‘Pokémon GO’ Players Sick And Tired Over New Ex Raids Feature

Niantic had previously released a brand new feature for Pokémon GO over the summer, which was basically a system that sent out exclusive invites to select players for them to participate in exclusive raids. However, the strategy of offering exclusive invites for special raids, or Ex Raids as Niantic calls it, is apparently backfiring as players who have yet to receive their invites are now continually expressing their discontent online and in social media.

For longtime Pokémon GO players, receiving an Ex Raid invite is a pretty big deal seeing as that it is currently the only way to capture the Legendary Pokémon Mewtwo. Different Legendary and rare Pokémon will likely be added further down the line, which means becoming eligible to receive an exclusive invite will be vital for those who want to complete their collection.

As of the moment, multiple waves of Ex Raid invites have already been sent out to Pokémon GO players around the world and they initially seemed to be completely random. This didn’t really bode well for a lot of loyal players who have yet to receive their invites despite following all of Niantic’s recommendations. Niantic then released a big update at the end of 2017, which included an algorithm change that now favored players with high-level gym badges and those with extensive raid experience. The purpose of the update was to supposedly to make the feature more accessible to more players, but this was apparently not the case.

Despite the recently released Ex Raid update, some prominent Pokémon GO players on YouTube have reportedly still not gotten an invite. A popular Pokémon GO YouTuber named Reversal even revealed that he has yet to receive an invite after more than 30 Ex Raid invite cycles. He expressed his continued frustration on Twitter, which finally ended with him announcing that he was taking an “indefinite” leave from the game because of the issue.

Several YouTube personalities who exclusively stream Pokémon GO videos have also expressed their frustration online. Most of the players have met the criteria that were set by the latest Ex Raid update, but this has apparently not awarded them an invite for one reason or another. Given the fact that high profile players are still not getting any invites, it is highly likely that a good number of other players still haven’t gotten their invites as well.