POKÉMON Go is part of the Pokémon World Championships in London for the first time, and it’s an embarrassing first showing for the popular mobile game.
Ever since Go Battle League was added to Pokémon Go back in 2020, the mode has been plagued by crashes, bugs, and connection issues.
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While developer Niantic has often told the community that it is working on the issues, the competitive mode of Pokémon Go is still far from perfect.
These issues were first brought to the big stage at the European Championships in Frankfurt this year.
The show was riddled with a whole host of technical issues which put a dampener on the competition.
Niantic paused ranking on its competitive mode for a season in order to focus on the online battle system.
This was in the hopes of stablising the game enough that it would be esports-ready for the World Championships.
However, it seems these efforts were in vain, as Pokémon Go failed to launch on the first day of the competition.
The Last Chance Qualifiers were delayed by two hours because the game was running so slowly that competitors couldn’t enter a match.
While only nine games were scheduled for the day, it took over seven hours to complete, despite each match only lasting a matter of minutes.
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All competitive integrity fell by the wayside once players got into a match.
Some players lost control of their Pokémon, or their attacks were severely delayed, meaning that prepared strategies quickly fell apart.
While Niantic and The Pokémon Company obviously want Pokémon Go to be taken seriously as a competitive game with big potential for esports, this showing at the World Championships demonstrates it’s just not ready.
With some forethought, the event could have set up a stable internet connection and server for competitors to use, which would have solved all of these issues.
The Pokémon Go community is clearly disappointed by this debut, as it supports the idea that mobile games don’t belong in the competitive esports arena.
Despite the embarrassment that Pokémon Go is suffering at the championships, fans have shared their delight with the ongoing events for the world’s most popular mobile game.
If you want to know the fastest way to catch the World Championship exclusive Pikachu, then check out our tips.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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