One Pokémon Go player used pure spite to revive their local community

Pokémon Go is a game built to bring communities together—which makes it tough when many people stop playing. So when a player used their competitive side to reignite an inactive community’s love for the game, we (and the fandom) were naturally impressed.

In a Reddit post on Sept. 6, a player named Fabulous-Ring-6389 shared an inspiring story where they awakened an entire community of Pokémon Go players by “waging a war” of gym control. The player was determined to capture every gym in the area, to the point that every time a gym was claimed, they’d snatch it back immediately.    

Apparently, their community was full of Team Mystic, while Fabulous-Ring-6389 belonged to Team Instinct. “My village is basically a blue fortress, and as the only instinct player, it was an uphill battle,” they said.

But the hardship wasn’t enough for the player to give up—mostly because they had two unique weapons. “But I had something the others did not: Lots of free time and caffeine,” they said. “And so I waged war against the blue faction, and for every Chansey, I retaliated with a Snorlax and 10 golden raspberries.”

As you can imagine, the fights were exhausting, but the player’s efforts led to a wonderful positive effect. They had apparently “pissed everyone off so much” that players in the community convinced each other to return to Pokémon Go. “At least, I think that’s what happened because the number of active players about doubled,” they said.