Upcoming ‘Pokemon GO’ Collaboration Announced for Pokemon Leagues!

By: Water Pokémon Master · Posted Posted onMay 2, 2022 at 10:36 AM · 8 Comments

We’ve learned of a future collaboration between Pokemon Leagues and Pokemon GO! It will be called the “Pokemon GO at League” program.

The program will turn eligible Pokemon Leagues into live Play! Pokemon PokeStops in Pokemon GO. The program will also include special activities for both Pokemon TCG and Pokemon GO players to enjoy, including exclusive TCG promos and Pokemon GO distributions.

No further details or dates are known at this time. However, TPCi has given League owners until May 15th to opt out. This implies the program will start in the coming months, likely around the release of the Pokemon GO set in July.

Back in June 2021, Pokemon announced “Starting soon, Trainers who complete research in Pokemon GO and tasks at Pokemon League events will also receive Professor Willow’s card while supplies last.” Nothing ever came of this announcement, but it sounds similar to this new “GO at League” program. It’s possible TPCi intended for the program to start last year but their plans were delayed by the pandemic.

This new program will likely be a permanent addition to Pokemon Leagues in an effort to introduce players of the popular game to the Play! Pokemon program. Adding Leagues as PokeStops will advertise Pokemon Leagues like never before and will hopefully convert some of those Pokemon GO players into TCG fans!

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I am definitely excited, given that we run the only league in town. This kind of cross-game collaboration is way overdue, especially between two of the most profitable arms of Pokemon.
 
dmein89 said:
Neat idea, why would you want to opt out of free advertising?
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Pokemon Go Players and Pokemon Players are unfortunately not as well of a match you would think it is.

While I say it's great to attract a few players who don't keep up with actual Pokemon events and news, it is also going to attract a crowd of people who will just come in, take a card (or worse - pester the Professors and TOs for more copies), leave, and never come back - or come back the next time, take a card(s), leave.

A large chunk of Pokemon Go Players are not the dedicated Pokemon die-hard fans they think they are. I've had negative experiences with them as a Professor, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that aspect.

It's unfair to say, but I think it's reasonable for a TO to not want to cater to that crowd.
 
TokenDuelist said:
Pokemon Go Players and Pokemon Players are unfortunately not as well of a match you would think it is.

While I say it's great to attract a few players who don't keep up with actual Pokemon events and news, it is also going to attract a crowd of people who will just come in, take a card (or worse - pester the Professors and TOs for more copies), leave, and never come back - or come back the next time, take a card(s), leave.

A large chunk of Pokemon Go Players are not the dedicated Pokemon die-hard fans they think they are. I've had negative experiences with them as a Professor, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that aspect.

It's unfair to say, but I think it's reasonable for a TO to not want to cater to that crowd.
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100x this. The same is somewhat true for Pokemon collectors and Pokemon players, a league I visited six months or so ago had a feeling this would happen for Celebrations and added a policy stating that you had to compete in their bi-weekly League tournaments if you wanted to buy Celebrations products just to keep scalpers away and I suspect the same will be true for these promos (if not the Pokemon Go TCG set itself considering that it'll have another Shiny Charizard card in it).
 
The Binder Guy said:
100x this. The same is somewhat true for Pokemon collectors and Pokemon players, a league I visited six months or so ago had a feeling this would happen for Celebrations and added a policy stating that you had to compete in their bi-weekly League tournaments if you wanted to buy Celebrations products just to keep scalpers away and I suspect the same will be true for these promos (if not the Pokemon Go TCG set itself considering that it'll have another Shiny Charizard card in it).
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Exactly, even then - half of those "collectors" are not even Pokemon fans, but merely those wanting to make a quick buck on nostalgia. I saw it happen during the Evolutions pre-release, they are a very entitled bunch.

The leagues should go a step further than being shown research data, the Go player should actively participate in the league event itself or at the very least, register with a player ID to increase the number of players, even if they don't attend - it should help by providing more prize support numbers.
 
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