Raid Stories

By now, I've been involved in lots and lots of raids in Pokémon Go. Some of them were by myself, others were with people I know well (that is, my raid group), and still others were with people I've met for the first time or at the least very rarely meet. I've already discussed challenges that are faced while the raid takes place and lead to certain "dramas", but this time I want to discuss happenings that occur around and about raids and add some spice to them. They're the stories that occur along with raids, and I've got a few of them.

Sometimes, even though attendance lists have been made for a raid party that is supposed to be united, the division of parties still occur. At one time, that division occurred due to the location of the raid Gym; often, the "usual spot" for raids is not at the spot of the Gym itself but somewhere slightly removed, such as a Gym that is actually located across a busy street and the "usual spot" is the opposite of that. It can be a difficult thing to make these divisions come together. At another time, due to priorities and expediencies, a raid party is forced to divide into two or more groups, one that demands a quicker and more intimate battle, and another that is more relaxed and open; as such, this time it becomes on the whim of those already involved. Some divisions may have to occur, of course, but it does seem a bit shameful to divide something that is already supposed to come together.

As mentioned at the beginning, I can take advantage of raids to meet new people for the first time or even link up with those I don't get to meet often. It's a blessing to be able to do so. They may be members of my raid group that often raid without me, or a truly new group of raiding Trainers that I'm likely to only meet for that day. On occasion, there may also be completely new Trainers in my local area trying their hand at a raid, waiting for someone to refer them to my raid group... which sometimes ends up being me. It can be both expected and unexpected at the same time, like the times new Trainers appear in the raid lobby, as well as the raid habits of people I thought I'm familiar with, but then turned out to be different. In any and all of these cases, I'm effectively using my "solidarity-making" ability to different extents. This is, of course, in contrast to the previous divisive situation.

Raids are certainly great, but what's not so great is being ushered out by other people or otherwise while in the process. A few of my raid fellows have experienced this to a greater degree than I have, and that strangely led to good results. Meanwhile, at the most recent occurrence that I and some raiding Trainers were ushered out, we were fortunate that the ushering was at the beginning, barely before anyone had a chance to throw raid passes into a Gym we were supposed to raid. At that point, we just moved on to the next. It would perhaps have been disastrous if many people had thrown raid passes. This is a situation that is ideally to be avoided, but sometimes it just can't, leaving me and the rest to "roll with the punches".

Every raid in Pokémon Go brings a different story. It's often the whims of the Trainers involved (and sometimes the people outside of the involvement) that decide how things go. That said, these are some of my stories from my end of things - these are what "perk up" the experience of each raid. The raid process itself is more or less set for the times ahead, but the stories involved really make each one unique.

One year ago: Evolution Is a Change
Two years ago: Historical Pokémon