The Plan Worked!

Rayquaza dropped early in the PoGOlympics, and my lunch raid group hit it with groups of 10 trainers. Within ten days, the same people were splitting into a bunch of groups of 4 and racing each other in spite of the PoGOlympics being over.

For the first time, concepts like breakpoints and bulkpoints were standard. Stardust hoarders were finally starting to spend so they could keep up. Players were actively using battle simulators to optimize their teams. Discussion isn’t just about Rayquaza either; we're looking ahead to the Regi trio and even Gen 4. In a very short period of time, we’ve changed for the better.

The Future

Our group will be doing this again in the summer, and we expect even more participation with shorter-duration events and level brackets. We’re hoping to add some throwing accuracy competitions and more team raids as well. There’s also talk of competition against neighboring Discords.

In the meantime, I’m going to continue to push our local trainers to get better. I’ve begun keeping a record book of our Discord’s top 5 raid times for each boss. Instead of telling someone what’s good against a legendary, I’m telling them how to find out. While we have a long way to go before everyone buys in to short-manning, the discussion seems to be contagious with more and more trainers getting involved.

Good luck if you try your own version of the Pokémon GOlympics. I hope it’s as successful ours. And if you ever want to compete with us, the Bucksmont group will be ready!