“Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg has invited you to a Facebook event.” A Pokemon Go walk, with a few friends? Sounds awesome. We’ve got three gyms in the park across the road alone, this should make for a chilled Sunday walk — weather permitting. *clicks attend*
Next minute, thousands of people are attending.
Image: Supplied
Cue reporter mode: “Yug, can I get a quote from you about this Pokemon walk thing?” “Can you wait a few hours? We are just calling the Botanical Bardens and police at the moment to make sure it’s ACTUALLY ok.” The “we” in this instance is my fiancee. #humblebrag
This is a thing that’s actually happening right now. It’s like the Corey Worthington MySpace party of Sydney’s nerd scene.
It’s every generation of Pokemon fan willing to brave the winter wind and rain for the opportunity to take over gyms, hit up every Pokestop and generally “Catch ‘Em All”.
Team lines are already being drawn, — a poll in the event show Team Valor (Go Team Valor) is the most popular, with Instinct lagging in numbers. Mystic is for hippies. There are discussions in dedicated team groups about wearing team colours, the locations of gyms, plans of attack. Australia doesn’t currently have a government, and we are forming literal Pokemon gangs. This is getting intense.
“I guessed maybe we’d get 300 friends coming for a walk, max,” Yug said. “I had no idea it would get this big, it’s crazy. Crazy AWESOME!”
At the time of writing, the event has over 11 thousand people interested, three and a half thousand “attending” and a further five thousand have been invited.
I just wanted to go for a walk with my friends. Time will tell how many people actually show up — or if the event can even go ahead at all (we’ll keep you updated) — but one thing is certain: we have a lot more Poke-friends than Yug originally thought.