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Okay storytime...
Cringiest person/moment you experienced playing pokemon Go?
Can you beat mine?
In the first couple months of the game, I was driving home from work and decided to
check on a gym where I had previously left a Pokémon.
I went about 2 blocks out of my normal drive to get there, I pull up and notice that it
belongs to a different team than mine so I decide I'm going to take it back over.
I pull into the nearest parking lot and notice a 30-40 year old man (I'm 30 at the time)
yelling at some kids telling them not to knock his Pokémon out of the gym.
I come to their rescue and get the dude to go away and then I waited for the kids to
take over the gym and ride away on their bikes before I left too.
I never did take over that gym, but a grown man yelling at 12 year old kids was definitely
the cringeyest moment I've experienced.
I once encountered a lady who would brag about a shiny that she had every other sentence.
At first it didn’t bother me because I get it, when you gotta flex you gotta flex.
But after about two hours into it she kept saying stuff like, “oh I caught a shiny
seal at this spot three days ago” and “come on you don’t have that shiny yet, I’ve
got three.”
It was annoying but it didn’t get any worse...and then she got a shiny from the raid =/
I saw a guy get arrested during a Mewtwo EX Raid because he didn’t want lower levels
to participate so he hit a guy and someone in the group called the cops.
Big yikes
I live in Ottawa, we get tons of snow in the winter.
I walked to a local church to participate in a raid.
There were 3 other people there waiting for it to start, and another group had posted
on Discord that they were on the way and would be there in 2 minutes.
We wait, it's February, it's -15.A car pulls up in front of the church.
In the summer, you can park on our side of the road (car is on the other), but in the
winter, snow builds up in great mounds reducing the street to barely more than one lane.
The car parks right beside a clearly visible No Parking sign, right where the road turns
90 degrees, effectively blocking both lanes.
I can see people inside, each with a screen in front of their faces.
At that moment, the snowplow arrives to plow the road.It can't get by because this car
is blocking both lanes.
The occupants of the car can clearly see the snowplow, it's right in front of them, is
covered in flashing lights, and it is massive (plus it is very loud).
The car does not move.
The snowplow driver honks, the car still doesn't move.
Finally the snowplow driver, who looks to be nearly 70 years old, just leans on the
horn.
The driver of the car rolls down his window and starts yelling at him, telling him he'll
only be 5 minutes.The snowplow driver can't believe how this guy is acting, he just needs
to get by to do his job.
He yells back but the car refuses to move.
We start yelling at the car, it sits there.
Finally after many minutes, the car backs up a few meters.
Literally just barely enough room to let the plow by.
The plow driver is very upset, honking, trying to maneuver by, and the driver of the car
gets out to yell at him.
Finally the plow makes it by and drives up the street.
The occupants get out of the car and walk over to us.
I looked right at the driver, and said, "what were you doing?
The guy just wanted to get by so he could plow the road!".
He responded, "I had every right to be there!
He just had to wait, how long does a raid take?
" And 5 more minutes of blah blah he could easily made it around me blah blah blah I
was barely blocking the road blah blah blah I was nowhere near that No Parking sign blah
blah blah...
Clueless.
I ran into a group that was waiting for an egg to hatch I asked if they’re gonna do
the raid they said yes.
So I waited patiently never saw the group number change from zero.
Literally 30 secs later they all drove off.
They did a private group there was maybe like 6 people so it’s not like they had a full
lobby or anything.
Probably the most toxic community I’ve ever seen they treat people who aren’t apart
of their facebook group like they’re complete trash.
I mostly go there to grind the stops cause it’s a great 5 min loop driving and sometimes
when I step out of the car to do a raid that I can solo just hearing what they have to
say about others is just crazy!
Uuugh unfortunately I have one.
It's community day and we're at a popular park, there's pavilions you can rent out but
only a couple are occupied.
And of course there's a thousand people walking around in swarms.Half the park is a one way
road, and there's a kid birthday party going on.
Unfortunately the road is closed off from the main entrance, probably because of the
sheer amount of people.
Some father from that group had run out of the park for a moment, probably to get more
supplies I'd guess.One lady playing Pokemon saw him coming back up the road the only way
he could, the "wrong way" even though it was the only way,at that time.
She takes it upon herself to plant in front of his huge truck and tell at him that it's
a one way!
She's not moving!!!1!He gets out and says lady, my kid's up there, you're not keeping
me from him.
She just yells louder, calling the police, she's not moving, he better go around!
Making an absolute embarrassing spectacle.
So bless him he gets back in the truck and simply goes around her through the grass.I
have no idea what on earth she was thinking, but smugly returned to her friends after that.
Boy I was ready to get on her, luckily the father was smart and quick about it.
About fifty other people witnessed it, and she couldn't be found 5 minutes after so maybe
someone said something.
My spouse and I have crocheted Pokemon hats - mine's a Magikarp and his is a Weepinbell.
We were wearing them on PoGo day and got lots of compliments on the hats and people asking
where we got them, etcetera
etcetera
, but one guy saw them and proceeded to walk with us around town and kept playing with
the Magikarp hat I was wearing.
We actually had to duck into the public library to get him away from us because I did not
want this dude in my personal space.
absolute zero muscle
is he...really skinny, or really...wide?Can you beat mine?no, you win.
I'm really sorry that you won, though lol
The day the game came out I was wandering around my town and I end up at a gym.
As I’m about to take it I get surrounded by like 5 elementary school kids saying that
this is their gym and that they will defend to the very end.
It was so much cringe as it was kind of adorable.
I still took the gym though...
"Only those who showed up first"?
What kind of statement is that?
This happened the first year the game was out.
I didn’t have any direct interactions with this person, but the local pogo chats were
all about the ridiculous feud between a couple of people on instinct and mystic.
The instinct player was so bad he was threatening people at gyms, following cars from gym to
gym to prevent them from taking it over, and he would regularly harass and insult other
players that weren’t part of his group.
The mystic players he was feuding with weren’t great either but they never tried to physically
hurt someone over the game.
Instinct guy got banned after enough people submitted complaints to niantic, including
screenshots of threats made over facebook.
Dude was a 30 year old man with a kid on the way.
Before raids, our town had some team turf wars.
Mystic was full of spoofers who were holding down the gyms every day.
So my spouse and I were out late at night to take the gyms when someone pulls up really
close to our back bumper.
We add our pokes to the gym and leave and the car proceeds to tailgate us and drive
aggressively.
We took some turns and led them all the way to the police station where they veered off
suddenly.
Incredibly cringey to get worked up enough to dangerously chase people over a game.
My first ex raid after we beat mewtwo everyone was standing around trying to catch him, and
this really big dude who looked like he was around 20 started screaming and crying at
his parents because they caught mewtwo and he didn’t.
7 people showed up to a 5* raid, including myself and my wife.
Wife's phone was having trouble about 20 seconds before raid started and she had to reboot
the app.
I told everyone what was going on and asked that they back out so my wife could join in.
Annoying for sure, but it happens.
Welp, the group refused.
Just straight up refused, in-person, to my face, in front of my wife.
I said that wasn't cool ("Listen guys, that really wasn't cool.
Good luck though.")
and backed out of the raid.
Unfortunately for them, they weren't able to do it with the 5 they had.
I just...
I still can't believe a group of adults would refuse to let my wife into the raid so they
wouldn't have to wait another two minutes.
My friend and I are the epitome of casual players - kind of just play when we can - I
don’t really care about getting legendaries or shinies or anything (but will try for them
if I can).Anyway, right when tasks came out, a task we both had was “battle in a raid.”
So we are on a POGO walk and see a legendary raid just started.
We knew that we couldn’t win the raid with just us two but we only really wanted to battle
to complete the task so we walk over to it.There is a big group of people all standing there
and we walk up, say hi, and join the raid thinking that we’d be doing it with them,
but it turns out they already started.
We didn’t really care though, as we only wanted to complete the task, but this one
girl couldn’t fathom that idea.
Like she asked what we were doingand we said “Oh just battling in the raid” and she
was like “BY YOURSELVES?!!?!
WHO ARE YOU??
[famous pogo player]???!???”
(I don’t remember the name she said but I’m guessing some famous and good player).
The whole group of people were laughing at the joke, and at us, but I had no idea what/who
she was talking about so I kind of awkwardly chuckled.It didn’t offend me or anything,
I just thought it was pretty goofy that she was so confused as to why we were doing that.
She kept going on about it and finally we just kind of left.I also did an Articuno raid
once with a bunch of random people when the legendary birds first came out, and I witnessed
first hand someone freak out because they didn’t catch it.
Like get mad at the rest of the group and storm off.
It was uncomfortable lol.
3 cringe moments:Playing pogo at a grocery store parking lot at night.
Nobody around except a clearly tweaked out homeless person walking down the road.
I kick two people out of the closest gym.
I see tweaker start to cross the road and suddenly he stops, does a 180 and starts walking
back towards the grocery store.
Comes back into the parking lot and starts looking at cars.
We quickly leave.Second one was riding with a buddy I met through PoGo.
We were doing entei day raids.
Us and some others were following the couple that leads our local discord.
I’m not sure if they were drunk or on drugas but every raid they would tell us the next
raid location and would go to a completely different raid location.
We followed as best as we could but my buddy got pretty pizzed at them and I think he came
close to physically fighting the guy.3rd moment was going to my favorite local gym only to
see a player with the name “U/PSYCHIC-SOCK-MONKEY__HUNTER”.
Needless to say I changed my player name.
Once when the game was first released, me and my older brother were going around battling
gyms.
So the gym we went to was at a church.
We were sitting in the parking lot probably at 8:00pm parked in a car just battling the
gym.
We weren't there but only a couple minutes when a guy who worked there walked out and
started talking to us.
My brother was really polite and was very light hearted about it when the man came up
to us to see what we were doing.
Cause it was kinda funny that a 24 year old was playing a Pokemon game, lol.
When the man realized what we were doing he threatened to call the police if we don't
get off church property.
Of course, we gave no trouble and said that we were sorry and that we wouldn't come back
to play Pokemon Go.
He proceeded to tell us that Pokemon are of the devil..
Clearly, this person has never played Pokemon or watched the show because it's full of lessons
of giving people a second chance and helping those in need.Anyways, I just think it was
overkill.
Other churches in the area were embracing the fact that they had Pokemon gyms and welcoming
people playing the game openly.
But to each their own, I guess.
This was when PoGo first came out and I lived in a different city, actually I was on my
way back from walking near the nearest pokestops, there was a Church and a Bar that had a gym.
(I could see both from our bedroom so it's not that far from home).
This town is a suburb of the city and is in a part of town that is mainly 90% elderly.
So pretty safe for the most part, and I'm a dude so not really worried about it.
Anyways, PoGo was just out, maybe 2 weeks out?
I was walking back home and this young woman asks me from across the street (on the bar
side, the church is on mine) if she could borrow my phone to make a call.
I didn't quite hear her as she was across the street and I instinctively said "huh?"
She runs across the street and asks me again if she could use my phone.
I'm always very freaking hesitant to letting any stranger touch my phone.
It's like touching a wallet to me.
However, I already have my phone out, I'm playing a game, it's about to get dark, and
she needs a phone.
I ask if everything is alright and who she'd like me to call?
She gives me the number,I call it, and then hand her the phone.
She talks for a minute about the person to pick her up and where she is at.
Afterward hangs up.
All is kosher right?
She hands me back my phone, I open back up Pogo and I'm ready to just leave.
She asks me if I live nearby and she wants to "thank me properly".
At this point I say.
"I'm married.
You don't have to thank me."
She starts to follow me.
I ask her if she's just not feeling safe?
She says her friend is coming soon and that I'm cute.
I say thanks.
I can wait with you until your friend shows if you want?
Her "friend" shows up about 20 seconds later.
It's a dude, she gets in the van with him and they pull over by the bar.
I start walking home, but also go a different direction, because my apartment is nearby
and I don't want to lead these weird people to my house, and to my wife.
I walk all the way down the other way of the street and then back.
15 minutes.
They are STILL in the parking lot. and finally peel off.
I walk another 15 minutes just to be safe.
Then finally walked back home.
Also blocked the phone number she called.TL/DR: Pogo just started, had my phone out when a
young woman/girl asked to call her friend as she had no phone and was ditched at a bar.
Decided to help her out, realized she might be a hooker.
Walked around another 30 minutes because I didn't want weird people following me home.
There was about 30 of us gathered for an EX raid near a pizza shop when two elderly white
women came out of the restaurant to demand to know what we were doing.When we explained
that we were all Pokemon Go players, they proceeded to go on a VERY LONG rant about
how phones destroy community and none of us ever go outside to do things for real.A very
strange verbal altercation ensued in which the rest of us pointed out that 1) we all
met each other through this game and 2) had specifically organized a big "leave the house"
event because of it.When the women couldn't change our minds about our game being "evil"
she threatened to call the cops on our "unlawful gathering."She didn't stop until a 70 year
old player interrupted her to say, "This game is the only reason I leave my house now that
my husband and dog are both dead."
My sister was driving us around to get to some stops late at night.
She was driving real slow and sort of swerving as she's trying to catch this squirtle.
There's no other cars around because it's rural and so late at night.
But then we see flashing lights behind us.
My sister quickly throws her phone at me as she gets pulled over for driving like an idiot.
The look on the cop's face when she said "we're playing pokemon go, my sister was trying to
catch a squirtle" was priceless.
Not me, but my friend had a PoGo stalker.
Her and her fiancé met some random guy doing raids, said he was awkward but they all added
each other as friends.
They would all send each other gifts pretty regularly, until she started to notice a trend
in their new “friend’s” gift locations.Anywhere she got a gift from and sent to him, his next
gift would be from there, each time he would send them sooner and sooner too.
Like she would send one from near the grocery store, then he would send one from the same
pokestop an hour or two later.
Eventually, when she sent him one from a park near her Mom’s house, he sent one minutes
later from the same park.She and her fiancé had to delete him as a friend so he stopped
getting clues about their location.
It was very obvious the stalker was hoping he could get to the pokestops in time to run
into her again.
Super creepy situation, and it’s made the rest of our PoGo group chat very cautious
about adding strangers.
At Ralts Community day my partner and I had to do some research about where to go.
We were out of town visiting my Dad and found out a local town nearby basically gets fully
taken over by PoGoers on Community Day.
We were really excited, headed down a little early, and walked over to a Shinx raid with
6-7 people all standing around in Instinct gear.They private lobbied when we walked up,
which is fine, but then when we just tried to make small talk and connect with other
PoGoers (which is one of my fav parts of the game) they were super cold and weird about
anything we said.
We asked if they were going to do the RayRay Raid that was popping in 30 minutes and they
laughed at us and said no, and then said “good luck today” and dismissed us.It was very
weird, I’ve not really run into a ton of people being unfriendly in the community and
we couldn’t come up with a logical reason this bunch would have been acting that way,
we worried it was maybe just like that down near where my Dad lives.Thankfully everyone
else we met was really nice, but that was just kind of weird.
About 2 years ago I was outside of a GameStop with my friends.
This dude walked up to my friends and I and started asking us questions about Pokemon
Go.
"Do you guys play Pokemon Go?"
"Did you hear about the legendary dogs (this is when they were added I think)".
He then noticed that all of us were wearing dog tags and said "respect to serve".
It was both funny and cringey because he asked the questions so fast that I could barely
keep up with him.
It was also pretty cringey because the dog tags were completely unrelated to the military.
Also, the dude got kicked out of the GameStop later I don't remember why but I guess you
can add that.