Pokémon Go Tour: Hoenn Las Vegas was another technical disaster

Connection issues prove frustrating for participants

Last weekend saw more than 50,000 Pokémon Go players descend on Las Vegas, Nevada, for GO Tour: Hoenn, a ticketed live event – or rather “offline” event. Players attending the event were unable to properly enjoy it for the most, since connection issues plagued everyone looking to do raid battles and catching Pokémon.

Niantic blamed this on an additional 17,000 people without tickets joining the live event, which was held at a public park, adding to the weight on the network and leading to the connectivity issues. Asking players without a ticket to stay away from the area did not help either, as the problems continued on the second day of the event. While the developer tried to calm players’ anger by extending the time of the event and gifting in-game items to participants, this did nothing to significantly reduce the frustration people felt – after all, they had traveled for hours to Las Vegas just for this.

We ask that Trainers who do not have a ticket for Pokémon GO Tour: Hoenn – Las Vegas refrain from joining us at the park tomorrow, to ensure a smooth event for Sunday ticket holders and Trainers who have the Sunday Extra Day Add-On.

— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) February 19, 2023

What’s more, Las Vegas was supposed to be the first time players could earn Primal Energy to get Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon, but as they were unable to complete a lot of raids, these plans quickly went down the drain. Coupled with a high amount of energy needed for this special evolution, this is probably going to be a source of frustration for a bit longer.

Niantic has a poor track record when it comes to big events like this one, as connection issues are a regular occurrence when there is a huge amount of activity in the game. Even during the pandemic, when such events were held completely online, the game would often slow down or completely disconnect.

Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon are the two biggest attractions of GO Tour: Hoenn / Niantic

Let’s just say the online discourse inside the community is not exactly kind to the developer. Users called the event “a dumpster fire” and said they felt like Niantic had spit them in their face. Another called the entire event “pretty piss poor” and stated that the “disrespect for the player base is reaching heights I didn't think (although really should have) possible.”

“Yeah, my first and last time I’ll do this. Waste of money entirely. Every add-on is essentially worthless when you can only raid like once an hour at best. Everything is horrid. Cell towers are capped and nothing is going through. Wi-Fi boosters are poorly placed and not enough of them anywhere. Eggs aren’t tracked well enough. There are spots that you need to spin for missions in complete dead spots. I’ve spent way too much time stressing more than playing”, said a different attendant of the event.

GO Tour: Hoenn Global is planned for February 25 and 26, 2023, bringing the content from Vegas to the worldwide player base – and hopefully none of the issues.