I have to admit, I am running behind on blogging this month. I have so much going on and so many updates to share! I just met one of my favorite authors, Pierce Brown, this week. I am running through a second play of Reanimal before I write about it, and my husband just surprised me with a Switch 2 because there are so many Pokemon games coming out that I want to play! But today, I’m here to talk about the Pokemon Go Tour that just took place at the Rose Bowl this year. It was an amazing time and I have a lot to share from it. Let’s get into what went down.

I did not take as many photos this year, but I think I can still paint a pretty clear picture of the event. This year was even bigger than before! There were tons of Pokestops, gyms, and activities to do. My goal this year was to get some of my platinum medals completed. I knew I’d complete my Kalos medal by hatching Hawlucha, but I was hopeful I’d find someone to give me a Relicanth to complete my Hoenn badge. And, if I was lucky, I could maybe drop a lure and complete my Picnicker medal that was dragging.

Well, let me tell you, my morning started hot! I shyly approached someone wearing a New Zealand jacket and asked if they had a Relicanth to spare… and… they didn’t. In case you didn’t know, Relicanth can only be caught in New Zealand… But it was early! And I was building my confidence up with approaching strangers. As we waited for the event to started, I noticed a couple of guys with “want” and “need” trade signs and some people gathered around them. We decided to approach and check out what they were looking for. I had a few things they needed, but the question was… would they have what I wanted? I mentioned that I had the shiny Toxel they wanted and I asked the question… “Do you have Relicanth?” The answer? YES!

The way I freaked out!!! This man probably thought I was a complete weirdo. I was beside myself with happiness. Before the event even started, I got a Relicanth! As soon as it hit my collection, the platinum completed and it was the last medal I needed to level up! I hit level 77! I didn’t care what else happened that day. I was beyond excited and repeatedly talking about it at random throughout the day. But things got more exciting within that first hour…

Before the event starts, there is nothing visible on the map. Once 9am hits, everything goes live at once. Pokemon spawn, Pokestops appear, and raids are visible. When the Pokestops appeared, they all had lures immediately. As we walked around catching things, I mentioned to my friends that I wanted to get my golden lure out if possible. I wanted to start getting more Gimmighoul coins and this would be beneficial to anyone around us. As we rounded a corner, my friend told me that two lures had just ended, meaning two more could be placed. I rushed into my inventory to drop them and… BOOM. Two lures, including my golden lure, were placed! At the time, I was 300 catches away from a platinum medal. In a matter of minutes, trainers caught over 1,000 Pokemon off my lures. The excitement was palpable! I had been struggling to get this done for a long time, hoping people were playing at busy places, but finally, at this event surrounded by thousands of people, I completed the Picnicker medal!

The rest of the day was pretty straightforward. I hatched multiple Hawluchas and raided a ton. They also had all of the Furfrou forms available at different spots around the play area. I tried to get a couple of each because under normal circumstances, you can only get these from visiting specific countries/parts of the world. I will say something I found annoying was the mega raids. While they did introduce two new ones (I’m not going to get into the new mechanics of these new mega raids in this blog), they also had a lot of old ones running at the same time. These raids were the highest source of XP which was nice, but I wanted legendary raids more than anything. Yveltal and Xerneas were the legendaries from Kalos and I felt like they were extremely light. I did get a couple shiny Yveltal (I did have one before the event), but I only got one shiny Xerneas. I was hoping for more! The one I got had the special background at least.

If you ever get a chance to attend one of these Pokemon Tour events in person, I highly recommend it! I added hundreds of friends, earned millions of XP, and was able to get some Pokemon I really wanted! Since the event, I was able to complete ANOTHER platinum medal: the Rising Star Duo medal. This one was a pain because the way it gives credit for progression is slow and unfair IMO. Basically, you have to win raids with friends, but you only get credit for one friend per raid, once a day. That means, if you are raiding with five friends, you get one raid credit on the medal. If you raid with the same friend multiple times in one day, you only get… one raid credit on the medal! Annoying. But this lead up to the global Kalos event has raids popping off like crazy and less restrictions. With all the new friends I added, I could flood that medal with credit until I completed it.

Here’s some random keychains I got for free at the event because I don’t feel like screenshotting more medals! My kittens want to eat the one on the left.

Anyway, have you been to an in-person Pokemon event before? Does this make you want to attend one? Or do you think I’m a giant nerd for playing this game? Let me know in the comments!