Is Pokemon Go Fest Over? What Happened to the Mystery Challenge?

Niantic

Pokemon Go trainers just enjoyed a big announcement from Niantic. Everyone who attended is going to get a Legendary — Lugia! And Articuno will be the next Legendary to appear. But is the Festival over now?

There’s a little confusion, because originally there was going to be another Mystery Challenge event at 6 p.m. Central. Everyone guessed that this would be when the Legendary would be released in Raids, and everyone would gather to battle the Legendary Raid Boss and then try to catch a Legendary.

It was called the “Mystery Challenge” and it was supposed to run from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. But now it appears that players may have simply received a mystery prize instead.

Pokemon Go has been plagued with so many issues all day that many people couldn’t even log into the game. This resulted in Niantic possibly lowering the challenge threshold to make sure that a Legendary was still released.

And now, instead of battling for a Legendary, everyone who attended is going to receive a Legendary. It’s likely that Niantic just didn’t want to risk a big Legendary raid tonight with all the other problems that plagued them.

Here’s what was said by Niantic during the live stream:

Worldwide trainers have helped us here in the park unlock the Mystery Challenge! Thank you so much… I’m so excited for this challenge… Do you want to know what it is? Because of all your hard work here in the park and all your hard work at home, you have unlocked the Legendary Pokemon Lugia! Lugia will be introduced to raid battles worldwide in the next 48 hours. But trainers here at Grant Park, everyone who has successfully checked in will receive Lugia in your account. “

There has been no official word from Niantic, but it appears that the Festival ended early. There’s no real need to release a Legendary in Raid Battles, since everyone is receiving one if they bought a ticket and attended. And it sounds like, from the speech given above, that the mystery challenge was changed from being a 6 p.m. raid to just letting Lugia be released worldwide in the next 48 hours.

Niantic’s live stream has also ended, so it’s safe to assume that this event is now over.

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