While the releases that occurred were fun to see, Pokemon GO Fest was not what we thought it would be.
[dropcap size=small]T[/dropcap]housands of Pokemon Trainers traveled from across the country to Chicago for Pokemon GO Fest on Saturday. A few of us were able to make it out to Pokemon GO Fest and experience it for ourselves. It wasn’t the turnout we thought it would be.
If you didn’t get there really early (I’m talking like around 7 AM,) then a good portion of the experience was standing in a really long line. To top it all off, it was super hot out. Standing in line for three hours to get in was not fun. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.
After finally getting into the park, I had so much excitement built up for this fest since I bought my wristband. When you get in, you receive a QR code on the back of a patch that represents the badge that you get when you scan the code and gives you access to everything that you can do at GO Fest. But after getting in, I had a different feeling.
Right when I walked in, the game was laggy. Games around the entire fest were crashing and people were getting upset at not being able to catch Pokemon or get egg km distance registered into their game. Some trainers even had trouble logging into the game and loading the map. The park was wet with puddles and you actually had to watch where you walk, which the game does tell you when you start the game. It was really frustrating at the start.
Trainers, we’re aware of server and connectivity issues impacting #PokemonGOFest and are working as quickly as possible to address them.
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) July 22, 2017
Some games were stabilized, which allowed players to experience what they should have walking in. But with all of the complaints that were reported, Niantic announced toward the end of the festival that attendees will get a refund, as well as $100 to use in the game (so around 14,000 coins.) Attendees will also be getting a free Lugia in their account. During the event, Niantic spread out the radius of the event by two miles so players could leave the park and still experience catching rare Pokemon. Special 2k eggs were also at Pokestops at GO Fest where trainers could hatch pretty much anything out of the eggs, including 10k egg Pokemon. My highlight was hatching two Mareeps, which was pretty cool.
I felt like there should have been all of the regionals there to catch, but instead, we only got Heracross and letters of the unknown that spelled out Chicago (some players rumored to have caught other letters as well.) Having the other regionals there would have made it more tempting for me to leave the park and find them after they extended the radius of the fest spawns. I suppose completing the pokedex (up to this point) was not something that Niantic wants people to do yet. Unless you traveled the world for the regionals, then good for you!
After all of that happening, the contest for most Pokemon caught in the three catch windows throughout the day concluded with Team Mystic catching the most Pokemon. It was predictable, but their prize was Articuno being the first of the three original Legendary birds release. Team Valor finished second and Team Instinct was last. The consensus is that either the birds will be released in order of the teams finishing (next Moltres, then Zapdos) or they will just release the other two at the same time.
After the event was done is when the real fun began! The Lugia and Articuno raids began and the amount of people you saw at each raid was insane!
Every single one had at least 30 to 40 people there battling it out on the raids trying to get as many of the birds as possible. When it became time to catch the birds, it only took one premier ball to do it, due to Niantic making the birds 100% catch rate for only Legendary Raids in Chicago. I suspect that this was also part of Niantic apologizing to the attendees. Any other raid you did this last weekend (Charizard, Tyranitar, etc.) was still just as difficult as before. Even for those in Chicago.
So if you made it out to Chicago, you ended up with 2 Legendaries (or multiple of each), Heracross, Unknown, wristband money refund, $100 for in-game use and a tan face. There hasn’t been a refund yet on the wristbands, but I assume sometime this week, all attendees will be refunded and rewarded with their coins this week.
Those who didn’t make it out still were rewarded for completing the catch window challenge with Legendaries and other in-game bonuses, which are still in effect until the end of today.
Overall, this trip wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be to start this article. I also didn’t have to drive as long as a lot of people did, so take that how you will. With the refund, the Legendary Raids and all the people that showed up, it was pretty cool. A lot of attention for the Safari Event in Europe will focus on the servers being stable for those events, seeing that Niantic failed to do so in Chicago. Legendary Raids after this event will never be that easy again, so I made sure to catch as many Ariticunos and Lugias as possible.
I would give the event a 6.5 out of 10, due to the refunds and 100% catch rate for Legendaries that Niantic gave attendees.
