Pokemon Go champion demands changes to “unplayable” PvP full of bugs
Niantic/The Pokemon CompanyWhile Pokemon Go Fest 2024 introduced new creatures and game mechanics, several players aren’t happy with the game’s PvP current state. On July 18, 2023 World Champion ItsAXN released a video asking the devs to acknowledge some of PoGo’s biggest issues before a new Championship arrives.
The competitive player started the video by saying, “I like to have positivity and always try to promote the game, but it’s is in such a bad spot right now I feel like I have to try to say something here.”
The 2024 Pokemon World Championships will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii, between August 16 and August 18. However, ItsAXN considered “there’re a lot of issues in the Go Battle League” which could affect the tournament.
In his video, the creator listed a ton of bugs and issues plaguing Pokemon Go’s PvP mode. This includes frozen screens, short periods of lag leading to them being defeated without being able to respond, and the lack of debuff text that “makes it very hard to know exactly what’s happening in the game.”
“The 25-game limit is really limiting us, and when we don’t even have the chance to play those 25 games for real, it is so hard to get better, to have fun, and to grow this game,” ItsAXN stated.
The current champion also mentioned Android devices are mostly affected by these issues compared to iPhones: “Pokemon Go is supposed to be very accessible. If you have to buy a top-of-the-line phone, it makes it very hard for anyone to take this game seriously.”
Lastly, he closed the video by saying, “My biggest problem with all of this is that these issues have not been acknowledged or they’ve been swept under the rug. There’s a ‘known issues’ page for GBL but that website is kind of a joke… a lot of issues that I’ve talked about are marked either as resolved or not even on that list.”
In an X post, he continued to share an additional video showcasing the issues within the game in hopes Niantic can act accordingly before the next tournament begins. He also mentioned GBL was his main source of practice before winning the Championship, which is the case for most competitors.
In a Reddit post, user ‘Greninja_D_Raizo’ commented: “Hopefully, the world champion giving a voice to these issues helps with the publicity needed for Niantic to actually care enough to do something.”
Many players agree that having such a prominent figure in the scene talking about these issues can be a huge step, but others already lost hope, mentioning they quit PvP “years ago.”
We’ll keep you updated with the latest Pokemon Go news in case Niantic decide to fix GBL issues. In the meantime, check the Raid schedule to catch the most powerful species to beat Giovanni.