners of round August 2023: Király took another the Gold, DasHuhn from Berlin who turfed home a Silver is for sure the youngest Round Silver medal winner ever and Drylaw from Scotland added a fourth Bronze to his medal row. Well done mates!
Upcoming events
If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into Turf Insider :)
Brunnsviken – 10th of September in Stockholm
Turf08 is arranging its annual autumn event in and around Brunnsviken in Stockholm. This year the event will contain water zones, for those turfers who like to swim or use a water vehicle. Electrical vehicles are not allowed!
Scottish
Turf Open Championships, 30th
of September
Excitement
is building towards the first ever Scottish Turf Open Championships
weekend, running from 29 September to 1 October. There are over 50
entries at this stage, with almost half of these being Swedish
Turfers and two heading over from Åland. Everyone is welcome and we
have an action-packed schedule of four Turf events plus social
elements for you to enjoy, together with exciting Turf Scotland
merchandise.
Details
here: ScottishTurf Open Event weekend 2023|Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club(esoc.org.uk)
which
includes a link to the official entry form!
Östgopen 7th of October in Linköping
Two events organised by Östergötland Turf Association. Read more about it HERE.
Events are fun and if you want to organize your own, write to events@turfgame.com and our amazing Event manager will help you :)
Bonanza 2024 will take place after summer, in the autumn. No exact date is set yet and neither is it absolutely decided where it will be held, but you won't have to wait much longer. By the latest in next Turf Insider we will be able to give you more information about where and when to head for the next Bonanza :)
Scottish turfer kjtindall wants to invite you especially to visit his five top five tourist zones while you are in Edinburgh:
”Excitement is building for the first Scottish Turf Open in September! We look forward to welcoming all turfers to Edinburgh to experience how tough it is to turf here with no cycle paths, so many hills (Edinburgh is built on seven of them!) and with how far apart the zones are compared to Sweden. We will, of course, have yellow dot Sunday the day after the event and what better way to scoop up some +50 bonuses than to explore!
With that in mind, here’s my top 5 tourist zones (in no particular order) to take in central Edinburgh and there are plenty in between these ones.
HillGate - at the top of the Royal Mile, this lets you see the entrance to our Castle and gives you great views from up top!
ArthursSeat - one for the foot turfers. Holyrood Park is a beautiful park with a few zones. Climb up an extinct volcano for this one.
CaltonHill - a bit of a climb but worth it for the vista of Edinburgh to Fife and beyond
JamesIVJousts - wander through the busy Grassmarket, stop for a beer in one of the many pubs and take this zone. Next to where the King used to stable his horses and used to practice jousting!
HarryPotter - the zone is next to the cafe where JK Rowling (allegedly, anyway) wrote the first Harry Potter book!
Happy Turfing in Edinburgh, Turf mates!”
And this is how kjtindall's #1 zone might look like:
Photo credit: Aibo
September is TURF Ultimate Region Fight month, an annual team competion arranged by MaXi between different Turf Regions. This year 12 regions are competing during the four weeks of the September round. You can follow the excitment at Turfportalen where you will also find the rules. The rules are slightly different this year compared to previous years, let the best team win!
DasHuhn, Silver medal winner of Round August 2023, is the youngest turfer to win a Silver medal. Accordingly to Sven_R, the father of DasHuhn, there's been no stopping this young turfer since he took part in the Bonanza in Umeå earlier this year. I am sure we will see much more of him in the future! DasHuhn is also the first German turfer to win a Silver medal. Who will be the first German to turf home a Gold medal?
Extensions of existing medal series was released in August. Hopefully we will see something new arriving soon, but as always it will depend on the time and effort of volunteers. So be patient.
Turf Picture of the Month
This month's Turf Picture is of the zone Ingbokällorna taken by mpmoke. Thanks to everyone who sent in your Turf pictures, keep 'em coming :) The diversity in pictures submitted reflects the diversity of Turf and that is lovely.
If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it toinsider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!
Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!
//Munin
...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.
The first step is now live!
We have just released an automatic update with an medal overhaul. (no neeed to update your apps)
This first package includes:
-design update of all assist and crowdy medals to finally match the current logotype.
-2 new take medals (take-250000, take-500000)
-3 new greed medals (greed-400, greed-500, greed-1000)
-3 new assist medals (assist-15000, assist-20000, assist-25000)
-1 new crowdy medal (crowdy-233)
-2 new unique medals (unique-20000, unique-30000)
Just like last time, none of the new medals in these series will be retroactively handed out. However, all medals except greedy and crowdy will be handed out the next time you take a zone(or assist etc)
We hope you enjoy this first step of the medal focused autumn. Next step will come adjacent to the Scottish open event in September.
/Turf dev
Round winners – July 2023 (round #157)
Congratulations to the winners of round July 2023: Tempest from Stockholm took the Gold by taking almost only unique zones (he took only one zone twice), schnappi.jr turfed home a Silver only 12 years old (youngest Round Silver medal winner ever, me thinks) and ChilliFarmer from North West England turfed home his first Bronze. Well done mates!
Upcoming events
If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into Turf Insider :)
Skåne Open in Malmö, 26th of August
On Saturday, August 26th, Turf Skåne will once again hold the Skåne Open. You choose which heat or which heats you want to participate in. The event is open to both foot and wheel classes, which means that all participants receive an event medal. More info HERE.
Scottish Turf Open Championships, 30th of September
Excitement
is building for the first Scottish Turf Open in September! The
Edinburgh turfers look forward to welcoming all turfers to Edinburgh
to experience how tough it is to turf here with no cycle paths, so
many hills (Edinburgh is built on seven of them!) and with how far
apart the zones are compared to Sweden.
All are welcome in Edinburgh for the first ever open event in Scotland with both a Foot and a Bike Heat. The events are hosted by Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club with foot and cycle events (90 minutes each) on Saturday 30th July. There are lots of fun things planned for the last weekend of September by the Edinburgh turfers, so get yourself organized and show up! More info HERE.
Events are fun and if you want to organize your own, write to events@turfgame.com and our amazing Event manager will help you :)
At
the very end of the July 2023 round, the first Open Event outside of
Sweden took place in Åbo, Finland on a sunny Saturday. It was a
great success with 83 turfers participating in the 2 hour long By
Foot event in central Åbo.
ABOA Turf open – from plans to reality by the ABOA event organizers
“Our initial thoughts about wanting to organize an event in Turku started in 2019 and we had a small, closed event to figure out how things worked. Before we then had a chance to make any solid plans, covid happened. That meant that the chance of getting turfers from Sweden and maybe even from further away was basically zero, so we had to postpone.
In Autumn 2022 we had our first meeting to gather our thoughts, set a date for the event and delegate tasks. Most of the work was done during Spring 2023, and it turned out to be much easier than we initially thought. Thanks to Turf Event Admin, Munin and Turf Östergötland for advice and tips! Also thanks to all participants from near and far! We are happy that so many turfers wanted to visit our beautiful city. We wanted to have the first ever open event outside Sweden - and we did it! :) The weather also turned out very nice, in spite of forecasts earlier in the week promising rain.
All in all, 83 turfers took part in the event. Half an hour before the start of the event, most of the participants joined in taking the ABOA2023 zone at the meeting place, resulting in a Crowdy 55-medal for many of the turfers present. The medals awarded at the luncheon afterwards are: Gold to Movemania, Silver to féarglas, and Bronze to Kygni.
We are happy that the event was quite successful and will probably have a go at it again at some point in the future, but for now we would like to pass on the Finnish baton. How about an event in Mariehamn or Helsinki next year? We wish Scotland all the best for their upcoming event in September.”
As one of the participants at the ABOA 2023, I can only say ”Well done!”. It was well organized and everyone felt very welcome. Turfers from three countries battled it out for 2 hours in a sunny Åbo and the late lunch afterwards was thouroughly enjoyable with the down to earth meatballs and potatoes to eat in a very cozy place in central Åbo. I promised when I first visited Åbo and met with TortugaVeloz and heard about the plan for an Open event, that I would show up, and I did and it was well worth waiting for :)
Heavy medals on the way
We are currently working on overhauling some of the medals in Turf. This includes some minor design updates on 2 medals and the extension of five existing medal series. The extension medals will see the light of day later this week...
Further on we plan to release new medals during the autumn. Supporters will get to vote between different alternatives online during the later process. Stay tuned!
Bug information
We have unfortunately experienced some problems with zones that seem to not have been taken after a takeover lately. However the zones do get taken and registered on the servers. We do not have a complete fix for this right now.
Several issues on the subject of ”zone I took still belongs to previous owner in the app” have been reported and now you can all rest easily knowing the take will be registered to you and Crew is aware of the problem and trying out different solutions to the problem. So don't worry, all those unique zones you are visiting while on holidays, will be counted towards your total unique score :)
We are halfway through summer of 2023 and summer for most of us means a break from our normal turfing habits. Either you turf more (like this round's winner Tempest and runner-up schnappi.jr) or you turf less like Crew member kjtindall who contributed this short story:
"Holidays might mean more turfing for some people and less for others. For me, this year it has been less (and here comes relegation!). But sometimes when you are away, you can get a special zone, a unique and a new region with just one take. And here it is, the Victoria Terminus Railway station in Mumbai - the single zone I managed in a week working in India - but what a zone!"
Holidays for me, usually means a chance to go somewhere and visit as many unique zones as possible. 35 turfers managed to take 1000 or more unique zones during the July round. Tempest visited a whopping 6547 unique zones all over Sweden, while runner up Király visited roughly half that many unique zones with most of them in Berlin where his goal was to take all zones and leave no yellow zones glaring on the map. However, some were untakable and issues have been made, so maybe next time ;)
And finally, a first heads-up to start thinking about who you would like to nominate for Turf Awards 2023, more than half of 2023 has already gone by.
Turf Picture of the Month
This month's Turf Picture is of the zone OldTjikko taken by Raggmunken. Thanks to everyone who sent in your Turf pictures, keep 'em coming :)
If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!
Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!
//Munin
...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.
