(The Least) Local Ex-Raid, 6/6/2018

It's been about a month since I last participated in an Ex-Raid, and today is the day that one was scheduled. As with several of the previous Ex-Raids, I earned this one about one and a half weeks before today. For this one, I got it off of an (in)opportune Ho-Oh raid at the location, as I had actually been looking for Latios instead. Incidentally, I failed to capture Ho-Oh, but I did capture Latios through another raid just shortly after that. The captures are of course bonus challenges, so it's rightful that they bear no effect on someone getting an Ex-Raid Pass.

Now, the reason why I tagged this one "the least" is because barring a couple of Ex-Raids in the past, this one has the fewest participants yet. Actually, many players had gotten Ex-Raid invites and passes, but they got them for the most inopportune time possible; some were out of town for urgent business, were visiting distant relatives, or simply just had other things to do. As a result, those who couldn't come had to leave their phones (yes, some have dedicated accounts on different phones) or their login details so that someone could do it for them, or the Ex-Raid altogether - meaning that they had to lose a chance at Mewtwo. It's kind of sad, but things happen.

Imagine the left side benches filled with the ones who didn't come today...
(I took this picture.)

The tale of the day was how the "account jugglers" had to deal with the absentee players' accounts. In addition to the usual battle flights - which were simplified to only four this time, one for each team and one more for others that didn't fit - they had to make lists of which player to stand in for at which flight, logging in and out and perhaps swapping phones if possible and as necessary. This resulted in some dramatics as one phone's faulty GPS led to its players being knocked out of battle, while at the end Mewtwo couldn't be caught for one of the stand-ins; for the latter, fortunately the Mewtwo was not very strong anyway, but it still leads to wonder of what will happen when the news has to be broken to the stand-in player.

As for me, I caught my Mewtwo. Though it turned out to be only mediocre, I was kind of nervous that I couldn't capture it, but I did, and things were fine. After the Ex-Raid, there was an invitation to go on three nearby Ho-Oh raids, and I accepted; I got only one out of the three and the only one I got wasn't Shiny. I still appreciate that at least Mewtwo got caught today.

This particular Ex-Raid was as maximal as it was minimal... if that makes sense. And it may perhaps be even more minimal next time as some players may have other things to do within the upcoming two weeks. We'll have to see what they hold. Yet however minimal Ex-Raids get, it is almost assured that the efforts that go into them are anything but.

One year ago: Pokémon Direct, 6/6/2017