‘Pokemon GO’ Fest Legendary To Appear: Lugia Being Released In Battle Raids Worldwide After Festival Issues
Despite its share of hiccups, the recent Pokemon GO Fest brings with it some good news as a first Legendary Pokemon will officially be released. This comes as a major sigh of relief for those involved because there were plenty of issues that hit the first-ever edition of this Pokemon GO event. The festival was held in Chicago’s Grant Park on Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of the popular mobile game. Unfortunately, the park had Wi-Fi service issues for mobile phone users in select areas which caused a lot of frustration for those trying to participate in the challenges.
According to the Heavy in their recent report, all of the trainers who were able to check into the Fest are still going to automatically receive a Lugia in their account. Those who participated in the Pokemon GO Fest will not only get the Legendary in their account but will receive a few other things. These will include a refund for the festival as well as PokeCoins added to their accounts. In order to obtain these items, participants will need to have a scanned QR code. People will be able to continue scanning QR codes until Monday morning, but they’ll need to be within a two-mile radius of the festival.
So what about those who didn’t participate in Pokemon GO Fest? As Kotaku reported on Saturday, those who didn’t attend the festival will still be able to get the Lugia. Within the next 48 hours, players around the world will see Lugia start to appear in multiplayer Raid Battles. It was also noted that in addition to Lugia, another Legendary bird called Articuno will be immediately available, with other birds to follow. It’s certainly exciting news since many fans of the game have been waiting quite a while to see the addition of the Legendary Pokemon.
Niantic also mentioned that a batch of other rewards will last up until 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Monday, July 24. These will include double Stardust, double Candy, double XP, increased Pokemon encounters, a reduced hatching distance, and a reduced buddy distance. This all comes as some pleasant news following some less than pleasant experiences in Grant Park for the Pokemon festival.
While the big celebration was supposed to bring players together to honor the mobile game and its features, CNN reported that it also ended up being an outpouring of anger from attendees. A variety of issues reportedly hit the festival including issues with connections and crashes. Many of the issues reported occurred with iPhone users and authentication errors. It led to various Pokemon GO Fest hosts to even get booed on stage. One instance even saw a water bottle thrown on stage and nearly hitting a female host in the leg.
It’s a smart PR move by Niantic to make sure that everyone who was part of the recent Pokemon GO Fest gets the free Legendary Lugia, along with refunds and PokeCoins, as well as release the Legendary Pokemon to all players. It’s best to keep the gamers happy who have made this game so popular so that the game can continue to flourish, and maybe even lead to a more successful festival in the future.
[Featured Image by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images]
