"In Memoriam (Markus 'Oufa', 1993 - 2019; Turku, Finland)"

#PokemonGO: This post was written for a throw-away account, in order to avoid diluting the message and content here-in; but alas, AutoModerator deemed it inappropriate - thus this account shall be the messenger. No specific trainer or agent names will be mentioned here apart from our late friend - even if some worked harder than others to make these events happen, we contributed as a community.(An imgur album overview is available here if you don't prefer to look at the pictures chronologically together with the text: https://ift.tt/3943zhf )​On December 21st, the local gaming community at the city of Turku, located at the South-West coast of Finland, bid last farewells to a friend and fellow player Markus, who passed away in a tragic car accident on late November, 2019.Markus was known as Oufachino 'Oufa' in Pokemon Go's team Mystic or as FlyGPS420 in Ingress' faction Resistance. He was considered an outdoors-loving, highly dedicated player that would adamantly pursue his in-game efforts. For this he was widely recognized as a respectable opponent as well as a teammate. While he mostly preferred solitude, he held close bonds of friendship to a selected set of fellow players that transcended into intellectual discussions of life and far, far beyond. It was this closest circle of friends that investigated and subsequently notified the rest of the community of the accident:https://i.imgur.com/gaDlXwU.png​The Turku-region Pokemon Go community collectively exhibited respect to Oufa by wielding the candle-pokemon Litwick as a buddy. Further, his lacking presence was illuminated by placing Litwicks in Mystic-owned gyms, with a special focus on those originally submitted as Points of Interest by Oufa himself.https://ift.tt/34NXhiv, who started PoGo in the rush of 2016, later started Ingress and adopted the name FlyGPS420. This name was an ironic joke aimed at players that had constantly accused him of spoofing based on sketchy patterns of movement along the Finnish coast - while in fact he had been e.g. kayaking during summer or ice-skating on the frozen Baltic sea to reach distant hard-to-reach destinations. For this he shared extensive evidence through his travel videos.https://i.imgur.com/0mbRFO5.png​A gesture of condolences covered by all teams and both factions was given to his grieving family at the funeral:https://i.imgur.com/69FThue.png​A widely spread memoir shared in social media among players after the incident were so-called "sihaus"-videos. It can best be described as the sound of sudden air-flow as one opens a can or a bottle of energy drink. These videos would typically first showcase just natural beauty and a landscape, and then Oufa's hand opening a blissful energy drink, which he adopted as part of his modus operandi along his adventures; e.g. him resting in a hammock between pine trees in a rural forest, kayaking along the archipelago near Turku at sunset, or enduring the biting freeze during the coldest times of winter:https://ift.tt/2QcYn23 Oufa was known to be a very archipelago-orientated player, and kayaking as one of his signature moves, a field art was designed by a talented Ingress field-artist and was collectively hailed as an outstanding tribute to Oufa:https://ift.tt/2QcSS3y cross-faction Ingress operation was orchestrated to start on 21st December 5 pm. Dozens of players volunteered to help assemble the sunset and Oufa kayaking into the sunset. Fittingly, the center of the starburst was a 2-portal overlap named "Kun ystävyyssuhteet solmitaan" ("As bonds of friendship are formed"), located in central Turku in "Ystävyyden puisto" ("Park of Friendship").https://i.imgur.com/tA7HdnM.png​Few incidences of rogue agents (out of ignorance, not malice) interfering with the field art were reported, but all such incidents were quickly resolved. Notably, all agents disregarded the temptation of rewards offered by the Umbra event through-out the successful cf-operation:https://i.imgur.com/SLzpytF.png​The field art was constructed over several hours in pitch-black Nordic darkness around the heart of Turku as shown in this video:https://ift.tt/34NXp1t but not least, field agents would salute a final "sihaus", even if our scenic views were nothing but pale shadows compared with the enchanting adventures vividly showcased in Oufa's videos:https://i.imgur.com/yDxj7eH.png​Oufa's family was notified of these efforts, who replied with deep appreciation of the moving gestures exhibited by his peers. In heart-warming spirit of kinship and appreciation, it ought to be further noted that the starburst is (at the time of writing this) still intact after almost 2 days:https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=60.455005,22.271057&z=16​Remember that in the end we are all human and there's a real person behind the nickname - no matter how bitter the gym competition, no matter how numerous the nuking of couch portals, et cetra. Take nothing for granted, for we do not know what tomorrow brings forth. We, the gaming communities of Turku, wish you all a peaceful holiday season, and encourage you to cherish these moments with your loved ones - our community is one less in numbers. Take care of each other.(Some of the images/content adapted with permission from the local gaming community site of Turku at https://ift.tt/36YXz7K ) via /r/pokemongo https://ift.tt/2ShbhPi