Final Update WF22: By the numbers . . .

Well, Füsters, you made it to the end of another Füsting event (that’s 13 over the last six years, if you count Oktoberfüste 2017 which had to be aborted mid-game due to the Santa Rosa fires . . .). WF22 can officially go into the books as complete. Because of your reporting diligence this year, GG has the best set of data ever to understand what exactly we collectively accomplished (and here’s a hint, it’s pretty spectacular!).

But first, let us recognize our players:

THE BESTENFÜSTE

We’ve had a tie once before during the modern era of the Füste but nothing like what we saw this year. Over and over again we had from two to seven players tie for first place on the daily Bestenliste and we finished the game with a four-way tie for the top spot!

Here’s your game winners:

• The Arctic Sea Jelly: A Neo-Füster (first time playing) out of SoCal, the Arctic Sea Jelly spent more time in first place by herself than any other player this year (in future Füstes, this stat will be used to break a final tie). She consistently pushed herself beyond her personal limits and did things she didn’t think she could do, which resulted in her earning the Best New Füster status for WF22 . . . and she had unquestionably the best Füstenween costume!

• The Bald Eagle: GG thinks the Bald Eagle surprised himself this year by suddenly being in a position to win! For those who don’t know, the Bald Eagle has been Füsting for over five years and is responsible for the expansion of the game to SoCal. He recently completed his first Ironman and showed his grit this year by completing a solo “ultra-marathon” (33 miles) to slay his Drachen! Truly incredible!

• The Snow Cat: GG’s been watching this player for years, waiting and wondering when she’d make her big move to take the game. There’s been no question she had the chops to be the Bestenfüste, it just took a bit of time for her to realize this herself. And thankfully this year she did, putting down truly impressive run numbers and gutting out the weighted walks and stair climbs and all the other tortures that GG had devised!

• The True Fox: GG doesn’t even know what to say here other than the True Fox is one of only two players to ever repeat as Bestenfüste. She tied to win the game in 2020 and again this year, an incredible feat by anyone’s standards. And GG doesn’t think she’d mind if he points out she did all this in the 60+ player age category!

THE RESTENFÜSTE

• To round out the podium, 2nd place went to another Neo-Füste, the Alpaca, who if he’d simply eaten more vegetables would have found himself in the first place tie! And 3rd place went to the Ice Fish, a repeat Füster who has improved year over year and who GG has his eye on as a likely future Bestenfüste!

• A real interesting statistic, 14 of the top 25 finishers held Neo-Füste status, meaning they’d never played the game before! It gets more interesting when you realize that new players represented roughly 33% of the total 144 players that started WF22, so their domination of the top 25th percentile is really quite impressive.

NOW FOR THE NUMBERS . . .

• Ran: 4766.5 miles total (if the U.S. is roughly 2900 miles coast to coast, that means you ran to NY and then back to Las Vegas . . .)

• Walked/hiked: 9770.7 miles total (so yeah, that’s to NY, back to SF, back to NY and then halfway back across the US . . . )

• Biked: 4797.8 miles total (you get the idea . . . )

• Swum: 374,226 yards or 212 miles total.

• Spun: 32,597 min or 543 hours OR just shy of 23 days!

Now here’s where it gets absolutely wild. If we take the average mph of your spin bike time as 13mph (low estimate), that means that you rode 7059 miles. Take that, add it to the sum of miles run, walked, swum and biked, you’ll get 26,606 miles traveled over the ten weeks of Winterfüste. The Earth (THE FRICKIN EARTH!) is roughly 25,000 miles around (you see where I’m going here) . . . . that means that this group of incredible Füsters CIRCUMNAVIGATED PLANET EARTH!! GG has absolutely no words for this incredible achievement! But I think it’s safe to say that as new members of the “Around the World in 70 Days Club”, you guys are absolutely something special!

Well, I don’t know how GG can top that last bit so I think we’ll end it here. Again, thank you all for another great Füsting experience. It’s a bit of a slog for GG, these 10 weeks, but in the end it’s worth every minute. You guys are inspiring and incredible individuals and GG is truly proud to be your steward over the 10 weeks of Winterfüste! Don’t forget what you’ve learned here about yourself and your capabilities. Take your new habits and try and play them forward into the new year. It’ll be rough at times but you can do it. The big take away should really be to exercise daily for about an hour, drink alcohol in moderation, and stay the hell away from sugar! Do that, you’ll maintain your Winterfüste gains.

GG’s got some work to do with the Füste concept. He’s not sure what the future holds or what things will look like if the Füste returns, but he’s hopeful that you’ll join him again some day on the Spielbrett, whenever or wherever that may be . . .

Until that time, may the Füste be ever with you.

Griswalde Grolar

PS: Average weight loss this Füste: 11.2 pound of flank meat . . . biggest loser, Gyrfalcon at 27 pounds total. Incredible work, everyone! 👍

Week 10: It's the end, my friend . . .

This is it Füsters . . . less than one week to go to the Finalefüste (and it probably can’t come soon enough, amiright?)! This one felt long even though ten weeks has been the standard for a couple years now. Considering we dropped 35% of the players who started the game, it would seem that a lot of Füsters agree (GG will be sending out an end of game survey so you can sound off on what did and didn’t work for you this year). Having said all that, GG hopes that it’s been worth it for you and that you got everything you were hoping to get out of Winterfüste 2022. January 2nd (the Startenfüste) seems like a million years ago so GG commends you on your fortitude of spirit and your tenacity for still being here to read this final weekly update!

Here goes:

• NO HOMEWORK THIS WEEK! That’s right, we’re done with that krap. Not sure if you were doing it or not but school’s out for Sömmer so we’re done with this and the KoG. You guys by and large did a great job with the weekend assessments this year!

• Meatless Monday’s come to an end today. If you scored ‘em all, text GG in the AM tomorrow and HE WILL ADD YOUR BONUS FOR YOU (after confirming you checked the box each Tuesday AM). How’d it go for you? A bunch of local farm animals give you a strict thumbs up for your participation in this Monday challenge. 🐓🐄🐟👍

• At the end of the week, GG will begin collating the Olympic Rings challenge. You don’t have to do anything here. If you scored +3p (food, drink, exercise) from January 10th to March 11th AND cut of your Drachenschwanz, you’ll be rewarded the +15p bonus!

• Speaking of Drachens, their slayage is in full effect now so if you haven’t done it then best get to it! No point in waiting for that Drachen to come get you!

• This final week is particularly brutal for Bonus play, as GG knows only too well. It’s really a different take on last year’s Höllenwoche (Hell Week) with some heavy lifts starting today. 200 flights of stairs when the tallest building in the world is only 168? That’s right! GG wants you to feel fully accomplished and for you to be able to point at something and say, see, I did that right there. 3 minute plank? No problem. 45 pound weighted walk in under an hour? You got this!

• There’ll be one final update on Friday to sum up this last week and put out more details on the Finalefüste. With the seeming demise of COVID in the U.S., perhaps we can return to an in-person event to close out future Winterfüstes (we used to do that in the old days, get everyone together, do crazy and stupid games and eat tacos or pizza, which was shockingly controversial at times).

That’s it for now. Have a great final week and finish STRONG, Füsters!

Slava Ukraini!

Griswalde

Week 9: And then there were two (weeks) . . .

Füsters

We’re in the final days now of Winterfüste 2022. It’s been a weird one as GG has tried a number of new things this year with some of them hitting and many missing (but such is life on the Spielbrett). As of today, we have 12 days left in the game and a four way tie for first place plus a fair number of players who are well within striking distance of that top tier finishing position. This is, as GG has mentioned before, completely unprecedented in the modern history of the Füste (this did happen once in 1912 with Thomas Edison, Alex Graham Bell and J.P. Morgan all came into the final week tied for first place but they settled it with a back alley knife fight and that’s not really am option these days). GG will be working on what now appears to be the inevitable need for a final show down on the Finalfüste so those at the top should be ready on the 12th for something radical . . .

Now on to the updates:

• As we come into the final game period, it’s time to talk about your Drachenfüste. This is the monster bonus allowed at the end of the game that represents all the work and effort you’ve put in here over the last nine weeks. The Drachen is slayed when you, in a single event, complete an event that represents FIVE workout parameters. It’s meant to be enormous, difficult, and the hardest thing you do in the game (possibly the whole year). You can simply stack workouts together (e.g. complete the Singelt 5K run parameter x5 for a 25K event or ride your bike for the Singelt 45 min requirement x5) or combine different workouts (e.g. swim two Singelts, ride a bike for 45 minutes and then run a 10K). All Drachen proposals must be presented to GG for permission before proceeding. Drachen’s can be slayed starting this Saturday, March 5th through to the Finalefüste on March 12th.

• And to that, let’s talk about the Drachenschwanz . . . In order to earn your final Olympic Ring and the associated +15p bonus, you have to add on a 6th workout parameter to your Drachen. That’s right, you heard GG! The Drachenschwanz (Dragon’s Tail) is meant to cap off the entire Winterfüste experience. It does not have to be completed as part of your Drachenfüste event but it does have to be completed on the same day and AFTER you’ve slayed your Drachen. Do it, cut off the tail of the Drachen and you’ll earn your fifth and final Olympic Ring!

• GG feels that he may have overloaded the game this year with bonus play (Olympic bonuses, probably a bridge too far) and understanding the strain this has put on our non-shift working players (those who suffer the M-F, 9-5 lifestyle) he’s decided to stand down from March STRAVA bonus play. There’s plenty still to do in the game for everyone, even those vying for a podium position, so I don’t think this is a big loss.

• Tomorrow is March 1st and whether you know it or not, it’s Füstenween! This is a pop-up bonus with a little bit of forewarning (mentioned last week). The bonus is pretty simple . . . dress up like your Totemfüste animal, send GG pic or video proof, score +3 bonuspunkte! After a long WF, GG is looking forward to seeing your creativity!

• This weekend is the last KoG Weekly Assessment of the game. So just one more video to send off by Sunday evening to earn that last +3p bonus!

That’s if for now, Füsters! Have a great next to last week and hang in there! You’re almost able to return to pro-flank meat habits!

GG

Week 8: The Beginning of the End

Füsters . . .

As of today, we’re 70% through your Füste and GG is hopeful that you’ve gotten almost everything you wanted out of it so far. It’s not easy, this game, and it’s travels a long road in both time and energy expended. But you’re closer to the end then the beginning now and it’s time to knuckle down and finish strong!

• You already know this but Trippelts have arrived and the parameters to score +3p for daily exercise can be found HERE. And remember, along with Trippelts comes a mandatory day off (from exercise only) once a week, whether you’re earning a Trippelt each day or not. To report your day off, look under the Exercise drop down menu on the DRT and select: "It’s my mandatory rest day!”. Select this to report your day off.

• For those who earned all three of their daily points from Jan. 31st to today, Feb. 21st, tomorrow you’ll earn your third Olympic Ring and have only two more to go to score the big bonus at the end!

• This week sees the release of the Künstlerfüste Allowance Standard Bonus (aka “ART”). This bonus is simple but can have a deceptively large impact on your game . . . (just ask the Rough Legged Buzzard who basically lost WF21 to Coyote 100% because of this bonus). Here’s how it works. Draw something using your STRAVA feed. Create a picture of something using your run route, or walk or cycle or whatever route. The bonus page has the basic scoring parameters on this. Do something truly special and you’ll earn the +5p. Put minimal effort in and you’ll score +1p. It is completely up to GG to decide what you’ll score here. He’s done many STRAVA art projects in the past and is intimately familiar with the time and effort it takes to do this right. If you’re in the top 10 and vying for a win, you best come up with something special. If you don’t and you score less than the full 5p, GG does not want to hear about it. Also, remember that you must complete a SIngelt parameter to score this bonus (so spelling out a word by walking half a mile will get you a big fat donut hole AND no points for your daily exercise). Good luck!

• And just a head’s up, very soon, say within 7 days, we’ll be celebrating Füstenween, wherein you can earn a +3p bonus for dressing up like your Totemfüste. So you might want to gather supplies and costume ideas in advance. If you’re into dressing up and all that.

That’s it for today. This has been a really incredible game so far with an impressive number of players looking to finish in the top 25. Don’t flake off now!

GG

Week 7 . . . The Quiet Before the Stormenfüste

Hallo Füsters . . .

Not a ton to talk about on this week’s update. We’re past both the real Schummeltag and yesterday’s alt Cheat Day brought to you in part by the NFL. We’re in the final week of the Doppelts with Trippelts queued up for next SUNDAY. Then it’s the final three week run to the Finalefüste and the game end on March 12th.

For all intents and purposes, this week is probably one of the more difficult weeks of the game. You just cheated and that often throw’s folks completely off kilter, you got some new bonuses that came out and homework got harder but for the most part we’re in the grind now. All GG can say is keep putting one foot in front of the other and remember why you’re here: to claim victory over your flank meat. And if you’ve been doing it right, you’re well along in that journey. So keep it up, tough it out, in four weeks you can reassess and decide how you want the rest of 2022 to go. But for now, we Füste!

GG

Week 6: Over the Hump and Picking Up Speed . . .

Hallo Füsters!

Here’s your first game update from the back side of Winterfüste! We officially crossed the mid point of the game on Saturday and you now have only 5 weeks left to show that flank meat who wears the pants in this relationship (oh, and those pants aren’t going to have any room for extra meat so byeeeee . . . ).

Okay, here goes:

• Last week saw the completion of both the Dry January Bonus and the summary Fastentag Bonus. That was +11 bonuspunkte in all if you earned them both as well as securing your Blue and Yellow Olympic Rings (which, gentle reminder, you don’t have to report on or do anything at all as GG’s tracking the rings for you). So busy week that ended with the Cheat Day AND the introduction of the Olympic Bonuses (check the bonus page if you don’t believe GG). GG, for one, is glad the weeks over.

• And to that, GG finished last week on the road and starts this week traveling again on Monday. As a result, do not expect another game update until Tuesday evening. The only points that could be scored on the Cheat Day were bonus points so very little to report there so we’ll only be one day behind. You can deal with it by having great and furious patience as GG scrambles to find the time needed to get caught up. He appreciates your understanding.

• Week 6 bonuses have been released as well as this week’s homework. Expect next weekend’s KoG Assessment to be reflective of the increased homework load and definitely more difficult than you’ve been experiencing. If you want those 3 points, you best be doing your homework!

• GG has noticed a mistake on the Bonus tracking sheet he sent out via email. On the sheet, Olympics Week 1 is listed under Week 7. It’s actually (and obviously) this week, Week 6. Not a big deal but GG felt he should point this out before getting a couple dozen texts about it . . .

• You’ve got two more weeks of Doppelt workouts so keep it up and don’t slack off now. This is where the game really starts to separate out the bestenfüste from the restenfüste. Stay focused and find the time to complete your workouts and bonuses and your flank meat will pay dearly for your dedication!

• How’d the Cheat Day go for you? Feel like krapfenfüste today? GG doesn’t want to say he told you so but hey, he told you so . . .

That’s it for now. Talk again on Tuesday. Have a great Week 6 and GG hopes you continue to enjoy your time at the Füste!

GG

Week 5: Time Waits for No Füster

Hallo Füsters!

GG is releasing this week’s update early as there’s a lot going on in Week 5 and he wants you to be fully prepared . . .

• First and foremost, Doppelt Workout Parameters begin on Sunday, January 30th (that’s tomorrow for those of you reading this update on the release date). In order to earn a Doppelt (+2p), you must either complete two separate Singelt workouts (e.g. run a 5K and then swim 1500 meters) in one day OR complete a single workout to the defined Doppelt requirements. For the most part, if you do this, the requirement does not completely double the Singelt so please make sure to reference the exact specifications for a Doppelt (and these requirements have changed since the last Füste so please make sure to double check what you need to do!). GG has created a separate page for the workout parameters so you don’t have to search for them in the Regelbuch. You can find this page on the website by looking for the SCHMERZENFÜSTE header or simply go HERE.

• Next thing on your mind is probably, hey, we’re like almost half way through the game, right? Where’s the Cheat Day? For you players new to the Füste, the Cheat Day (or SCHUMMELTAG) is a day of celebration and a temporary return to the gluttonous ways of that unfortunate creature, the non-Füster. For one day in the very middle of the game, you are released from the food, drink and exercise requirements of the daily Füste. This means that you may once again eat of the sugar, drink of the alcohol and laze about in your all togethers like a lazy long dog (and as a result, you cannot even score the three daily points so don’t bother asking).

  A couple points of clarity here:

  • If you have truly been Füsting to your full potential and you go after your Cheat Day with unbridled gusto, you are going to feel like warmed over scheisse the next day. So maybe temper your desires with a little self control or you will unquestionably pay for your enthusiasms (and GG reserves the right to say “I told you so” when you complain the next day about how terrible you feel).

  • While you don’t have to actually cheat on the Cheat Day, you cannot earn the three daily points so do what you will with that information . . .

  • And yes, you may still complete bonus activities for bonuspunkte on the Cheat Day (so the day is not completely void of value for those of you with “the sickness”).

  • Traditionally, the Cheat Day falls on the Saturday of Super Bowl weekend and GG has had a standing deal with Füsters who would prefer to take their day off on Sunday instead: in order to transfer your Cheat Day, you would need to complete a Doppelt workout that day (so double workout before the game AND you get no points for it). Having said all that, the NFL (working independently from the Füste LLC) has decided to push the Super Bowl to the SECOND weekend of February. This means it no longer aligns with the middle of a ten week Winterfüste event and the Cheat Day. So . . . where does that leave us? GG is willing to maintain the past deal if that’s really what you want to do, understanding that your Cheat Day will now not fall in the middle of the game and won’t be until the end of Week 6. Doppelt requirement on the day of the game will still be a strictly enforced. If you choose to go this way, just let GG know your intent in advance . . .

• As we close out January in two days, it’s time for GG to take stock of this month’s STRAVA bonuses. Because there is no way for the DRT to account for and limit points reported, many players have unintentionally scored themselves more than the allowed 10 total STRAVA Challenge bonus points for this month. This means that their current game total (and place on the Bestenliste) is erroneous. The only way for GG to deal with this is to complete an audit of every player to make sure they don’t have more than 10 STRAVA points through Jan. 31. This audit will take place on or around Feb. 1 and will result in your total point count being reduced as needed. So don’t freak out if this happens to you (and you should already have known you had over reported if you were paying attention to the game rules). And since GG will be in there under the hood, he’ll be fixing any other reporting issues he finds (e.g. anyone who over reported KoGs or Doppelts when only Singelts were legal etc.). A good Füster is an accurate Füster and you should welcome this work to make sure you’re where you should be in the game.

• While we’re on the topic of STRAVA, GG is going to limit the number of earnable STRAVA points in February to only 5. That means you can complete two +1p bonuses and one +3p bonus (or just one of the bigger bonuses but no matter what you do you won’t earn more than +5p for the month) . The unforeseen limitations of the DRT when it comes to this bonus concept is just too overwhelming for GG to deal with. He’ll have a solution for future Füstes . . .

• And as the saying goes, when Doktor Mediziner Schneebärtchen closes a mouth hole, he sends you a long dog, whereby the limitation to STRAVA bonuses hits just as Olympic game play comes on line. Starting next Saturday, you’ll be able to compete in a kompetition inside the kompetition as you battle to earn Olympic medals by completing specific physical feats based on Olympic categories. More to come on what this looks like later this week. But prepare yourself for the Torch Run Bonus on Friday as we celebrate the opening ceremonies . . .

• Continuing in the the spirit of the Olympics, don’t forget that you earn your first Olympische Ringe by the end of this weekend. You’ll remember that if you score all three daily points every day from Jan. 10th to Jan. 30th then you earn your first Olympic Ring (Blue) of the five rings needed to earn the big +15p bonus at the end of the game. The second Olympic Ring (Yellow) hits this week too if you completed all 8 of the fasting days through this Thursday. You don’t earn any points with the rings but you can finish Week 5 out with two of the five rings in hand!

• Another big bonus hitting this week is Dry January. The Dry January Bonus is a sizable +5p bonus earned by anyone who did not drink a single swallow of alcohol from Jan. 10th through Jan. 31st (this Monday). If you did this successfully, Tuesday morning you may report on the DRT that you earned this very impressive bonus. If you’re going to earn this bonus then you’ll need to take Monday off from other bonuses so you can report the Dry January Bonus without issue on Tuesday. So just consider it a nice little break from the madness. If you’re not going to earn the Dry January Bonus, then you can complete other bonuses on Monday without restriction . . .

• And while we’re on the topic of Dry January, let’s pause for a moment and talk about personal integrity. While the Füste is just a game, many, many players take it VERY seriously (and they paid cold, hard cash to be here). GG has no way of actually knowing what you do each day with your mouth hole. You might be filling it with donuts and ale for all he knows. And you’re on your honor for how you report each day when it comes to Foodenfüste and Drunkenfüste (as you well know). If by some crazy chance you had a little slip up over the last month and did not report it on the DRT (so you had that donut or drink but still awarded yourself the associated daily points), that’s fine, GG can’t do much about it. But he implores you to not take the Dry January Bonus or your Blue Olympic Ring if that’s the case. Many players went through personal hard ship to earn every point every day. If you didn’t, it’s not a good look to say you did. GG’s going to just leave this right here as uncomfortable as it is. He’s not going to ask about it or mention it again. If you earned the bonuses, award yourself appropriately. If you didn’t, well, karma can be really nasty. Just sayin.

GG knows this was a long update this week and he thanks you for your attention here (he thanks you so much that he’s going to offer a little bonus activity for those who read all the way through: send GG the answer to the following riddle to earn a +1p bonus . . . How many long dogs does it take to make a “quiver”? (answer is located on the website if you know where to look) . . . get the answer right, text it over and GG will award you the bonuspunkte himself, no need to report it on the DRT).

Okay, that’s way more than enough for a Saturday morning. Good luck with your first Doppelt tomorrow and everything else going on during this very busy week!

GG

Week 4 Update

Füsters,
For a change, this’ll be real quick. Here we go:

• Week 4’s bonuses have been posted and thankfully they are all very straight forward. Go get those punkte! And don’t forget that any past bonuses that you haven’t gotten too are still good to go . . .

• Homework requirements have increased, as you knew they would. Go HERE to check ‘em out.

• Your first Olympic Ring is just over the horizon. If you’ve scored all three daily punkte from Jan. 10th through the 30th you’ll earn the first ring. Get all five and earn the olympic sized +15p bonus.

• Some of you continue to report the KoG Weekly Assessment by using the STANDARD Bonus drop down menu on the DRT. Please do not do this. To report the KoG (only once a week!), use the checkbox on the DRT where it asks “Did you do your KoG Assessment?” And again, you only do this assessment once a week, on the weekend, at GG’s direction. Please do not click the KoG box each day to denote completion of your homework!

• The 10 point monthly limit for STRAVA bonus play is really straining the capabilities of the DRT. We may have to modify things in February and March to make it work and also so that GG doesn’t end up openly weeping every night in the shower. More to come here . . .

• Another DRT driven issue: mis-reporting. Whether it’s the wrong date, multiple and repeat entries for a single bonus, complete and utterly confusing entries that GG didn’t even know you could do on the DRT, there’s a lot of mistakes being made in the daily reports. GG’s catching many of them as they hit because they create wildly unrealistic point totals. But he’s starting to realize there’s a lot more of this going on than he understood. And so, he’s going to have to start auditing each players master sheet on a regular basis. How’s he going to do that when there’s 135 of you and 1 of him? No idea. But he’ll let you know he figures it out. In the meantime, if you have any question at all about what you’re going to report, just reach out to GG and make sure it makes sense. If you don’t hear back immediately, just hold your report until you do . . .

• And speaking of not hearing back, GG is on the road Monday and Tuesday of Week 4 so please don’t get offended if he doesn’t respond in a timely fashion to a text. He promises he’ll get back to you but it may take a day or so. And the nightly posting of the Bestenliste may be slightly delayed as well. We’ll see . . .

That’s it for this week. Hope everyone continues to have a good game experience and that you’re starting to see some progress in the battle against your flank meat! You should have dropped a pound or two by now, at least . . .

Okay, talk soon

GG

Week 3 Update: Rough Tech Week

Hallo Füsters,

Right out the gate, let GG apologize for the issue this past week with the reporting tool. He didn’t anticipate the need to add more STRAVA bonuses and he completely missed the issue where the KoG Weekly Assessment bonus would block out doing a second bonus on the same day. That’s all bad on GG. After a marathon reprogramming session on the DRT, he’s got both issues fixed as noted here:

• KoG Weekly Assessment: Your DRT now has a check box to use when you’re reporting the KoG each weekend. This will allow you to now score whatever other bonus you might do that same day by using the STANDARD or STRAVA or OLYMPIC pull down menus. You’ll still see the KoG Assessment as a selection in the STANDARD list but just ignore it as you now have the check box (you’ll also note there’s a mistake on it that says it was worth 5p which is obviously wrong and doesn’t matter anyways cause you’re not going to score it from the pull down anymore (hand over face emoji)).

• STRAVA Challenge Bonuses: As you’ll remember from early last week, there was an outcry from the Füsters that resulted in GG adding a couple more STRAVA Challenge Bonuses (ROKA, Runderwear and Yoga) to the initial list for January. Problem was that only the initial list was programmed to appear on the DRT so reporting on the newly added bonuses was a problem. GG’s plan to solve this last week was to have you use the STANDARD Bonus pull down and choose EVENT (1) or EVENT (3), something that a lot of Füsters missed completely (it was on the bonus page right below where GG added the extra bonuses). Well, and please listen up here, GG has fixed this issue with this weekend’s DRT update. Moving forward, to report any STRAVA Challenge bonus that you don’t see on the drop down list (so this is going to be for any bonuses that GG had to add after the game begin, i.e. ROKA, etc.), you will choose either “ADDITIONAL (1)” or “ADDITIONAL (3)” from the STRAVA drop down menu. So, for example, you complete the Runderwear 20K bonus. It’s worth +3p. You will now report this on the DRT by going to the STRAVA Challenge Bonus drop down menu and selecting ADDITIONAL (3) (if it had been worth 1p, you would have chosen ADDITIONAL (1), get it?). It was not possible for GG to enter the new bonuses on the DRT nor does he know what STRAVA will have for you in February or March so he had to create just a place holder for possible +1p or +3p bonuses. Which he has now done and we’ll never speak of this again.

What else is there to say this week? Thankfully not much. I think GG has over-communicated and caused enough problems for one week so let’s keep this short and to the point:

• Please remember that Doppelt (double) workouts are not live until Week 5! You can do all the exercise you want (and GG encourages you to) but you can only report and score a Singelt (single +1p) until January 30th.

• Hopefully last week’s Fasting Days went alright for everyone cause there’s three more weeks to come of being hangry and irritable.

• Earlier this week GG sent out a Bonus tracking sheet meant to help you preplan your game strategy. Check your email if you don’t know what GG is talking about and let him know if you didn’t receive it.

• Tomorrow night is the first “pop-up” bonus of WF22. These are bonuses not listed anywhere on the website and you have only day to complete them (unless you’re a shift worker who can’t pull it off because of your schedule and then just reach out to GG to figure out an alternative plan). Pop-up bonuses are typically not announced in advance (the whole point of them) but as this is the first one of WF22, GG felt he’d give you some lead time. Tomorrow’s bonus is a Full Moon Bonus, wherein you will need to head out into the night and complete a simple task under the light of the moon. GG will send out the details tomorrow but maybe do some practice howls this evening (you know, like a wolf under a full moon would 🧐).

• One thing GG would like to ask is that if you’re not following the Füste on Twitter, please do so! You literally can just follow GG and no one else if that’s what you’re worried about. Twitter is GG’s primary daily comms platform and if everyone was over there he wouldn’t have to annoy the Füsters with a barrage of text messages. You can find the Füste on Twitter by searching for @TheFüste and then setting the app to notify you of new Tweets.

• And congrats to the Bush Dog, a first time Füster who really made some big moves during Week 2 game play and has three trophies next to his name on the Bestenliste. He also now has a big target on his back and should prepare to be attacked by any number of Füsters hungry for that top spot! Heavy is the head that wears the crown, sir!

That’s it for today. Again, sorry for the mess last week but the Füste is always changing, always trying to improve and sometimes there’s a two steps forward, one step back thing that happens and while it’s frustrating it also helps make the game better in the end. Thanks for your patience and understanding and GG hopes it didn’t have too big an impact on you.

Have a great Week 3 and may the Füste be with you always,

GG

Week 2 Update Clarity

Some points of clarity for the Füsters:

• So, you can only do one bonus per day. That applies to all Standard Bonuses and STRAVA Challenge bonuses EXCEPT:

  • Lazy Long Dog Allowance - you can score a lazy long dog and this will NOT count as your daily bonus. So you can still get the 10K bonus or whatever on same day.

  • KoG Weekly Assessment - This will never count towards your daily bonus so you do your assessment each weekend and can do whatever other bonus you want to do on the same day.

  • Fasting - Fasting has nothing to do with the bonus game other than you earn a bonus if you complete all 8 days (and even that bonus will have no impact on your ability to do any other bonus on the day you awarded it).

• You cannot “stockpile” bonuses. Stockpiling is the practice of doing more than one bonus a day and then reporting those extra bonuses on another day(s). Complete one bonus per day, earn one bonus per day. That’s it (with the exception of the Lazy Long Dog and KoG, as mentioned above).

• The Friend Gift bonus . . . so, it doesn’t matter if you deliver one gift or five, that counts as your bonus play for that day. Obviously, to lessen the impact here, you’ll want to deliver all 5 gifts on the same day and call it good. But you don’t have to. You could deliver one gift per day for five days. Just understand that you can’t earn any other bonuses on those five days.

• STRAVA Challenge bonuses for January will now include:

  • Yoga Challenge: +3p

  • Runderwear 20k in 22 Days: +3p

  • ROKA RISE UP 300 Challenge: +1p

• For those concerned about their ability to earn the full +10p possible from the STRAVA Challenge bonuses, let GG point out this math: complete the Walk Distance Challenge 50K for +3p, Fresh Start Challenge 30hr for +5p, and the Yoga Challenge for +3p and you’ll earn the max allowable punkte. None of those three challenges are outside the capability of anyone Füsting.

• The promised bonus tracking sheet will be out in the next day or two. Please be patient.

That’s it. GG just wanted to address a number of questions that he’s been repeatedly hit with in the last two days.

Thanks everyone

GG