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Raichu, the final evolution of Pikachu, was the elusive final creature Lau needed to round out his collection. He nabbed it Thursday — and not without some resistance, as the electric type-Pokémon took around 15 Pokéballs to catch — on his way to a grocery store on Lees Avenue with a group of friends.

“I wanted to be one of the very first people to complete the list, so I was competing against time,” said Lau, a Pokémon fan since he was young. “I actually don’t know (if I’m the first). That’s why I posted on Facebook. There must be people who made it faster than me in terms of completing it. But I’ve never seen them post it.”

A U.S. trainer publicly declared himself in a Business Insider story on July 21 to be the first Pokémon Go player to catch all 142 Pokémon available in North America.

For aspiring Pokémon players who want to round out their collections, Lau suggested staying on the move. He mainly hangs out in Confederation Park downtown and Dick Bell Park in the city’s west end, but also drives with friends to Orléans, Kanata, “everywhere.” Lau also suggested using Pokévision, an online tracker that indicates all nearby Pokémon on a map in real-time.

Lau, who moved to Ottawa from Hong Kong last year, said he’s tried to hatch the remaining three region-specific Pokémon from eggs, but the odds of that are low, and he’s had no luck as of yet.

The six other Pokémon to round out the original 151 — Ditto, Zapdos, Articuno, Moltres, Mewtwo and Mew — have yet to be sighted anywhere in the world.

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