Pokémon GO Fest in Chicago was absolutely plagued by problems

Posted on July 23, 2017

July 22nd was a largely anticipated date for many fans globally as it marked the first ever Pokémon GO fest. But as players from all across the US and around the world arrived at Grant park in Chicago, they were met with frustrating issues stopping them from being able to play the very popular game.

Mobile carriers struggled to handle the shear demand of players trying to log in and play which left many players gameless at the event. The issues didn’t stop there however, if players were able to log in, server lag stopped them from playing as did fps problems on the phone due to the large amount of lures going off in the park. Needless to say the combination of these three problems isolated many players present at the event.

It was not a great start, and many people began to line up to leave, expressing their frustrations at the lack of planning that went into the event. Niantic CEO, John Hanke, made an appearance at the event to talk to fans that had turned up. As he spoke disgruntled fans chanted “we can’t play” at him and booed at him too.

Reddit, of course, has blown up about this as well and most threads outline the frustration many endured to log in and play – some calling for the CEO to be fired because he seemed to not know what he was doing. One player recorded a bottle being thrown at the host on stage talking about prizes.

Other fans have been more positive about the situation, commenting that the first event was always going to be a disaster and they were glad to just be there and were trying to have fun. Niantic has also offered a refund to players who purchased the $20 dollar ticket to enter Pokémon GO Fest and they’ve also offered players present $100 of PokéCoins too.

Whilst these major issues loomed over many players, the first stage of events kicked off. Despite the issues, players at Grant park were able to meet the requirements of the challenges thus unlocking Lugia as the first Legendary Pokémon. To catch Lugia you’ll need to withstand a tier 5 raid. If you complete it you’ll have the chance to catch Lugia. Lugia will have a 2% catch rate and it will take 20km of buddy walking to get a single candy from it. A tall order, but understandable.

Team Mystic were the first team to complete the necessary requirements of the challenges which means Articuno will be the second legendary Pokemon to appear for players to catch. Subsequently it’ll be Moltres and then Zaptos appearing next.

The next phase of the event will carry over globally to all players! The more Pokémon caught between now and the 24th of July, the longer the bonuses achieved at Grant Park will last.

The official live stream for the event can be viewed  here.